FOIM AGM

Members will be aware that we have a track record of finding excellent and inspiring speakers for our AGMs. This year is no exception. We are very fortunate to have obtained the services of a highly experienced ecologist, Dr Peter Welsh

Exciting Opportunities to Enhance our Uplands – A National Trust View from the Yorkshire Dales

Dr Welsh is an ecologist with over 35 years of experience in upland conservation management. He is currently the ecologist the National Trust in the Yorkshire Dales. Prior to this, for many years he was a senior upland ecologist with English Nature and then Natural England and has worked in the Yorkshire Dales for most of his career. He will be sharing with us the exciting and challenging objectives that the NT have been developing with their tenant farmers across the Malham and Upper Wharfedale estates – seeking benefits for biodiversity, farming, water, carbon and public access.

The chief reason that people join FoIM is so that they may support our work in preserving and conserving Ilkley Moor. Our AGM is of vital importance as it is our principal method of engaging with our members. It is the opportunity for us to tell you of the work that we have undertaken in the last year. More importantly, it is the means by which you can hold your committee to account and tell us what you think our priorities should be. So, please, please, make a note in your diary. It is important that we have a good turn out, not merely for the sake of our speaker, but so that we can maintain our credibility as a democratic organization that speaks with the authority of our membership.

Membership

Like nearly all voluntary organisations, our membership comes predominately from an older demographic, older than the demographic of the majority of those that use our Moor. We need more members. We need more young members. So, if there are members of your family, or friends, who use the Moor, who go walking on it, who exercise their dog on it, who take their young children to play on it, then do encourage them to join. We need to be out there, shouting at the top of our voices that, without a vigorous membership of FoIM, there are many aspects of our Moor that are endangered. It is our work, in paying for the repair of footpaths that keeps the Moor accessible (think of our restored path from the Paddling Pool to White Wells). It is our work (by our volunteers) that keeps the paddling pool usable. It is the work of our volunteers that picks up the litter, clears illegal campsites, clears scrub and keeps open the vistas of the Moor. We do a huge amount of work to conserve the Moor and to continue, we need more members. It is easy to join, and at this time of year the easiest way is to come to our AGM and sign up on the spot. Tell your friends and relatives to come along. They will hear a first rate speaker and they can immediately start to support our work.

Nature for All

Members have been told about our exciting new, Lottery funded, project; the Big Ilkley Moor Survey. This survey will be looking in detail at habitats on the Moor to assess their condition and to determine the plant and animal species present. This information will then be collated with historical data to assess the changes that are occurring and how we can modify the management of the Moor to increase biodiversity. Much of this work will be undertaken by students and school pupils and will help to increase their awareness of the Moor. We will also be consulting and collaborating with others who have an interest and information about the moor, such as Wharfedale Naturalists and the Bradford Ornithological Group. The first, preliminary, survey has been undertaken (by our volunteers) of Black Beck. We were pleased to find isolated clumps of sphagnum moss. This is the moss that, when it dies, forms peat, and in previous centuries much of the Moor will have been covered by blanket bog in which sphagnum will have been the principal species.

When the survey is complete we hope to be able to use the data to justify the blocking of 19th century drainage ditches on the top of the Moor, to enable the isolated clumps of sphagnum to coalesce and become proper areas of blanket bog. Blanket bog is incredibly important as a carbon store and as a way of diminishing run off from the Moor, so diminishing the likelihood of flooding in the Wharfe valley.

North Yorkshire Public Rights of Way Consultation

Many of our members will be keen walkers and will use North Yorkshire footpaths, so although we are not directly concerned, I am sure that many of you will want to know that North Yorkshire is now engaging in a public consultation as to how they should categorise and maintain their paths. The link to this consultation is: http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/article/33471/Public-rights-of-way-consultation

And Finally

Make a note of the date: 21st April 2017, 7.30pm, FoIM AGM

Owen Wells, Chair, Friends of Ilkley Moor 23 Eaton Road, Ilkley LS29 9PU

01943 605440 o.r.wells@gmail.com