‘FRIENDS OF THE TOWANS’ SUMMARY OF OUR FIRST YEAR This brief report outlines the activities carried out by the Friends of the Towans – a local volunteer group – during the period March 2015 to January 2016. The sun doesn’t always shine, but we do nearly always have a bonfire, sometimes with baked potatoes too. The 12 people helping clear scrub at Lethlean on 7th Jan 2016 – our largest attendance so far - were treated to a lovely rainbow during the tea break. Our focus is on carrying out practical conservation work, mainly clearing scrub vegetation such as old man’s beard, privet and brambles, to restore the dune grassland. Some facts & figures We worked in 5 locations from Mexico Towans to Gwithian Green We also carried out a Towans-wide litter pick, which included part of the beach. We teamed up with Save our Sand, another local group, for this task We worked on 14 separate dates, roughly 2 per month 24 different people took part We have 41 people on our database, with a regular ‘hard-core’ of about 8 Total volunteer hours spent so far is about 400 We had 3 items publicised in the Cornishman newspaper Alex made this Guy, which went down well on our bonfire on Nov 11th at Upton! We also attended two walks with local butterfly experts and another run by 3 of Cornwall’s top botanists. This walks programme aims to improve people’s knowledge of and enjoyment of the special wildlife on the Towans – more are planned Up to the end of April 2016, we are planning 8 other outings – see our newsletter and the website www.towanspartnership.org.uk We are planning 2 tasks with Hayle & Camborne Scouts in the next 2 months Funding was contributed by Hayle Town Council, Gwinear/Gwithian Parish Council, St Ives Bay Holiday Park, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, The National Trust, Natural England and CORMAC Solutions We are very grateful to these funders, but are always keen to look for new partners to keep this group going Martin Rule, Towans Ranger 07854 123 877 [email protected] .