– Robin Stamp
Whilst many of you will have read various articles by me over the years with my treasurer or my wildlife enthusiast hat on, today I write to you as the new chairman of the charity.
It has been a real privilege to work alongside John Andrews as he chaired the charity through many changes over the past few years, and I am so pleased to report that John has agreed to remain a (VERY) active member of the team and a driver behind a new expansion of our mires project. It is an honour to step into his shoes.
Habitat and wildlife projects
In addition to the mires project, we are also currently working on other potential habitat and wildlife projects, including (hopefully) a new disease-resistant elm planting project specifically planned to provide habitat for the rare and endangered white-letter hairstreak butterfly. This project could get underway quite quickly but there remains lots of work to be done before we can press the go button and then even more when we do! My hope is that this and the other projects will be ones that we all as “Friends” of the Quantocks can get behind and take part in.
Friends’ events
In addition to the above projects, my hope is that we can together build on the range of opportunities to meet as Friends and put on a greater range of walks and talks and other activities, but we can only do that with your help and active involvement.
Our recent talk by author and naturalist Stephen Moss was a sellout success and a really interesting and enjoyable evening – it was so good to meet current and a number of new members who joined us immediately following the event. This month we look forward to hearing from another author, Charles Foster, and then in November we hope to be celebrating the purchase of Bicknoller Quarry and hearing from our own Nigel Phillips with the launch of the new Nature of the Quantocks book (which would make a great Christmas present!) so keep an eye out for details of all of the above and more to come.
Volunteering opportunities
As mentioned above, it is our hope to do all the above and more, but as an organisation of volunteers none of that can happen without your help, so please do let us know if you are able to help in any way.
It may be that you are happy to help with the setup of the village halls, make tea or run a bar when we hold an event, or maybe you would be happy to lead or support on a guided walk. For others of you, it may be that you would like to get your hands dirty planting a tree, keeping an eye on our land as an observer or volunteer warden or helping to create brochures and update our book of walks. We are currently creating a list of volunteering opportunities which will be added to our website so please visit https://friendsofthequantocks.org, or drop me a line on [email protected].