Got my letter in late last night, lets hope this excellent proposal gets the funding.
James Walsh said
Fri May 16 2:05 PM, 2014
Letters and documents of support have been sent to Dave Crawshaw from Manchester Ship Canal World Heritage Group, Salford Docklands Heritage & Nature Group & Salford Area Field Ecologists
Rick Hall said
Thu May 15 10:36 PM, 2014
I've done mine. Started to fall in in love with this place recently!
Dave Wilson said
Thu May 15 8:05 PM, 2014
Keep 'em coming, folks !
Mike Passant said
Thu May 15 6:33 PM, 2014
Likewise!!
Craig Higson said
Thu May 15 5:08 PM, 2014
Email written and sent the day the post appeared!
James Walsh said
Thu May 15 9:50 AM, 2014
Writing my letter at the moment, including a Manchester Ship Canal World Heritage Group film that can be seen @ YouTube: The Natural Beauty of the Manchester/Salford Mosses, watching this film might help inspire people with their letters
Dave Wilson said
Wed May 14 10:46 PM, 2014
My brief offering (just less than 200 words) was forwarded to Dave Crawshaw tonight. How many others are prepared to support this thoroughly worthy cause ?
Ian McKerchar said
Mon May 12 4:14 PM, 2014
The following post was provided by David Wilson in response to the call to arms to support this Chat Moss proposal:
Local conservationists and many readers of these pages will recall the sterling efforts and deserved success of Dave Crawshaw and his Lancashire Wildlife Trust colleagues in the long-running battle over peat extraction on Chat Moss, and the attendant e-mail deserves, in my view, a meaningful response from all of us who wish his team well in the Greater Manchester Wetlands Project. Letters of support by May 16th will be appreciated greatly.
I am moved to make this request for the support of as many Manchester Birding forum contributors as possible having just unearthed a 1985 letter from Tom Edmondson, one of our region's most industrious and capable conservationists. In 1952, he took part in a "A Survey of the1952 Breeding Season Distribution of 30 Species" by covering, by push-bike and on foot, a 5 km. x 5 km. block of Western Chat Moss enclosed by the west and east grid lines 65 - 70 and the south and north lines 95 - 00, the corner points being (roughly) west of Leigh in the NW; Astley Green (NE); the southern end of Little Woolden Moss (SE); and Culcheth (SW). It's readily accepted that fluctuating bird populations are determined by many factors, including hazards on migration and climate changes in wintering areas, but the loss of fragile mossland habitat over recent years has completely transformed (and undoubtedly for the worse) nesting sites for once-familiar species. The species under consideration included the following 14, and Tom's estimates make for depressing reading. They exclude former strongholds on Eastern Chat Moss and all estimates are of pairs:-
There were no breeding records for Chiffchaff, Goldfinch and Bullfinch.
Ian McKerchar said
Mon May 12 4:07 PM, 2014
The following information has been passed onto me and was written by Dave Crawshaw of the Lancs Wildlife Trust. Its time once again to put the collective power of this forum and its users to good, positive use once again. Please read through and more importantly take the tiny amount of time it takes to support it, the deadline is 16th May
It is quite a while since I last sent round an email letting you know what was happening at Chat Moss. So I thought that I would take the opportunity to give you all an update as well as asking for your support.
As many of you will already know, my current role is to co-ordinate the Great Manchester Wetlands Partnership. (GMWP) The Partnership narrowly missed out on being designated as one of the 12 national Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs) and the money that went with it, but nothing daunted the Partnership, with the support of Natural England, has continued to plug away and is now to cut a long story short, on the verge of submitting a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund under the Landscape Partnership Scheme. If successful this would provide five years worth of funding for an integrated programme of wetland projects and community engagement across the bid area. The area is shown on the map in the attached Word document. It includes the whole of the Manchester Mosses area, the Wigan Flashes and the Mersey Wetlands Corridor which includes Woolston Eyes.
This email is to ask you whether you would be prepared to email or post to me (FREEPOST) a letter of support for our bid which is briefly described in the pdf below.
The reason that I hope you will be particularly interested is that one of the projects that we will be including in the programme is a project to buy and subsequently restore Chat Moss to a high quality, sphagnum forming lowland raised bog. We are already well down the road to restoration at the neighbouring site at Little Woolden Moss but Chat Moss is potentially a far more valuable site. All that we need to do is to raise the money for purchase and then restoration. We have several irons in the fire and because of the iconic nature of the site and the enormous value to the local community, I feel sure that we will succeed (given time!).
Because we won the battle over peat extraction, there is still plenty of deep peat left on the site and this will make it much easier to restore than Little Woolden Moss which had less than 0.5m of peat in many areas. This also means that the Chat Moss ex peat extraction site will potentially become the best lowland raised bog in the whole of the Manchester Mosses complex, which is a very exciting prospect.
I hope that you find this prospect as exciting as I do. If so, as a first step, please get your pens or your keyboards out and send me a suitable letter of support. To be useful I need to receive it by Friday 16th May (see documents below)
Likewise!!
Local conservationists and many readers of these pages will recall the sterling efforts and deserved success of Dave Crawshaw and his Lancashire Wildlife Trust colleagues in the long-running battle over peat extraction on Chat Moss, and the attendant e-mail deserves, in my view, a meaningful response from all of us who wish his team well in the Greater Manchester Wetlands Project. Letters of support by May 16th will be appreciated greatly.
I am moved to make this request for the support of as many Manchester Birding forum contributors as possible having just unearthed a 1985 letter from Tom Edmondson, one of our region's most industrious and capable conservationists. In 1952, he took part in a "A Survey of the1952 Breeding Season Distribution of 30 Species" by covering, by push-bike and on foot, a 5 km. x 5 km. block of Western Chat Moss enclosed by the west and east grid lines 65 - 70 and the south and north lines 95 - 00, the corner points being (roughly) west of Leigh in the NW; Astley Green (NE); the southern end of Little Woolden Moss (SE); and Culcheth (SW). It's readily accepted that fluctuating bird populations are determined by many factors, including hazards on migration and climate changes in wintering areas, but the loss of fragile mossland habitat over recent years has completely transformed (and undoubtedly for the worse) nesting sites for once-familiar species. The species under consideration included the following 14, and Tom's estimates make for depressing reading. They exclude former strongholds on Eastern Chat Moss and all estimates are of pairs:-
Linnet 120 - 140; Corn Bunting 60 - 70; Tree Sparrow 70 - 90; Tree Pipit 40 - 60; Yellow Wagtail 80 - 100; Whinchat 20 - 30; Nightjar 6 - 10; Turtle Dove 10 - 15; Curlew 20; Redshank 8 - 10; and Lapwing 140 - 150.
There were no breeding records for Chiffchaff, Goldfinch and Bullfinch.
It is quite a while since I last sent round an email letting you know what was happening at Chat Moss. So I thought that I would take the opportunity to give you all an update as well as asking for your support.
As many of you will already know, my current role is to co-ordinate the Great Manchester Wetlands Partnership. (GMWP)
The Partnership narrowly missed out on being designated as one of the 12 national Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs) and the money that went with it, but nothing daunted the Partnership, with the support of Natural England, has continued to plug away and is now to cut a long story short, on the verge of submitting a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund under the Landscape Partnership Scheme. If successful this would provide five years worth of funding for an integrated programme of wetland projects and community engagement across the bid area. The area is shown on the map in the attached Word document. It includes the whole of the Manchester Mosses area, the Wigan Flashes and the Mersey Wetlands Corridor which includes Woolston Eyes.
This email is to ask you whether you would be prepared to email or post to me (FREEPOST) a letter of support for our bid which is briefly described in the pdf below.
The reason that I hope you will be particularly interested is that one of the projects that we will be including in the programme is a project to buy and subsequently restore Chat Moss to a high quality, sphagnum forming lowland raised bog. We are already well down the road to restoration at the neighbouring site at Little Woolden Moss but Chat Moss is potentially a far more valuable site. All that we need to do is to raise the money for purchase and then restoration. We have several irons in the fire and because of the iconic nature of the site and the enormous value to the local community, I feel sure that we will succeed (given time!).
Because we won the battle over peat extraction, there is still plenty of deep peat left on the site and this will make it much easier to restore than Little Woolden Moss which had less than 0.5m of peat in many areas. This also means that the Chat Moss ex peat extraction site will potentially become the best lowland raised bog in the whole of the Manchester Mosses complex, which is a very exciting prospect.
I hope that you find this prospect as exciting as I do. If so, as a first step, please get your pens or your keyboards out and send me a suitable letter of support.
To be useful I need to receive it by Friday 16th May (see documents below)
Many thanks
Dave Crawshaw
Lancashire Wildlife Trust
CHAT MOSS PROPOSAL INFORMATION
CHAT MOSS SUPPORT LETTER