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Treadlightly UK Project – Evidence Based Decisions – Investigating the


axlechorus

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Treadlightly UK Project – Evidence Based Decisions – Investigating the positive impacts of vehicular use on biodiversity.

Dear All,

As part of my involvement with Glass and Treadlightly and following on from my Dissertation on the culture or Greenlaning and its relevance as a contested use of a resource for my undergraduate degree I am currently driving this Treadlightly project which I hope some of you may be interested in helping support.

Preface

There is a lack of serious scientific evidence surrounding the effects of Vehicular use on Greenlanes and the biodiversity of that lane. Previous works have implied a positive relationship due to Greenlanes functioning as wildlife corridors. Establishing this link is of increasing importance owing to the contentious nature of vehicular use on Greenlanes.

Objective

The create a body of substantive research ultimately leading to a series of peer reviewed academic pieces which can contribute to evidence based decision making. Initially this Treadlightly UK project will seek to work with a Masters Student at the University of Exeter linking with the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI). This will give the basis then to undertake larger studies as well as providing evidence for funding applications to drive larger studies.

How can you help?

In order to undertake this, a suitable set of Greenlanes needs to be found ideally in Cornwall where the ESI is located or Devon. They need to be similar in composition and include lanes that are both vehicular and those that are no longer vehicular. If you have any local knowledge of the area please do get in touch.

Secondly as with everything in this world money does unfortunately play a part. With this especially for the later years we are going to need to secure some funding in order to access multiplier funding such as the Heritage Lottery Funding. Therefore if you are in a position to provide some funding either as a company or individually please can you get in touch.

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Happy to assist in terms of my skills and knowledge:

1) I'm a PhD trained scientist so have the experience / knowledge of scientific research, reports and peer review etc etc. >20 years.

2) I'm an active greenlaner and LR enthusiast >25 years

3) Exeter Uni graduate from the original campus :i-m_so_happy:

4) £ = can you get GLASS or Treadlightly to part fund? Might help your Heritage Lottery funding application.

Cheers

Rob

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a suitable set of Greenlanes needs to be found ideally in Cornwall

I'd be willing to go out to take phoo's & condition of lanes in the West Cornwall area, I don't know how many are legally driveable. I would have to find that from rights of way dept in County Hall in truro.

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Thankyou for your responses guys.

Western - I will certainly drop the Row Department an email and the Devon & Cornwall LR club one as well to see if they have any ideas provisionally of a suitable set of lanes. I may well be calling on that offer to go and take a gander at the lanes and snap a few pictures. Have you done any laning in Cornwall over the years in which case do you have any picture records that could be brought into the study for a longer time element.

DrRob - How very apt a user name you have ;) & thankyou very much for your offer of support, can I ask what PhD was in? nice to hear its from UoE as well. With regards to funding Treadlightly are able to put up enough funds for this intial masters research project however for the subsequent projects we simply do not have the resources which is why we are seeking sponsors for this and others. Alas it seems that while companies are very keen to purchase magazine space judging by LRO their appetite to support Treadlightly isn't there.

We've also got the support of Natural England as of last week which should be putting me in contact with their local evidence teams in the area to provide some logistical assistence.

:offtopic: On a final note DrRob where abouts are you in Hampshire? My first placement with my graduate employer starts for 9 months in Basingstoke so I'm wondering if you would be around to meet face to face.

Cheers

Ryck

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Western - I will certainly drop the Row Department an email and the Devon & Cornwall LR club one as well to see if they have any ideas provisionally of a suitable set of lanes. I may well be calling on that offer to go and take a gander at the lanes and snap a few pictures. Have you done any laning in Cornwall over the years in which case do you have any picture records that could be brought into the study for a longer time element.

i haven't done any laning around the area for years, last time was a one day outing with C&D LR club around the Lostwitheil area, haven't looked at any lanes ib Redruth/Camborne area.

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I can give you a list of drivable lanes around the Torbay / Totnes area and show you round if needed, only a short run down from Exeter. Would need to have look at routes that have been shut as obviously I don't drive those!.

I am also an Exeter graduate although only technically as I never went to Exeter, I graduated CSM on the year they combined with the junior Exeter University, Camborne School of Mines being quite a lot older and more historic than Exeter University as we pointed out several times during the combining process!.

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I work as an freelance freshwater ecologist, so if I can be of help, yell.

One of the things that will be worth looking at are the effects of disturbance on biodiversity. Disturbance is not necessarily a bad thing for some species (I speak mainly of the invertebrates and plants with which I am addicted to) as it tends to create "new" meso-habitats, which in some cases can actually increase short term diversity as pioneer species take advantage of the habitat. also tracks and ruts are, in themselves, a very valuable temporary habitat (ephemeral habitats are the most neglected wildlife habitats in the UK), look at the population of Fairy shrimps that thrive in the ruts on Salisbury plain as an example.

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One of the things that will be worth looking at are the effects of disturbance on biodiversity. Disturbance is not necessarily a bad thing for some species (I speak mainly of the invertebrates and plants with which I am addicted to) as it tends to create "new" meso-habitats, which in some cases can actually increase short term diversity as pioneer species take advantage of the habitat. also tracks and ruts are, in themselves, a very valuable temporary habitat (ephemeral habitats are the most neglected wildlife habitats in the UK), look at the population of Fairy shrimps that thrive in the ruts on Salisbury plain as an example.

Yep, this is a good point.

On the estate next to the one I used to work on we did a forestry visit and the forester told us a story. They had an ecologist or some busybody come in and tell them that they couldn't use certain rides for machinery/vehicles because there were valuable species living in the puddles on said tracks. They obliged, the puddles were deprived of their semi-regular disturbance via tractor/4x4 tyres and so the habitat stagnated and the valuable species (some kind of freshwater shrimp I think) died :(

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Simonr - Many thanks for your comments, do you reckon there is a chance that X-eng could contribute to this further down the line when we move beyond a masters level study?

Western - Yeah I remember looking for lanes in Cornwall to make a day and it is limited compared to what you would expect given its size and rural nature. Can you remember what kind of lanes were around the Lostwitheil area in nature/density/number?

Sean F - Many thanks for your offer, That stretch of coast is one we are looking at as there was a previous HLF funded scheme in the area that linked landscape to restoring routes which included a number of UCRs/BOATs. I'm guessing you graduated in 1993 from the original CSM site in Cambourne before it relocated to Tremough in 2006 (Ambassador fact moment there)?

DrRob - PM will be on its way shortly.

JeffR - Well that’s highly convenient! The disturbance element is certainly something I have down for the project scope for as you say creating a situation where you have multiple stages of seers rather than getting to a singular climax level. You wouldn't happen to have any more information/documents on the Fairy Shrimps on Salisbury Plain? I'm working on getting together some form a spec for this in preparation for the Masters Sponsors event at the end of the Month.

All the best & many thanks for all your support.

Ryck

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Western - Yeah I remember looking for lanes in Cornwall to make a day and it is limited compared to what you would expect given its size and rural nature. Can you remember what kind of lanes were around the Lostwitheil area in nature/density/number?

one was very well washed out on one side & took a bit of care to traverse but still a full byway, others were stable and in great condition, I think we did around 6 or 7 lanes in all, this was something like 8 to 10 years ago.

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Actually graduated in 89 whilst we were still at the Pool campus next to Cornwall tech college, the link to Exeter was still fairly tenuous but they signed off the degree cert and Camborne issued the ASCM cert.

Not connected to vehicles but I believe there were issues with a canal somewhere a few years back (Basingstoke??) which was dug back out and restored to working condition, the wildlife returned and then there was an attempt to create a SSSI and ban the boats from using it. I believe a compromise of some sort was worked out as the boaters pointed out they had spent a huge sum of money on something which they would be able to use and with out the boats and constant attention (which the boaters paid for) the canal would revert to what it was before they restored it a shallow muddy ditch full of rubbish. The work done there might be usefull at least as background material, I expect it is different bugs and beasties but a similar argument, if a lane isn't used it grows over and just becomes part of a field or a wider than normal hedge.

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Now thats going back to the early days. That would probably be the Basingstoke Canal of the top of my head and yes I remember there was a lot of management around the Canal when they dredged it back when we used to live in the area in the 90s. You wouldnt happen to have any articles/sources for that to hand which I could put into the pack I am creating to give our Msc a few leads?

Ta

Ryck

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I recall the strongest issue with the Canal was bats in a tunnel. I'll have to accept the recollection of others that is was the Basingstoke canal.

A useful route to information would be via the CWDF, just be aware that because of it's wide membership, views will often range from Black to White on any single topic. They also have a habit of moving off topic, in which case it's best to pursue your search for information from a different angle, by starting a new topic. Pleas that they respect your request to stay on-topic will just expose you to personal insults.

I suggest starting with some Searches, then referring to the results in your first post. Some people will give you credit for attempting to find answers on your own.

I'd avoid posting in the Virtual Pub, as standards of behaviour are noticeably worse there than anywhere else.

That all sounds pretty negative.

The positives of using the Forum are that there is a wide readership, and lots of posts, so you should get some results, rather than a deafening silence.

HTH, and Good Luck.

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Don't have any details about the canal unfortunately, I just remember it from a discussion a while back about well intentioned projects that would be a benefit to all generally including the enviroment, but were delayed or destroyed by enviromental concerns that back fired.

The other incident that came up about which I have no details or hard info (not even sure it was in the UK) was a plot of farm land purchased by a wildfowling syndicate who reflooded it and turned it back to it origional wetland and made it attractive to the wild fowl they intended to shoot at great expence, installed paths and hides etc for the comfort of paying shooters. During closed season they allowed nature and bird watching people to use the hides, they reported it as an outstanding habitat and got an SSSI or equivelent installed, shooting was banned. The paths and hides ended up being removed and the site due to lack of management degraded and was returned to farmland. Enviromental controls have there place but in some cases can back fire and excess controls can damage the enviroment which they are trying to protect.

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We had a holiday in Looe 2 years ago, spent most of the time looking for and driving lanes. I looked a pile up on GLASS first, then went of my OS map. I did phone the local council before going to ask about TRO's.........I had to explain what a greenlane was....

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Exmoor might be an excellent basis for this project.

Initially you could speak to the bods on this panel-

http://www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/about-us/committees/exmoor-local-access-forum

Well worth a chat to Jason Ball here:

http://heartofexmoor.wordpress.com/the-team/

There may be some money available through the heartofexmoor project...

If theres anything I can do shout

Will :)

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