{"id":4508,"date":"2021-04-11T15:04:10","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T15:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/?p=4508"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:40:56","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T11:40:56","slug":"chichester-harbour-events-april-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/chichester-harbour-events-april-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Chichester Harbour Events"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walks and Talks in Chichester Harbour:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In line with the Government\u2019s roadmap for emerging out of the pandemic lockdown Chichester Harbour Conservancy is pleased to announce that we hope to begin reinstating our events and boat trip programmes from mid-May.<\/p>\n

These will include the monthly walks (5 miles or more) and strolls (up to 3 miles).\u00a0 From now on advance booking will be necessary for all walks and numbers will be limited to enable us to keep to all restrictions still in place at the time.\u00a0\u00a0 Bookings for Conservancy events are hosted by Ticketsource and there will be a fee payable on booking which will be \u00a33 per person to join a walk.\u00a0 The income will go towards covering the costs of the booking service.<\/p>\n

Solar Heritage<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The solar boat, Solar Heritage<\/em>, will begin 1\u00bd hour trips again, hopefully\u00a0from 22 May. \u00a0Numbers will be limited in order to maintain social distancing. See the Conservancy\u2019s website for more details nearer the time.\u00a0 We are currently working on setting up the sailing schedule and plan to include longer trips with the aim of seeing\u00a0seals\u00a0when the tides allow.<\/p>\n

Oyster boat <\/strong>Terror<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Victorian oyster sailing boat Terror<\/em>, managed by volunteers from the Friends of Chichester Harbour, will begin two-hour \u00a0trips from mid\u00a0May.<\/p>\n

Numbers will be limited initially to four\u00a0passengers per trip for social distancing rules until\u00a021\u00a0June when it is hoped that the full load of six\u00a0passengers will be allowed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

50 Years Anniversary Review:\u00a0 Part 4<\/strong><\/span>
\nLandscape Management:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In the 1980s Philip Couchman, the new AONB Manager and Anne de Potier, Conservation Warden, began a long-term project of tree planting which still happens today. They decided\u00a0that a tree planting scheme\u00a0along stretches of the shoreline would enhance the views of the natural landscape of the Harbour from the water and would also help to protect the shoreline from erosion.<\/p>\n

This tree planting scheme was begun during the era of partnership working with the Manpower Services Commission whereby unemployed people could gain work experience by helping the Conservancy to deliver projects such as planting trees.\u00a0 In addition Philip and Anne saw the potential benefit\u00a0of volunteer support in delivering this project and new volunteer work parties were established. Young bare-root saplings were purchased, along with canes and rabbit guards to help protect them as they settled in.\u00a0 One big planting strip was completed on the public footpath between Itchenor and Rookwood.\u00a0 Another one was north of Dell Quay on the shoreline path towards Apuldram.<\/p>\n

Philip learnt that decision making in\u00a0managing the AONB was hampered by the fact that the Conservancy didn\u2019t own the land.\u00a0 Everything had to be done by consent.\u00a0 He decided to tune into the farming world so that he could approach the farming landowners with an understanding of what they were having to deal with generally in their work.\u00a0 Note from\u00a0Judi \u2013 I always wondered why there were copies of \u2018Farming Weekly\u2019 in the office back in the 1990s!<\/p>\n

These days the regular winter tree planting work parties are led by the Conservancy\u2019s Rangers and supported by members of the Friends of Chichester Harbour who volunteer for these sessions -\u00a0for more information click here<\/a>. Tree planting always takes place in the winter months when the saplings are dormant and the birds aren\u2019t nesting. \u00a0The variety of species planted include hawthorn, blackthorn, field maple, spindle, guelder rose and native dogwood.<\/p>\n

However, all through this past winter no tree planting has taken place due to the pandemic restrictions as we haven\u2019t been able to hold any work parties.\u00a0 We hope that they can begin again in late autumn this year.<\/p>\n

Wildflower Meadows<\/strong><\/p>\n

More recently interest has grown in establishing wildflower meadows as these are wonderful for supporting a variety of native flora and are valuable for wildlife too.\u00a0 The Conservancy has a trial wildflower area at Cobnor Farm working in partnership with the Cobnor Estate.\u00a0 This was begun in May 2019 and will be monitored and recorded over the years to come.\u00a0 The value of any natural space for biodiversity will depend on its links to other natural spaces and this connection is very important and are called \u2018wildlife corridors\u2019.\u00a0 We can all help improve the links between natural areas by gardening for wildlife and letting go of the learned behaviour to cut short all the grass in our gardens.\u00a0 Perfect lawns are essentially eco-deserts, they do not support much in the way of\u00a0wildlife and biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Environmental Stewardship<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first agri-environment schemes on farms were brought into being in 1991. \u00a0The Conservancy encouraged the Harbour farmers to join in and these days most have had some form of grant for environmental stewardship.\u00a0 Early supporters were the farmers\u00a0at Dell Quay and at Cobnor Farm. Anne\u00a0advised them on what they could apply to do on their land to enhance its environmental value.\u00a0 Anne\u00a0also managed Fishbourne Meadows herself in this way for the Conservancy.<\/p>\n

Eames Farm on Thorney Island covers\u00a0176 acres and has recently been managed to the exacting standards of Higher Level Environmental stewardship.\u00a0 It was taken over by the Chichester Harbour Trust in 2008, a charity set up in 2002 and dedicated to the protection of the AONB.\u00a0 The Trust believes that the best way to have control of how land is managed is either try to\u00a0buy it or negotiate long leases.\u00a0 These days it controls 250 acres over 13 sites.<\/p>\n

Navigation Markers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Chichester Harbour during the 1970s the Conservancy worked with Trinity House to trial new-style solar-powered lit navigation marks in the Harbour.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The main navigation markers have lights which have individual lighting sequences emitted in a series of flashes during the hours of darkness.\u00a0 An example is Fairway at the start of the Itchenor Reach which, as a starboard (green) marker, emits a series of 3 green flashes every 10 seconds.\u00a0 On the charts this is written as Fl(3) G 10s\u00a0 These lights used to be powered by gas canisters which had to be stored inside the marker itself.\u00a0 The rigid floating marker buoys would have little doors, rather like space capsules we\u2019ve seen on tv, and Conservancy technical staff used to have to squeeze themselves in through these little doors in order to reach and replace the canisters.\u00a0 These days most nautical markers throughout the world are solar powered and the Harbour Staff are able to take more care of their backs!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walks and Talks in Chichester Harbour: In line with the Government\u2019s roadmap for emerging out of the pandemic lockdown Chichester Harbour Conservancy is pleased to announce that we hope to begin reinstating our events and boat trip programmes from mid-May. These will include the monthly walks (5 miles or more) and strolls (up to 3 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4508"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4515,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4508\/revisions\/4515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsulapartnership.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}