Hello from Paul in Suffolk

[paulechapman]

Hi all

I don't know how I haven't found this site before as it looks extremely interesting.

I am a voluntary warden in the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and look after a particular spectacular meadow site called Martins' Meadows. I also retired from BT this year and have been able to use some of my time to build up a web site for the meadow. If anyone is interested then have a look at :
Martins' Meadows Home

I will take on any constructive feedback, suggestions and corrections.

One of my New Year resolutions will be to get my grass identification skills to a good standard so may be calling on some of the expertise of people here!!

[nightshade]

Hello Paul,welcome to the best site on the web,the meadow sounds interesting
I will have a deko

[cannylad]

Hi from me Paul, welcome to WAB, your site looks interesting and i look forward to hearing more about it.

[smartie]

Welcome to WAB, Paul. Your meadow sounds really interesting (expect a visit), and I'll happily join your quest for grass identifications, as I love grasses but don't know much about them yet.

[canonman]

Hi Paul
Welcome to WAB thanks for the link, I will have a good look later.
Enjoy the site
Mick

[Ollie]

Hi Paul and a warm elcome to WAB from me, Enjoy the site
Roger

[badgerwatcher]

Hi Paul. What a fab reserve you work on, and impressive flora list. I look forward to hearing more about it.

[mrs fish]

Hello Paul from another Suffolk inhabitant

It is a lovely area your meadow is in, I used to stay in Charsfield, I will definately be giving you a visit in the summer when I'm sure your meadow will be full of insects and especially butterflies
I will try and help with id's using my observers book of grasses,sedges and rushes

[badgerwatcher]

I've got that one too, Mrs Fish. Great isn't it?

[rlchew]

Hello Paul

A warm welcome to WAB.

You have put together a great website of your own regarding your local nature reserve .... well done!

Richard

[Deer Stalker]

Hi Paul.

[Seajay]

Hi Paul and a warm welcome to WAB. I have only recently joined and have found it to be a most interesting site - the best I've seen. Tell me - these SSSI's. If they're for example the ones on your site of meadows and wildflowers, how do you get round the problem of visitors and plant/site protection? A visitor who was perhaps a keen photographer would want to enter the field and pursue his hobby. Do you have paths through the meadow to enable them to do so without damaging the environment? I suppose you could have thousands of visitors a year.

[paulechapman]

Seajay

Thanks for the posting and raising a couple of interesting point about protection on the site.

The guiding principle on allowing people access is the educational benefits it has. I believe (and I think I echo the feelings of the Suffolk Wildlife Trust in this) that if people actually see how remarkable a site is then they will be inspired not only to try to protect and not do any harm but also to find out more about the plants and animals and that helps to promote the general message of conservation.

Fortunately most of the plants are not just found on this site alone hence we do not need to have a warden presence at all times in order to stop people from removing very rare specimens. Our more showy plants such as Snake's Head Fritillaries and Colchicums are available as horticultural plants so the public can buy them from garden centres.

However there are always some people that do not seem to have a conscience and do remove plants such as orchids. These plants rarely transplant well because of the precise conditions they need so we hope that if they did try this they would come to realise the error of their ways and see that it would have been better to have left them where they were found - again this is a case of education. I feel it is more important to allow people to see just how magnificent the site is rather than putting a load of restrictions (and it would also be impossible to police a permit system if one was put into operation). Nevertheless we do ask people to stick to the edges of the fields (where oddly enough some of the best specimens do occur) and if they have a dog to keep it on a lead at all times.

Finally perhaps the fact that the visitor numbers are not too high allows us to proceded with the open access policies. I think the numbers are more in hundreds rather than thousands and if they were higher perhaps a different approach would be needed.

Hope you may be able to visit the site some time and if you are a photographer and get some good shots then do send them along! There are also plenty of other really interesting sites in Suffolk as a visit to the SWT website will show.

Regards

Paul

[Wolfhill]

Hi Paul, welcome to WAB.

[Adey]

Hi Paul and welcome.

Martins' Meadow looks nice, impressive old oak.