Chairman's report 2010

The Forum has reached its twenty-first year, which would have surprised several of its founder members, who had seen Thorne or Hatfield Moors groups, initiatives or campaigns come and go, with more or less lasting impact. One of those founders, whose initial doubts never prevented his whole-hearted commitment, was Peter Skidmore. He devoted an astonishing amount of time, and the full fruits of his unique and internationally renowned expertise, to the Moors for over forty years. Peter died this year. As I type this, I look up to some of his stunning illustrations, both beautiful and lifelike, a reminder of the Moors, and an inspiration to more fieldwork.

I want to reflect on the Forum's past, but this year I would particularly like to pose a few challenges for our future. So this will not be a comprehensive summary of our activities this year; which is, as usual, provided more thoroughly and reliably by Helen, our Executive Secretary. Last year, I listed some of the highlights of our first twenty years. Rather than repeat that now, I thought I would consider some of the main themes we can detect in British conservation in the last few decades, and see how first the Moors, and then the Forum, might reflect them.

When I spent my first few days on Thome Moors, in the early 1970s, the biggest ecological crisis facing Britain and Europe seemed to be acid rain. Pollution has certainly taken its toll: the largest peat-forming sphagnum bog-mosses such as S. imbricatum, may have disappeared centuries ago early victims to industrialisation. When I re-found the pollution-sensitive beard-lichen on both Moors in the 70s, it was described as 'a very lonely dot on the Usnea maps of Britain' by the late Oliver Gilbert, and it provided continuity with the records of a great Goole naturalist of the 1870s, H Franklin Parsons, whose lichen list has now almost been replicated, partly through discoveries on Forum training workshops (of which, more shortly). It was in the 1970s that Roy Crossley found Bembidion humerale, the Thorne Moors Ground-beetle, among the first of Thorne and Hatfield's unique insects. Ten years later, Tom Blockeel’s rediscovery of Sphagnum balticum added another 'lonely dot' for a nationally rare species.

The Forum's initiative to organise the 1990 invertebrate survey and the subsequent bout of recording sustained by Peter Skidmore added to the tally of unique species. It was also in the 1990s that we made the transition from producing lists, to analysing and interpreting them. The surveys allowed us to evaluate and categorise the Moors, emphasising the unique importance of so many of the Moors' habitats - raised bog, yes, but also dry heath and wet heath, poor fen and rich fen, birchwood, Scots pine forest, willow carr, veteran oak trees, acid and calcareous grassland, even, on the western edge of Thorne Moors, saltmarsh.

In the last 10 years, climate change has been recognised as the greatest single threat to wildlife, and indeed to human life. Sceptics need look no further than the Moors' plant and insect lists to see that it's happening - almost every visit now adds species to the Moors, but most are not overlooked ancient residents - they are warmth-loving southern species which didn't occur in Yorkshire till a few years ago. The trend will doubtless continue. What remains to be seen is whether well-planned and judicious management of the wildlife habitats will enable the northern specialists to survive too -   we may have lost our breeding Twite, but I hope it's not too late to save the sundews and cranberry, the heather and the Scots Pine, and their characteristic insect fauna.
This touches on another issue which the wider conservation movement is slowly waking up to. Good conservation depends on good science: it's difficult to manage and sustain something you don't understand. The first steps in that understanding is to know what is there, and how it is changing. Survey and monitoring should underpin all nature conservation .

It is thus a delight to record last year, the publication of Ian MacDonald's Flora by Foot. This represents a considerable advance in presentational style for one of our Technical Reports - thanks to Keith Heywood for guiding it through to publication. Ian's modern survey puts down a marker, in the same way that J C Dale did in the 1820s. H F Parsons in the 1870s, Ralph Chislett in the 1930s, George Hyde in the 1950s and 60s, or Peter Skidmore since the 1960s. It's unarguable that Peter added more species to the Moors' list than anyone else has ever done, or ever will be able to. He gave us the most comprehensive inventory of invertebrates on any site in Britain, perhaps the world. I hope that we use that uniquely valuable tool in the future to understand the Moors and how they are changing.

It's customary to complain that things are different now. Increased leisure time is dominated by increased technologies and other distractions, 'young people today' don't do such things. I don't believe it. Busy people can be persuaded to take on detailed fieldwork. But they need to be convinced that their time will be well spent.

One of the most enjoyable initiatives, and I think, best investments, the Forum has embarked on in recent years, is our programme of training workshops. My experience is that, the more difficult and challenging a training course sounds, the more popular it is, and the younger the audience.   2010 will test that idea, as our biggest programme ever includes some challenging but extremely valuable topics. I am sure they will be well attended. And I hope some of the participants will provide the Moors, and the Forum, with recorders, campaigners and even committee members of the future.

This kind of focussed, technically demanding outreach is necessary. Our antecedents were the Victorian naturalists, and the 20th century campaigner-naturalists. Although our campaigning days are not yet over, I think we should hold tightly to our grip on the science of the Moors too. It gives us credibility, and to anyone who will listen, it provides invaluable insights into how well the Moors are faring, and whether past management is going to work in the future. We ignore careful monitoring and good science at our peril.

Before I finish, I want to record our thanks to our officers and committee members. Everything we do depends entirely on the time and effort freely given by volunteers. It has been an unusually difficult year for many of your Executive, with additional pressures on top of the wide range of existing commitments, professional or personal. I hope we have generally done the important and the urgent things which make a real difference; I apologise if the important but less urgent has not progressed as fast as we would like. Of course, if you are impatient for more progress, step forward and lend a hand.

So, I tender our thanks to all members of the Executive, who have met regularly and guided all the work of the Forum. In particular, I would like to thank: Keith Heywood, for handling of our publications and continuing the revamp of our website, and who is, sadly, stepping down at this AGM, to Nicki Whitehouse for her work as editor; Pip Seccombe for her reliable and thorough minutes of our meetings; Valerie Holt, for her meticulous supervision of our finances. And I would single out our secretary, Helen Kirk, once more, shouldering the longest list of actions after each meeting, and for managing the processes which are moving the Forum gradually toward charitable status. Best of all I think, for making the impressive training workshops programme possible - I think that is probably the ultimate tribute to Peter Skidmore, and to that other guiding spirit so sharply missed, Stephen Warburton. And it is the initiative most likely to produce the next generation of such notable intellects and personalities.

Brian Eversham                        March 2010

You can return to the home page by clicking on this image wherever you see it in the website.