Local photographer adds to the Thorpe woods wildlife gallery.

Thorpe st Andrews based phographer Tony Howes, has during his walks in Belmore and Browns collected a great variety of the Woods furry, feather'd and insect inhabitants plus some of its less and more familiar plants. He's kindly supplied a collection of his favourites and they've now been added

to the 'Friends of thorpe woods' gallery.

Check out the gallery and if you have any wildlife or landscape pics you've taken around the wood contact: Paul on 01603 449839 or you can email them to: paulsnewplace@ntlworld.com.

Important Broadland Planning Meetings

In previous posts we have mentioned that the next few months will be a critical time for the future of Thorpe Woods. Over the last year local people have fought to save these much loved woods, however the owners remain determined to build an estate of over 600 houses over them.

Currently the woods are not included within Broadland District Councils plans for housing development and our in fact identified as green space.

However as a result of the recently adopted Joint Core Strategy the council have placed Thorpe Woods, and the surrounding area within what is called a Development Triangle.

Over the next 3 to 4 months the council will be selecting sites within that triangle for development and identifying sites that should be retained as green spaces. It is essential that Thorpe Woods retains it protection as a green space within these new plans and is not identified as a potential site for development.

This is where you can play an important part in making clear to the council that you want Thorpe Woods to be protected and safeguarded from any threat of development.

The council are about to consult on the Area Action Plan which will identify where within the Triangle future development will be allowed to take place. Next month they will be holding two exhibitions which look at this consultation and possible sites for development, these are taking place at:

Morse Pavilion, Recreation Ground, Laundry Lane, Thorpe St Andrew, NR7 0XP
on Wednesday 28th September between 12.30 and 7.30pm

Thorpe End Village Hall on Thursday 29th September between 12.30 and 7.30pm.

Following on from these the council will be holding a series of workshops which will cover development plans and most importantly the Area Action Plan.These workshops will take place at:

Thorpe End Village Hall on Tuesday 27th October between 6.30 and 9pm

Sprowston Parish Council Offices, Recreation Ground Road NR7 8EW, Sprowston on 24th October between 6.30 and 9pm.

Rackheath Holy Trinity Church Hall on 13th October between 6.30 to 9pm

We will certainly be attending the exhibition and workshops and we would ask all local people and members of the Friends of Thorpe Woodlands to attend if they possibly can.

To book a place on one of the workshops call the council policy unit on 01603 430567 or email policy@broadland.gov.uk.

The campaign to save Thorpe Woods has had many successes, the Friends have several hundred members with new people still joining, our local councillors are supporting us and the press has provided us with a great deal of coverage.

Your support is essential and with it we can save Thorpe woods for future generations.

Petition to save Amazon from law change danger

The Amazon is in serious danger: Brazil is on the verge of gutting its forest protection laws -- unless we act now, vast tracts of our planet’s lungs could be opened up to clear-cutting devastation.

This threat to the Amazon has sparked widespread anger and protests across the country and tensions are rising. In an effort to stifle criticism, armed thugs, allegedly hired by loggers, have murdered environmental advocates. But the movement is fighting back -- this weekend, brave indigenous people are leading massive marches across Brazil to demand action and inside sources say President Dilma is considering vetoing the changes.

79% of Brazilians support a veto of the forest law changes and this internal pressure is leading some in Dilma's administration to back a veto. But we need a global cry of solidarity with the Brazilian people to really force Dilma's hand. Our global petition will be boldly displayed on banners at the front of the massive marches for Amazon protection. Let's urgently build a 1.5-million-strong petition to SAVE THE AMAZON! Sign now and send this on to everyone.

To sign the petition, click the link:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_amazon_a/?vl

Update

The hacking issue seems to have been solved. It was apparently a random phishing attempt by somebody in eastern Europe. Passwords etc have been changed. However, the species list update (as promised a few weeks ago) will still be delayed for some time. This is mainly because quite a lot of work is involved: there is a large number of new species to add, and we are still waiting to positively identify a couple of specimens. Until this work is complete I think it best to keep our powder dry.

Apologies to all blog-followers who are interested in the woods' ecology. But for the forseeable future, I'm afraid you'll just have to make do with last year's very out of date species list. When the situation changes, a post will appear here to let you all know.

Charette's return?

A year after Broadland Land Group spent a vast sum on Andres Duany's services in heading their 'charette', it seems they are about to do it all over again. Their first attempt having seriously backfired, they have dropped Duany and engaged Matrix Partnership, another expensive, but English-based planning consultancy.

Matrix has published a very meagre summary of its take on Thorpe Wood on its website: http://www.matrixpartnership.co.uk/project-Thorpe-Woods.html

Note that Matrix are perpetuating Duany's and BLG's long-discredited description of the woods as "a former pine plantation". Whether this is how they see the woods themselves (IF they've seen the woods themselves!), or whether this wording was dictated by BLG, we have no way of knowing - but we can guess!
























The most striking thing about Matrix's website is the plan-view image showing how the development would look. It has clearly been decided that by sacrificing Belmore and Brown's Plantations, BLG stand a better chance of gaining some support for obliterating Racecourse.

Obliterating is not too strong a word to use: it is hard to see, on Matrix's scribbled impression, just what would go where. But close inspection reveals that Racecourse (we've outlined the boundary in red to make it clearer) would be cut in two by a major road cutting through the wood and meadowland to its north, just east of Greenborough Road. They call this an 'inner link road'. On both sides of the road, practically the whole of Racecourse wood would be turned into housing estate, just like before. A bit of green to the east and south hints at some tree retention and softens the impression a little - but no matter how you look at it, Racecourse, with all it's rich wildlife is gone.

Elsewhere on the Matrix website, references can be found to their liking for, among other things, charettes. So maybe the people of Thorpe and Norwich will be treated to yet another charade, again cleverly designed to lull people into believing that the wood really isn't much good, and will be enhanced by building all over it.

Interestingly, Broadland District Council were unaware of Matrix's involvement and knew nothing about the new plan concept until we told them. BLG had already blown their credibility in the eyes of the public long ago, but if any traces remained, these have now vanished. Last year they declared their sincere intention to keep the public informed of any changes: this proves their sincerity to be non-existent.

New Woodlands Photo Gallery

From today there's a new woodlands gallery (near top right of the Blog) with photography of everything from the smallest insects to great oaks.

This will be a growing record of the many species to be found in Racecourse, Belmore and Brown's. As such we would love to add any photos that you might have taken around these woods, especially anything that isn't recorded here, whether that be a favourite view, tree, wildlife from deer to "difficult to photograph" dragonflies or plants you haven't seen before. If you don't have photos to add you might be able to help identify species by leaving a note below any picture.

Check out the photos and if you have any you'd like to add, you can email them to:

paulsnewplace@ntlworld.com

or phone me: Paul on 01603 449839 and I'll help with either scanning or transferring to the

Gallery.

Owls and Glow Worms in Racecourse Wood

I set out first to take the pictures of the Glow Worms in Racecourse Wood after first coming across them in mid May, having only seen them before on the Purbeck Coast on the path between LangtonMatravers and Dancing ledge. A beautiful unspoilt protected stretch of Dorset coastline, so I was excited to find them here.

First attempts to photograph were with a compact camera, had a good macro setting but longest exposure of only a second or so. Feeling very strongly about the threat that hangs over this remarkable place, I decided to have a better go with a more versatile camera.

I found half a dozen or more on the next warm dark night in June and got the brightest pics between 11pm and 12.30.

The Tawny Owls I didn't expect to catch, going out one evening to photograph the woods skyline at dusk, but heard the 'whispy shreeks' near the main path as I first walked in and the young Tawny Owl stayed in one then another tree near the path while I struggled to find him (or her) by taking photos with the flash, expecting it to fly off all the time, and getting used to the manual exposure settings on the camera.

The picture of the two Tawny Owls in the Oak tree, I got on a second night after following them quietly but clumsily for half an hour stumbling through ferns, pine and bramble until they settled on this low branch.

These pictures are a limited attempt at showing some of the beautiful 'real world' we still have living alongside our increasingly unsustainable one. The life in this wood is completely self sufficient and is thriving.

Unlike our world which (although we forget) depends on nature for it's existence. Nature, and maybe most importantly, the Bees that pollinate our plants, are declining.

The Racecourse Woods of this world must not be an opportunity for the rich to sustain their wealth

in a desperate further sell off, blind to anything but short term greed.

Take time if you can to explore and escape into a little piece of the nature that we have left.