Professor Rick Battarbee, of Addingham Environment Group, reports on their annual Environment Weekend which took place on June 10 and 11, 2023 in the village.
Most activities took place on the Saturday using the Youth Centre and the School Playing Field as our base. The weather was perfect and the event was very well attended, attracting visitors from far and wide. We presented our work in the village on our four themes of reducing our carbon footprint, reducing waste, biodiversity and wildlife protection and managing water. The children’s marquee was especially busy – a special thanks to Pam Morgan, Peter Miller, and Rachel Sharples.
We also hosted a wide range of groups from neighbouring communities including Wharfedale Naturalists' Society, Ilkley Clean River Group, Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, Yorkshire Rewilding Network, Prickly Pigs Otley, Wild Trout Trust, Plastic Free Silsden, Friends of Wharfedale Greenway, Riverfly Partnership, Heritage Wildflowers and JBA.
On Saturday evening a group of about 20 of us met outside the School at 9.30pm for our bat walk led by Malcolm Secrett. We first headed up Back Beck Lane, and as darkness began to fall the bats emerged on cue with activity centering on Bridge 55. Our bat echo detectors showed we were seeing and “hearing” pipistrelles, both common and soprano. From Back Beck Lane we walked to the Suspension Bridge. Here there were occasional pipistrelles but the more common species detected, flying quite high over the river, was the noctule.
The environment walk on Sunday morning was also very enjoyable. We made our way to the School Jubilee Nature reserve to see the ponds and wetland scrapes we created in 2020. We then visited the Old First School Site, the most wildlife-rich site in the village, and talked about the need to protect the site from development. From there we walked to Craven Crescent Green and inspected our work with local residents and Incommunities to create a wildlife and people friendly space there. The walk ended at the Old Station Way meadow, our oldest wildflower site in the village. Yellow rattle, red clover and bird’s foot trefoil were in full bloom.
On behalf of our Environment Group steering committee I’d like to thank everyone who helped to make the weekend such a success including our own members involved in planning and acting as wardens, Totally Locally and the Scouts for the use of their marquees, Addingham Beer Festival members who helped to erect and take down the marquees, Upper Wharfedale Rugby Club for the loan of chairs, The Memorial Hall Committee for the loan of tables, The Parish Council and Sue Ross for the loan of poster boards, The Youth Centre Committee for the use of the Hall, the Primary School for the use of their garage and playing field and the Friends of Addingham Primary School (FAPs) for refreshments. John Fontana kindly acted as our photographer for the weekend.
Some are shown here, many more can be seen on our website https://addinghamenvironmentgroup.org.uk/environment-weekend-2023/
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