Friends of Poldhu

If you go down to the beach today you’ll be more than likely to come across one of the recently founded ‘Friends of Poldhu’ group hard at work helping to keep Poldhu a clean and enjoyable beach to visit. The group began earlier this year when several local dog walkers and beach lovers decided to take a more proactive lead in looking after one of their much loved local beauty spots. This group of enthusiasts along with Poldhu Beach Café and myself formed ‘Friends of Poldhu’, who are working together to protect marine wildlife and keep Poldhu clean.

Common dolphin found at Poldhu last month

During the high season the National Trust owned beach, Poldhu Cove, is a popular sandy beach amongst holiday makers and locals alike and out of season it becomes a well used wintery walk for dog owners. Whatever the season though, Poldhu suffers from large volumes of marine litter brought in on the tides and stormy seas. Sadly, what we find on the beaches is just a tiny proportion of the marine litter that is floating in our worlds oceans. Over 100,000 marine mammals and 1 million seabirds die every year from ingestion and entanglement in marine litter. This can have devastating effects for already endangered species such as the albatross who mistake small pieces of floating plastic for fish to feed their chicks with. We had a recent reminder of this just a few weeks ago when a common dolphin which had drowned after becoming tangled in nets was washed up at Poldhu, these findings are an upsetting reminder of how detrimental our actions can be to such magnificent and elusive mammals. Friends of Poldhu are helping to tackle marine litter at source by recording their findings as part of a nation wide survey coordinated by the Marine Conservation Society where the data is collated to indicate the source of pollution.

The Friends of Poldhu group does a lot more than just keeping the beach clean. They are assisting the National Trust with improving the access and aesthetics on the beach entrances as well as raising awareness. Many hands make light work and so if you would like to be a helping hand then please join us for our monthly beach clean on the last Friday of every month at 11am. The next one falls in half term week on Friday 22nd. All equipment is provided plus hot drinks afterwards for all volunteers. Alternatively you can use the beach clean dispenser situated at the main entrance at any time. Feel free to contact friendsofpoldhu@gmail.com or find us at Beach Watcher on Facebook.

Elle

Students swap the classroom for the field

Geography students from the University of Exeter in Falmouth visited Chyvarloe Farm this morning to find out about Environmental Stewardship and Agri-environment schemes. This was the University's first visit to the farm and we hope many more will follow. Farmer Paul Parfitt took the students on a guided tour of the farmyard to meet the animals (including Boris the prize winning boar) before heading out to the fields.



This little piggie went to market...



Daffodil field with a buffer strip to allow wild flowers
to thrive on the farm

Paul showed the students how he manages the farm following the Higher Level Stewardship agreement with Natural England, for example planting up fallow fields with seed specifically to provide food for farmland birds over winter.

Work is currently ongoing to transform one of the farmyard buildings into an education space to improve the facilities for school and college groups. The work is due to be completed in March and along with Chyvarloe bunkhouse will provide groups with accommodation and a venue to base farm visits around. 

Don't forget to follow Chyvarloe Farm's facebook page to keep up to date with news and events: www.facebook.com/chyvarloe.farm

Laura

WANTED: Your car parks need you!

Have you ever driven into our car parks, been greeted by a member of our team and thought  "I'd like to do that"? Well, now you can. We are advertising for seasonal car park staff to make up our summer team of recruitment and information rangers here on the Lizard, there are positions available at both Kynance, Lizard Point and Gunwalloe. For more information click here. 

Kynance Cove, one of the locations on offer.

Just a little, but it is definitely SNOW

The rest of the country may have been knee deep in the stuff for a week, but for us this is an unusually wintry scene! This was the view that greeted the guests staying at our Holiday Cottages Ruan and Inglewidden Vean this morning, as the fishermen headed out from Cadgwith Cove  All melted by lunch time though, so not much chance for a snowball fight!

Rachel

We're really pleased to announce that the National Trust has granted a tenancy to Rona and Nevil Amiss who are currently farming a small farm in Devon.


We had over 600 downloads of the tenancy details from our website and welcomed a good number of farmers to an open day in the middle of October where they could look around the farm, meet us and members of the Lizard Onions and Courtyard group as well as local representatives from Natural England the NFU and the RSPB. We received more than a dozen applications and in the end interviewed four farmers for the new tenancy.

We are really pleased that Rona and Nevil and their five children will be joining us on the Lizard and we think they will do a fantastic job of looking after Tregullas and working with the community to make the most of what the farm has to offer. They are currently running a successful farm in Devon www.higherfingle.co.uk and are looking to make the progression from what they now do to create a full time mixed farm and home at Tregullas for their family. The principle farm business will be an arable and grass based beef and sheep farm relying on low input systems and good soil management. In addition, an existing duck egg www.elsaseggs.co.uk and meat goat business will be transferred to Tregullas and they are keen to explore vegetable growing and small scale poultry enterprises locally.

Rona and Nevil are really keen to work with the groups that were created as part of the consultation and I will be introducing them to these groups in the coming months. In the meantime, Tregullas will be farmed through temporary tenancies until September this year.

Tumbling Rock at Lizard Point

Those down at the Most Southerly Point last Friday would have witnessed an enthralling scene of excitement and danger as tonnes of rock were dislodged and sent careering down the cliff to smash and rumble on the slipway 50m below.

The sustained heavy rain has caused a number of land slips along the lizard coast over the last few months, the most worrying being at Lizard Point. The slip consisted of dozens of tons of rock and occurred on the cliff between the car park and the slipway. As soon as the slip occurred, the area was fenced off and contractors were called in to make the area safe as there was still a lot of loose rock ready to fall.

So last Friday, Simon and Matt from Kernow Maintenance Services (KMS) abseiled down the cliff armed with a crowbar and spade with the aim to dislodge any loose rock in a controlled way and make it safe for the future. It’s a good thing that Simon and Matt aren’t afraid of heights as they were literally hanging by a thread 50m above the slipway levering off rock after rock. They were suspended on their ropes for hours and dislodged several tons in that time, to the excitement of many onlookers.

We're waiting for the verdict of a specialist engineer, but are hoping that we can soon start to reopen the area. Once we're give the all clear, the dislodged stone will be removed and put to good use on walling, footpath and access work. Please in the meantime, keep a safe distance away.

To see a video of the rock fall like us on facebook and follow http://www.facebook.com/NTLizardandPenrose?fref=ts  to see how we maintain your countryside day to day!

Thanks for reading!

Ed Walker

Trainee Ranger, Lizard.