November 2024 Newsletter

Bird Survey

Our Committee Member, Nick Hunt (the only member of our committee who actually lives on the Moor), is particularly keen that we should monitor its flora and fauna, so that we may be able to detect changes over time (as the result of our management, climate change, and other such factors).

Nick writes:

“Your committee have decided that it would be beneficial to carry out baseline surveys and monitoring of the current and changing state of the wild environment of Ilkley Moor. This would help inform future decisions on the management of this valuable asset. The ultimate goal is to potentially monitor a number of aspects of the moorland environment including, but not necessarily limited to:-

Breeding Birds
Resident Birds
Mammals
Amphibians
Insects
Flora
Water Quality

In partnership with Bradford MDC our volunteers have already started looking at the environmental condition of the Moor as part of the Defra Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme, (more in the next Newsletter). During the next quarter we also now want to commence monitoring of bird species and numbers. To achieve that goal, we are hoping to recruit volunteers from our membership, other local organisations with similar interests and goals and the wider public. Volunteer surveyors/recorders may already possess the skills to identify and record species using a standardised format or if not, will be willing to undertake some free training.

Training will commence in the early new year 2025 with recording starting at the beginning of the nesting season.

Please support this initiative with your time to ensure the jewel in Ilkley’s crown, that is the Moor, remains so and has the opportunity to become even better.

In the first instance please make your willingness to volunteer known to Nick Hunt directly (nickhunt1958@gmail.com), or via any other member of our committee.”

Bike Riding

A number of our members have drawn attention to bike tracks on the Moor. Perhaps the most egregious of these is the track that has been created in the patch of woodland below the Rocky Valley and in the woodland above Willy Halls Spout. These tracks have been dug out and engineered to create jumps etc. Let us be in no doubt whatsoever that digging out a track on Ilkley Moor is illegal. It is an offence to undertake any works on Ilkley Moor (as a site of Special Scientific Interest) without permission of Natural England – which would clearly not be given in such a case.

In the past, when such tracks have been created, we (and the Countryside Service) have taken rapid steps to reinstate the natural vegetation and put up notices warning about the illegality. We hope this can be done speedily in this case.

But there is another, more general problem, where tracks have been created, not by people digging them out with spades, but simply by repeatedly cycling on the same downhill run. There have also been incidents when riders, cycling downhill at speed have come into collision or near collision with walkers.

Our policy is quite clear. We have no concern about cyclists on the level parts of the Moor using properly made up paths. We have considerable concerns when cyclists do not use properly surfaced paths as this creates erosion, and we have very great concerns about downhill cycling. The speeds are often dangerous and the downhill tracks increase run-off of rain water from the Moor and are a cause of substantial erosion. It seems ironic that we, and Bradford, spend considerable sums on trying to improve the blanket bog, to retain water on the Moor and diminish the likelihood of flooding in the valley, when (predominantly young) cyclists create paths that have precisely the opposite effect.

Bradford’s policy is that mountain biking on the Moor is permitted. We think that Ilkley Moor is the only area of publicly owned peat moorland where this is the case. In all the other areas that we know of, mountain biking is limited to specified tracks. We have concerns that Bradford’s policy runs directly counter to its obligations as the owner of an SSSI, to protect that SSSI.

Bradford’s policy is to engage with the local mountain biking group, to attempt to modify the behaviour of mountain bikers and to encourage them to limit the use of some tracks and to engineer other tracks to reduce erosion and to reduce areas of conflict with walkers. Frankly we are sceptical that their approach is working. We think a simpler policy would be to have cycling permitted only on specified tracks and not on any other part of the Moor.

The use of electric bikes on the Moor is never permitted, but we still wait for Bradford to put up signage to this effect.

Owen Wells Chair, Friends of Ilkley Moor
November 2024