STROUD VALLEYS PROJECT

Enriching lives, transforming places

Welcome to our Winter 2017-18 newsletter.

We hope you like it and find items to interest you.

Creating a Sensory Garden, Stratford Park, Stroud by Richard Lewis The first stages of work building disabled footpaths at Stratford Park’s Sensory Garden Project are underway. This project is a partnership between Stroud Valleys Project, Stroud District Council (SDC) and other organisations. It won partial funding through Tesco supermarket’s ‘Blue Token’ community scheme that run with additional funding coming from SDC to support the project.

Phase 2 of the project is mapping out and creating the main disabled access paths through the sensory garden areas. At the moment the group are setting and fixing the footpath edging - an interesting task when fixing and bending metal edging.

When the footpaths are finished, the topping of the path will be a fine bonding aggregate with Type 1 crushed stone underneath, enabling wheelchair-bound and other members of the public to walk along

the sinuous pathways. Both electricity and water supplies are also being fitted during this phase of the project. These will supply water and a power source for a number of the sensory features that will be created in the final Phase 3 of the project that hopes to engage with committed groups in creating different sensory areas in the garden.

If you’d like to know more about the project contact either Richard Lewis or Clare Mahdiyone at SVP 01453 753358.

January

Diary and Calendar Swap

Saturday 20 January

Stuart Singers Concert

Sat 27 - Mon 29 January

Big Garden Bird Watch

Sunday 11 February

Archaeology Walk in the Heavens

Event Dates

Sunday 11 February

Snowdrops and aconites

Sunday 18 February

Greeting the Grebes

Saturday 24 February

Seed Swap

Wednesday 18 April

Spring Bird Walk

Saturday 5 May

Early Morning Nightingale Walk

Event Dates Conservation work update at Queen Elizabeth II Field by Tamsin Bent For the last year, Stroud Valleys Project has been working with Cainscross Parish Council to improve Queen Elizabeth II Field for both people and wildlife. The work has mainly been carried out by local people and Stroud Valleys Project volunteers.

We continued our work in the pond area and spent the summer keeping back vigorous plants that were trying to swamp the native hedge and wildflower area. While working there we have been amazed by the amount of wildlife we’ve spotted. There were azure damselflies and hawker, chaser and darter dragonflies as well as many different types of caterpillar including an impressive eyed hawkmoth caterpillar - see photo.

We also ran family pond dipping sessions and discovered that not only is the pond home to many different invertebrates but also to smooth and palmate newts. In the spring we planted native wildflower plugs on a bank and by the summer some tufted vetch, small scabious and bird's foot trefoil flowered in their first season.

Our work was funded for the year by the Postcode Local Trust and is due to end in November. However, the good news is that we now have been contracted to continue working on the site.

So if you’d like to join us please get in touch: Tamsin at SVP on 01453 753358, or tamsin@stroudvalleysproject.org.

Working in our local community by Richard Lewis

Our contract work continues well with monthly visits to Rowcroft Medical Centre, Omnitrack at Rodborough Court, Tesco balancing pond (a site adjacent to Rackleaze Wetland) and our quarterly visits to The Apperley Centre, Stonehouse.

The Apperley Centre in Stonehouse is a special school catering for teenagers and young adults with severe or profound learning disabilities. The centre was built in the early nineties and as a result of environmental surveys the new design for the centre had to have a wildlife area that supports slow worms. As part of our work for the centre we visit the site four times a year to keep on top of the grassland and scrub habitat that supports the slow worm population.

This great picture of a female slow worm was taken in July of this year whilst the group was scything grassland areas.

Over the last year we have been working for a number of organisations and businesses, big and small, individual households, Parish Councils and Stroud District Council.

Phone 01453 753358 if you have an area which could do with some help!

Our 100 Club is a great fundraiser for our charity. It’s a small club so you stand a great chance of winning. If you are already a ‘Friend’ or a volunteer this is another way to support us and to win at the same time.

We work with people, for the environment. Your funds help us be there for all our volunteers. We want to offer outdoor volunteering experiences to people from all walks of life, whenever they need us. Whenever someone is getting their life back on track and they want something constructive and worthwhile to do to take their mind off things, we provide just the right experience for them.

Our environmental work ensures we are there for all the winter birds. Over the last two winters we have planted 2,000 trees at Stratford Park. At the moment they are small saplings but very soon they will add to the woodland at Stratford Park and make it a fantastic habitat for winter birds. We purchased trees from Landcare which is a local supplier of field grown transplants. Landcare grow trees from native British tree seed and local where possible (www.landcaretrees.co.uk).

We planted a great selection of berry producing trees and shrubs such as Rowan, Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Holly and Spindle. Birds such as song and mistle thrushes, redwings and fieldfares find most of their winter food from berries.

So join our 100 Club TODAY and help support our work for winter birds. Do it for yourself or for someone else (they have to be over 18 for it to be in their own name). It costs just £24 per year which you can pay in one go, or £2 per month.

Green Health Team by Richard Lewis The Green Health Team has been working on a new project in partnership with The Beeches Day Care Centre, Beeches Green, Stroud. The centre, run by Gloucestershire County Council supports adults with physical and mental disabilities.

The Team has taken over the management and restoration of the market garden area that has fallen into disrepair. The area consists of a small outdoor garden area, lawn, patio area with raised beds, polytunnel and greenhouse. The group has been tidying up the whole place, preparing vegetable beds, rotavating the polytunnel and restoring the greenhouse in preparation for growing some plants from seed (see before and after pictures below).

The group have been empowered by taking over the site and this has encouraged them all to have more input in to the work at The Beeches as well as other elements of the project as a whole.

For example the group has also spent time at Capel’s Mill caring for and managing the woodland area, strimming and mulching around individual trees.

The group works at The Beeches Centre fortnightly, mixing in other work such as the woodland work at Capel’s Mill.

If you’re interested in getting

involved in the Green Health

Team project please contact

Richard on 01453 753358.

Wild Classrooms by Tamsin Bent

Wild Classrooms aims to support children’s outdoor learning and builds on the foundations laid by our earlier educational projects, Get Growing and Growing Wild. The project is funded by the Ernest Cook Trust and the Summerfield Charitable Trust and was launched in January 2017. As the Wild Classroom project officer, I have developed free resources which link what’s going on outside with the science curriculum. Every participating school gets up to three free visits from me, a seasonal

poster and a class set of children’s notebooks. So far over a thousand learning places have been created on the project with recipients including schools, Brownie groups,

the National Star College, and Woodcraft folk. In the summer holidays we ran ‘Wild Wednesdays’, family activities focussing on minibeasting, pond dipping and walks. We’ve also worked in partnership with the Cotswold Canal Trust, Stroud Farmers’ Market and the Museum in the Park.

If you work with children and would like to be involved in the project please contact Tamsin at tamsin@stroudvalleysproject.org / 01453 753358

Rackleaze Wetland, Cam by Richard Lewis

Our partnership with Cam Parish Council at this wetland site continues with the managing and maintenance of footpaths and the scything of grassland.

Over the past summer months grassland areas have been cut to encourage lower ground flora. Grassland management in particular areas has been focussed on supporting conditions that will encourage the Southern Marsh orchids and this year we have been pleasantly surprised to have found seven such orchids. See below - the great photograph taken in June this year by our volunteer Paul Green of one of the seven found.

Along with the management and upkeep of the wetland site, Stroud Valleys Project has also run two events at Rackleaze. A bat walk led by our good SVP Friend Nadine Smykatz-Kloss and a Bioblitz survey lead by our own ID team of Denise Gibbons and Barbara Wood.

Work at the wetland site has continued with volunteers involved in the annual comfrey cutting; this year for the first time some comfrey areas have been cut by scythe. This annual management helps us to keep control of the comfrey that, if untouched, would out-compete other wildflowers at the wetland.

Highlights this season - apart from the Southern Marsh Orchids - have been the sighting of a number of grass snakes on-site. On three different visits to the site during the grass cutting season grass snakes were spotted moving through freshly cut grass areas of scrub habitat. The working party that spotted them are in agreement that they were adults and not young as they were seen from some 5 to 10 metres - a distance from which young would hardly be seen.

From my last report on the continued dog fouling and litter problems, I can report that the parish council has recently installed a new dog/litter bin at the edge of the nature reserve, I hope that this will encourage people to ‘pick up’ dog mess and not drop litter - both of which over time will degrade the wildlife site for all. This issue will be monitored by both Cam Parish Council and Stroud District Council Neighbourhood Wardens

For more information about work we are doing at the

wetland site contact Richard Lewis on 01453 753358.

The Corner Plot at Stroud and Cotswold Alternative Provision School by Fred Miller

Ryeleaze is the upper school section of the Stroud and Cotswold Alternative Provision School, the students we are working with so far are 13 – 14 years old. The aim of the project is to create a gardening and outdoor social space.

Since spring this year, Richard’s Thursday team have been building raised beds for vegetables, a woodchip path, decking and compost bays. The school is keeping the rough grass mown.

From May, with Fred, through the summer term, there were six fortnightly sessions with students, who got involved with planting, sowing, weeding, watering, harvesting, and construction. Runner bean plant supports were made with hazel poles, and natural pieces of wood were sawed, drilled, and screwed to posts, as a sculpture.

The school is proactive in harvesting the produce and using it within their cooking classes, with some very creative dishes being made, making links from garden to food.

The students have engaged with the activities for some of the time, but they have also enjoy chatting together. Time will be given to asking for their design ideas and choosing what to do.

The learning has involved gardening skills such as recognising weeds, and different types of plant and vegetable. Also, how to sow and plant; water and harvest, how to save seed, together with maintaining vegetable and fruit plants.

The future plans at this site are to engage the students in designing a seating area with a rain shelter, and using pallets to construct benches and a table. Future growing schemes include autumn vegetable sowing: broad beans, spinach, onion sets; and planting up a soft fruit area.

For more information, call Clare at SVP on 01453 753358.

Conservation Project on Rodborough Common by Deb Roberts

Rodborough Common is a Special Area of Conservation, supporting a wide diversity of species including rare insects and wild flowers.

The human population around Rodborough Common has grown which has caused the increase in number and width of footpaths that criss-cross it. This is causing concern about the loss of undisturbed grassland that provides habitat for skylarks and the numerous other species that thrive there.

This summer Stroud Valleys Project, working with National Trust, conducted a number of surveys of the Common in order to monitor the paths.

These surveys included botanical surveys across narrow paths that appear to be widening and a drone survey

providing an overall view of the situation.

Compared with previous aerial images, the 2017 drone survey shows a shocking increase in the area of grassland trodden down by footfall. The surveys therefore will play an important part in devising future grassland management strategies.

For more information, call Clare on 01453 753358.

Wild About Kingswood by Richard Lewis

Our work with Kingswood Parish Council at the Wild About Kingswood project has continued over the past few months with the Great Crested Newt (GCN) survey once again taking place as well as a great bat walk led by my friend and ex SVP colleague Nadine Symkatz-Kloss.

Nadine has sent SVP a short report about the types of bat we observed and heard on the walk. On the walk we heard three types of bats: common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle and a Myotis species.

In her report Nadine says that ‘Early common pipistrelles flew around the village hall and may have emerged from the roof. The Myotis was encountered during the walk to the pond (along the streets) and the soprano pipistrelle was observed at the pond’.

This is great news from a wildlife point of view as it shows that the mosaic of habitats we are looking after is also supporting a good number and variety of bat species. I would just like to take this time to thank Nadine for the great walk and talk that she led on the evening.

This year we also continued our GCN survey to get another ‘snapshot’ of how the population is doing. The 2017 survey ran over April, May and June ensuring the three surveys were conducted at roughly the same time as in 2016.

Highlights of the three surveys in 2017 are:

Main pond:20 floating traps set each survey

27 GCNs; 6 male, 4 female & 17 Efts (aquatic young).

30 Smooth newts; 16 male, 10 female & 4 Efts

Old Dew pond: 10 floating traps set each survey

3 Smooth newts, all female.

450 plus tadpoles!

As we now move in to the winter months, work has started with managing the woodland area at the entrance to Tyndale View, cutting back of scrub on the newt barriers along with the cutting and managing of hedgerows on the site.

For more information, contact Richard on 01453 753358.

The GEM (Going the Extra Mile) Project by Julie Wickham

This project is going from strength to strength with 11 participants signed up through our charity.

Funded by the Big Lottery Fund and the European Social Fund, the GEM Project aims to engage with and support individuals within Gloucestershire who are currently dealing with circumstances that are potentially causing barriers to work.

Its aim is to move people closer towards education, training, volunteering or work, including self-employment. The programme is a unique and unprecedented partnership of community based organisations, managed by Gloucestershire Gateway Trust on behalf of Gloucestershire County Council and we are proud to be a part of it.

Our Navigator Developer is Julie Wickham and she said, “We are really enjoying the GEM Project. Our charity has always been about ‘going the extra mile’. The GEM Project enables us to help our volunteers in a very constructive way.”

The pictures here show the results of some stone walling training undertaken by some GEM participants.

If you or someone you know might benefit from some GEM help through us, please contact Julie here at the office: julie@stroudvalleysproject.org, or call her on 01453 753358.

Ways to support us without paying a penny! Recycle Mobile phones and ink cartridges; unwanted jewellery (including costume); old/new UK and foreign banknotes / coins / stamps; gadgets (Sat navs, game consoles & games, tablets, video cameras, iPods and laptops). Drop items off at our Eco Shop.

On-line shopping generates donations to us, especially at Christmas:

www.thegivingmachine.co.uk; www.givingabit.com www.easyfundraising.org.uk www.giveasyoulive.com

Energy switchovers: If you are thinking of switching to green energy, we are linked both to Good Energy and Ecotricity who will each give us a donation if you mention us when you switch to them:

Sign up with The Phone Coop A non-corporate who is competitively priced! Sign up through our charity and we will receive a bonus as well as 6% of your ongoing bills at no extra cost to you.

Capel’s Mill by Fred Miller

From May, Stroud District Council, who own the land at Capel’s Mill, provided funding for us to do eight days of maintenance, which we have run as sixteen half days.

We are having monthly workdays through the winter, where a core of volunteers lead the maintenance, cutting back to improve access and visibility, litter picking, scything and raking up the meadow, while Richard’s team have been maintaining the young trees: removing tubes, tying up fallen trees, mulching with woodchip.

Stroud in Bloom came to the site on Tuesday 11th July, and we also shared the site with a canal open day on Saturday 22nd July when we had a meadow plant survey, pond dipping, drawing and observing nature workshop with Steve Roberts. We also held a scything workshop.

As we scythed this summer we came across wildlife living at the base of this grassy world: a nest of three baby bank voles, a toad, snails and newts. A mammal footprint tunnel has been deployed, which uses an ink pad, paper sheets and some food to tempt small mammals to walk through and leave their footprints. There have been plant surveys through the year by Deb Roberts and we are developing a list of species so that the different years can be compared. Some flowers have decreased in number (wild carrot) whilst others have increased (common knapweed) since it was sown in July 2013.

The GEM project with Julie has been working at Arundel’s Mill Pond, with nettle clearance around the trees planted there.

Road safety at the pedestrian crossing close to the site has been raised with Stroud Town Council - everyone is advised to wait for cars to stop!

Please ring Clare at SVP for more information about these sessions on 01453 753358

COME AND BROWSE IN OUR ECO SHOP

8 Threadneedle Street, Stroud

We stock a wide range of environmentally friendly products including bird boxes, bee houses, leaf sacks, vegetable sacks, biodynamic seeds, recycled garden tools, greeting cards, bamboo socks, rugs, seasonal gifts and lots more.

SVP Office and Eco Shop are located at 8 Threadneedle Street, Stroud, GL5 1AF

T: 01453 753358 W: www.stroudvalleysproject.org E: info@stroudvalleysproject.org

STROUD VALLEYS PROJECT Contact details and other information

Working with people for the environment

NEW SVP FRIENDS’ MEMBERSHIP FORM

Thank you for your support – it makes a difference! (You don’t need to fill this in if you are already an SVP Friend)

Please tick one of the following boxes to indicate the amount you would like to give, and complete the short form below :

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Please return this completed form to Stroud Valleys Project, 8 Threadneedle Street, Stroud GL5 1AF.

GIFT AID at no extra cost to you I confirm I have paid or will pay an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax for each tax year (6 April to 5 April) that is at least equal to the amount of tax that all the charities or Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) that I donate to will reclaim on my gifts for that tax year. I understand that other taxes such as VAT and Council Tax do not qualify. I understand the charity will reclaim 28p of tax on every £1 that I gave up to 5 April 2008 and will reclaim 25p of tax on every £1 that I give on or after 6 April 2008.

Please treat as Gift Aid donations all qualifying gifts of money made (tick all boxes you wish to apply) :

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We would like to acknowledge your support on our web-site and in our annual report,

but please tick this box if you would prefer us NOT to □

THIS NEWSLETTER is a team effort by John Ockham, Clare Mahdiyone, Tamsin Bent, Richard Lewis, Carolyn Buckley, Deb Coleman, Julie Wickham, Deb Roberts, Fred Miller and lots of volunteers who proof-read,

prepare, and stuff envelopes - thanks to you all!

Produced using renewable energy and recycled paper