Friends of Bedgebury Magazine Issue 5 Spring/Summer 2015 www.bedgeburypinetum.org.uk Friends of Bedgebury My Bedgebury Decade Magazine Issue 5 Katherine Jary, Friends Manager Spring/Summer 2015 I first fell in love with Bedgebury during Welcome: My Bedgebury Decade 1 my maternity leave in 2005. My post natal Editor’s Letter 2 friends and I would meet regularly in the An interview with you! 4 walled garden for tea and cake and a gentle walk in the Pinetum with our babies. Membership Information 10 We spent the pre-school years in the Bedgebury’s Visitor Centre Team 11 Pinetum too, having fallen in love with the Events and Activities 14 landscape as a thrilling natural adventure playground for our children. Go with the flow! 18 Aphids! 20 When my daughter started school in 2010, I missed the time we had spent in Bedgebury The Friends, the Forestry Commission so profoundly that Malcolm Dove, the and the Bigger Picture 22 Manager of the Friends at that time, easily It is clear that our members also attach great A diary from Japan 24 persuaded me to combine my return to value to the wonderful Pinetum landscape, Bird Ringing at Bedgebury 27 part-time work with volunteering in the rich in rare and exciting flora and fauna, that forms the heart of Bedgebury, and this too Why is Bedgebury a great place Forestry Commission’s Learning Team. draws our funding, time and energy. In truth, to bring your school? 28 He also convinced me to become a Trustee Editors: Katherine Jary of the Friends’ charity. it is difficult to imagine a more wonderful way Bedgebury and our Partners 30 and Luke Wallace to spend some time than working with the Notice Board 33 Eight years after my first visit to Bedgebury, Friends and the Forestry Commission in this Proof Readers: I found myself stepping in to help cover rich and beautiful environment. Elspeth Hill, Jeanette Armstrong Malcolm’s retirement when we, as trustees, and John Gordon failed to find the right person to replace him. It has therefore been fascinating to hear how Contributing Photographers: Two years on, I am still here and loving every you view the site and the efforts of the Forestry Fraser Allen, Katherine Jary, moment of it! Commission to manage the numerous and Luke Wallace, Ian Beavis, occasionally conflicting activities important to Phil Clayton, Dan Luscombe, The Friends work in close partnership with the all the people who spend time at Bedgebury. Mark Clixby, Bob Dransfield, Forestry Commission at Bedgebury helping to Cover: Long-horned Bee Eucera longicornis Jack Glendinning, Keith Bunce support an exciting range of projects on site With every Friends’ magazine we attempt to Taken by Ian Beavis (curator at Tunbridge Wells Museum). from the development and maintenance of share and explain what we all do at Bedgebury Contributing Florilegium Artists: recreational activities like children’s play and and why, but with this edition we have focussed The males of this beautiful solitary bee are very distinctive Susan Conroy, Helen Hiorns because of their long antennae. This photograph was cycling, that clearly draw our members to the on the subjects we now know are important taken when one was found during the Bedgebury Bioblitz The Friends of Bedgebury Pinetum site all year round, to our support for the world to our members. We hope to demonstrate the of May 2014. We were very pleased to see this species are very grateful to Fraser Allen class conservation work being undertaken Forestry Commission’s plans to address some in Bedgebury as it has undergone rapid decline across for supporting the production of through the tree collection and related activities. of the issues you have raised and develop or Britain. The main reason for the decline is the loss of this magazine, our websites and protect the things that you value. We have all flower-rich grasslands, as these bees have a particular our social media presence with his learned much from the survey process and we amazing photographic images. need for large areas of nitrogen-fixing plants (known look forward to continuing this dialogue with as legumes) such as Bird’s-foot trefoil and Clovers. Design: Jonathan Turner you long into the future. Bedgebury Pinetum is lucky to have suitable habitat for this precious little invertebrate. Printed on FSC certified paper. 1 Editor’s Letter Luke Wallace, Membership and Volunteer Coordinator “A camel is a horse designed In our Autumn Winter 2014 Magazine, Mark A substantial sum is invested in the botanical by a committee.” Clixby, Bedgebury’s Recreation Manager, collection and vital tree conservation activities outlined his vision for a “visitor experience each year. One of Bedgebury’s most significant Alec Issigonis ‘Notes and that exceeds expectations”. In this edition, endeavours in 2014 was a seed collecting Queries’ The Guardian 1991 Mark introduces us to the frontline troops at expedition to Japan. Dan Luscombe, our Bedgebury, the Visitor Centre team (pages 11 resident Dendrologist, diarised the trip Now, it is not fair to insult the perfectly to 13), who play a key role in the delivery of this (pages 24 to 26) and when typhoons weren’t adapted camel, but the point is that the vision. It is staff in this team who interact with hampering efforts, the team managed to collaborative result of disparate ideas will the hundreds of thousands of visitors that find and collect the seed of some seriously be a compromised one. Bedgebury, with its come to Bedgebury every year. Combine the threatened flora. This year, the team is diverse array of activities and attractions, number of visitors with such a multifaceted planning to collect seed from endangered is indeed the manifestation of many site, and it’s easy to see how any role in this North American species. On pages 22 to 23, different ideas and interests. department is lively and challenging on a Bedgebury’s Manager, Dominic O’Connor Being one of the most visited attractions daily basis. Robinson, explains why we undertake such trips and ponders the subject of conifer in south-east England, compromises The forest bike trails have to be one of our conservation. You only have to visit our Bedgebury, “a place for inevitably have to be made, but do they biggest visitor draws and they are continuously fascinating collection of trees to see the detract from the overall experience? being improved to enhance your riding people, a place for trees results of this conservation work. We start to explore this important question experience. Local resident and mountain-bike and a place for wildlife”. in a review of the results from our 2014 enthusiast, Phil Clayton, tells us about the Investing in the botanical collection also member survey on pages 4 to 9. Here, we practicalities of maintaining bike trails and why requires us to manage the natural environment discuss the prevailing opinions and try to the forest bike trails are gaining an impressive in which it sits. This environment is important answer some of the more conflicting and reputation (pages 18 to 19). However, cycling for all forms of wildlife and the best way of challenging responses we received. It is is only one of the site’s many activities so for managing the landscape in an ecologically Cycling, concerts, children’s activity trails, clear from the survey that our members are those of you who prefer a less energetic or sensitive manner is to understand the botanical interests, global conservation, very aware of the issues presented to staff more cerebral approach to recreation, see ecosystem’s composition in detail. With this in beautiful walks, wildlife watching… the list and visitors at a site like Bedgebury. This pages 14 to 17 for a list of this summer’s events mind, Bedgebury hosts a range of surveying goes on! If Bedgebury is the compromised edition of the magazine aims to consider and activities. and monitoring activities for all sorts of camel, as extrapolated from Issigonis’s organisms. Christine George explains how the different recreational aspects of So, aside from outstanding play areas, metaphor, then it is a camel in its native Africa bird-ringing, for example, still provides us Bedgebury and the careful balance the high quality bike trails and a variety of other or Asia; very well adapted for the demands with new information on our birdlife (page 27). Forestry Commission has to apply in its recreational and educational activities, placed on it. management as “a place for people, Surveying also turned up some exciting wildlife where else does your money go? The site is incredibly dynamic and diverse a place for trees and a place for wildlife”. finds at Bedgebury last year, most notably in the autumn when a nationally new species of and, whether it is an extreme, adrenaline parasitoid was discovered in the Pinetum! Find rush or a gentle amble around some the full story on pages 20 to 21 and don’t forget beautiful natural settings, with a little to look out for some more amazing creatures in compromise and consideration Bedgebury the Pinetum’s trees and meadows this summer. can deliver on all counts. 2 3 An interview However, although play and cycling are now Signage enabled the Forestry Commission to improve the popular activities on site with 40 – 50% of you Many of you shared your views about clarity of directional signage at the Visitor Centre and to ensure that the rules associated with listing them as the reasons you joined, we are the signage on site through the survey. with you! pleased that 47% joined because of the the Pinetum are more visible.