Welcome to Golant Cornwall


	IVY A few years ago Bill Oddie made an impassioned plea on television for viewers to maintain and encourage ivy, popularly perceived as a pernicious weed that killed trees and destroyed buildings. His argument, which I have subsequently researched and found to be true, was that Ivy does minimal harm to trees, it is not parasitic and does not ‘strangle’ trees. However it does provide food and shelter for a wide variety of wildlife, which in turn help to control it. The late autumn flowers provide abundant nectar attractive to bees, butterflies and other insects. The berries, which ripen in early spring, are the most nutritious of any wild fruit and are eaten by many birds including early migrants such as the Blackcap. (Note. Ivy is toxic to humans and most animals if eaten in large quantities. The berries are poisonous to humans, and should be kept away from children.) The sources I have consulted conclude that Ivy is generally beneficial in woodlands and parks. Control should be for specific reasons such as tree safety, conservation and aesthetics, rather than just mindless destruction. Taking a common sense view it is obvious that trees and ivy have co-existed for millennia without human interference and that Ivy has its own special place in our culture. I was recently saddened to find that some, perhaps well-intentioned but unfortunately mis-guided, person is cutting the ivy on trees bordering the Saints Way. I would ask this person to desist; you are harming the natural environment and disturbing nature’s own balance. If you require corroboration please refer to the Woodland Trust’s website, or contact Colin Hawke, Natural Environment Officer at Cornwall Council. I also have copies of a Dept. of Environment analysis of ivy ‘Boon or Bane’, which I am happy to circulate. But never mind; this ivy for an hour, Rain as it may, will keep us drily here: That little wren knows well his sheltering bower, Nor leaves his covert, though we come so near. John Clare – ‘Sudden Shower’ Stewart Young. January 2010 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The recent cold snap brought some interesting visitors to Golant: the most spectacular of these being a trio of Spoonbills which appeared on the 8th January as the tide was falling. We first noticed these unusual birds in flight, looking rather like anorexic swans with a long thin platypus bill. They landed by the railway bridge and then worked upstream along the edge of the mud bank using a very graceful side to side feeding sweep with their speculate beaks. The writer was especially pleased to be able to observe, and make a positive identification, using the new and powerful binoculars provided by Santa. These exotic birds, members of the Ibis family, are occasional visitors to the southwest and have previously been seen on the Exe estuary and around Brownsea Island near Poole. Last winter a pair nested and reared a clutch in Scotland - a real first! During the really cold weather Snipe could be seen flying up and down Water Lane. They are stunningly beautiful and interesting creatures, not often seen at close quarters. They had of course been driven down from the high ground by the appalling weather, which has, doubtless, claimed many victims; I have noticed several corpses of small birds around the village. Another visitor has been a Muscovy duck who seems to be settling in along the Bridge and Road areas of the Pill. Undoubtedly a domestic creature from, who knows where? She (for it is a She, being slightly less ugly than the male) is quite tame and recognises a bag of food when she sees it. If you have been feeding your garden birds please continue, and if you have not, do please think about it: the really hungry months lie ahead. Barry Campbell-Taylor. January 2010 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TREE PLANTING ON GOLANT DOWN. The Parish Clerk, Barry Campbell-Taylor, recently unearthed a folder of Parish Council correspondence relating to a tree planting exercise that took place on the Golant Down between 1980 and 1981. At that time many of the villagers were concerned at the loss of local Elms as a result of Dutch Elm Disease; local and national schemes were started to assist replanting. My recollection from my early visits to the village, c. 1965, is that the Down was then quite open, with clear views of the river from the lower path, and was still being grazed in places. Presumably the grazing ceased and the area was gradually allowed to return to ‘nature’. Without the cattle bracken and bramble would have flourished and I understand it became a regular practice to burn it off. By 1980, the time of this planting-scheme, it could have been overwhelmed. From these records it appears that about 600 broad-leaved trees, Ash, Oak, Maple, Sweet Chestnut, Rowan, Whitebeam and Beech were planted with a further 150 Scots Pine and Larch. These were supplied, free, by Cornwall County Council and the scheme was drawn up with the assistance of Mr. M. Godrey, the County Forester. The trees were supplied as saplings or ‘whips’ about 2-3 ft (0.6 – 0.9 metre) in height, and each one was inserted into a ‘slit’ in the soil made by a spade. (The saplings would be supplied ‘bare-rooted’, not in pots, so it was not necessary to dig a hole and back-fill.) Although this may appear a bit hit and miss, it is a commonly practiced method; success would seem to depend on the after-care, protection from overgrowth and predators. In this instance no measures were taken to protect the young trees from rabbits, it being declared to the County Council that there were ‘no rabbits in the area’. Was this true in 1980? It certainly isn’t the case today. Although the bracken was cleared from the planting areas beforehand, was it kept under control for the following few years? We know that occasionally the bracken was fired and although a well established tree would survive this, a sapling probably would not; perhaps the roots would survive and throw up new shoots in a ring around the original stem. Even a simple rabbit guard would probably have sufficed to protect the saplings from a bracken fire. Barry, Judith Campbell-Taylor, Sue Reardon and I recently ‘surveyed’ the area and concluded that perhaps 150 of those trees have survived. The planting area, which was confined to the area between the lower and upper Downs paths, is now submerged by Gorse, Bracken, Brambles and young Hazel, Blackthorn, and Hawthorn; the haunt of rabbits, badgers and deer. The only significant survivors of the planting are a patch of approximately 75 Norway Maple not far from the rows of Scots Pine and Larch, at the northern end of the Down. There are also some Sweet Chestnut adjacent to the lower path just past the Slate Stile. The Maple all appear to have been coppiced, (reduced to ground level and allowed to re-shoot as multi-stemmed trees). We concluded that this was the result of fire damage or predation by rabbits and deer. Dotted across the rest of the area are single examples of Maple, Ash, and a few oak. None of the Beech appears to have survived. Our conclusion is that most of the trees perished due to lack of after-care with no protection from overgrowth, fire and predation. But who knows, Golant Down might now be a semi-mature broadleaf woodland. Stewart Young. January 2010