A Year in ’s Environment - 2016

January February March • Government designates • Cornwall selected as • Polecat confirmed as a second tranche of Marine one of the top ten best native Cornish mammal Conservation Zones landscapes in the UK once again around the UK, bringing • Heavy flooding causes • Rare hermit crab found at the total around Cornwall’s major disruption across Falmouth’s Castle Beach coast to nine Cornwall • Invasion of the Parakeets? Green birds spotted • Isles of Scilly schoolchildren sing special as far as Plymouth in recent times seabird song to celebrate St Agnes and • Mixed bag for Scilly’s seabirds as numbers have being declared rat-free, as rats were killing suffered an overall decline of 10% over the last seabirds 9 years • Fire crews called out to Downs nature reserve as a fire breaks out in the gorse • Tropical sea snail washes up in Cornwall and is declared as first British record

April May June • Many recent whale • Dalmatian Pelican seen • Everything changes sightings in Cornwall for first time in UK at with referendum vote caught in photos and Land’s End as the UK chooses to on video, including • Phytoplankton and leave the EU humpback whale near St. Zooplankton bloom Ives attracts 5 basking sharks to Cornwall’s • Cornwall’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty PorthcurnoProof beach (AONB) announce focus on study of natural • Britain’s SECOND ever sighting of bowhead capital whale spotted off the shore of near in Cornwall • The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust launches plan to re-introduce Grey Partridge’s to Cornwall A Year in Cornwall’s Environment - 2016

July August September • National Trust launches • becomes one • Cornwall noted as having £250,000 appeal to help of the largest National 15 of the most beautiful manage and care for Nature Reserves in the places to visit in Cornwall South West • Planning Inspectorate • 20 Cornish schools • First recorded Manx recommends adoption complete participation in ’s largest shearwater and Storm petrel chicks of the year of modified Local Plan after outdoor learning project with Natural England, on the Isles of Scilly on St. Agnes and Gugh and Natural England agree polices to ensure reporting big benefits for both teachers and internationally important Nature Conservation pupils from learning in the outdoors sites are not adversely affected by housing growth and recreation

October November December • 150 Giant Bluefin Tuna • Launch of Operation • Cornwall and Isles of Scilly spotted in a feeding Hedgehog Local Nature Partnership frenzy alongside Harbour • 200 hundred Lizard (CIOSLNP) reveal their Porpoise pod in Falmouth juniper saplings reared at Environmental Growth Marina the Eden project nurseries Strategy • Natural England starts consultation on are planted out on the Lizard National Nature • The Cornwall Sustainability improvements to coastal access along a 100 Reserve with Natural England and the Eden Awards is held on the 2nd km stretch of the Cornish coast path between Project to help conserve this rare subspecies in of December Penzance and its onlyProof location

If you would like this information in another format or language please contact: Cornwall Council, County Hall, Treyew Road, TR1 3AY www.cornwall.gov.uk Tel: 0300 1234 100 Email: [email protected] www.cornwall.gov.uk

Nov 2016 Jn 38105