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Stirling and Clackmannanshire SWT Group’s Annual Newsletter
April 2014 - April 2015
1. Membership
Local membership has increased from 648 in
2014 to 665 households in 2015.
2. Winter Meetings and Outings
A series of talks were arranged to celebrate
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the 50 anniversary of the involvement of SWT
in Scottish wildlife conservation. Rory
Sandison talked about our 19 reserves in West
Central Scotland, Gill Smart those in Ayrshire
and Mark Foxwell, Coigach Assynt and other
Northern Reserves. Not only were members
impressed with wildlife found at these sites but
also with the extraordinary commitment of the
staff each managing 15-20 reserves. Other
topics were Scottish Spiders by Chris Cathrine,
Native Plant Conservation at the Royal Botanic
Gardens Edinburgh by Heather McHaffie, Sea
Bird Conservation by Paul Walton ( RSPB)
and the Origin of our Native Plant Names, a
stand-in talk by the chairman.
Watching nesting peregrines at SWT Falls of Clyde Reserve
Our main outing in summer 2014 was to the
SWT’s Falls of Clyde reserve to watch the nesting peregrines. Both the Falls themselves and the associated wildlife were
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majestic. The event was generously sponsored by the People’s Postcode Lottery Fund to celebrate the Trusts 50
Anniversary.
3.
Conservation and Wildlife Monitoring

Sticky Catchfly is a beautiful rare plant the biggest UK populations of which grow on the cliff faces and screes
along the Hillfoots. They are threatened by sheep grazing and gorse fires. The colony on Yellow Craigs above
Logie Kirk has been monitored since 1976 when there were only 25 plants. This year we were delighted to find
that there were too many plants to count accurately (circa 360). This was thought to be the result of reduced
sheep grazing. The colony on Abbey Craig is probably extinct.

Frog orchids are in national decline and
our last local colony is found on Balgair
Muir near Kippen. The quarry where they
grow was surrounded by a conifer
plantation in 1985 and sheep were
excluded. Since then the grass has had
to be cut annually, latterly by our group.
This year there were 44 flowering plants
a decline from a peak of 70.

In 1908 an account was published of all
the plants that were found in Kings Park,
Stirling. Two years ago our group
undertook a survey to discover how the
flora of the Park had changed over the
intervening century. The results have
been published in the current Forth
Naturalist and Historian Journal. Little
change had occurred in the number of
plant species but while there was only
Sticky catchfly
one non-native plant in 1908 there were
53 today. Wild pansies which carpeted the Park a century ago and became a visitor attraction became extinct
in 2007 together with Field Gentians, Meadow Saxifrage, Early Purple Orchid and Yellow Star of Bethlehem..

Throughout the summer our moth trap has been put to good use by Tony Rogers. The group’s long term study
of the moth pollinators of Plean Country Park’s greater butterfly orchids was published in both the Journal of the
Hardy Orchid Society and in Butterfly Conservation’s magazine:
http://www.hardyorchidsociety.org.uk/HOS%201012/Pollination/Sexton%202014.pdf


By collecting and germinating seed from the two remaining petty whin plants at Cocksburn Reservoir Local
Nature Conservation Site we have managed to increase the size of the colony to 16 plants
Lesser Butterfly Orchids are declining and along with wild cats, red squirrels, capercaillie, pearl mussels and
golden eagles they have been subject to a national research programme to try and understand why. Our
contribution has been to study the success of seed production by marking flowering spikes and then returning to
find out if they had successfully set seed. Only half of the flowers produced seed; the entire flower shoots of
many having been grazed off by slugs, deer and field voles. Lack of moths that are thought to pollinate these
plants might also provide an explanation for the decline since we have been unable to find any in the colonies
we monitor.
Counting orchids at Plean Country Park

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The last UK site for the Schleicher’s Thread Moss is on the Touch Hills. The colony which is found in a 2m
spring is extremely vulnerable to grazing cattle and sheep. During the last year the colony suffered a set back
when the area was trampled. The moss experts are confident it can tolerate these traumas but we would like to
see the spring fenced.
4. Protecting the Wildlife Interests Associated with Local Authority and Forestry
Planning

A network of members is in place to screen local Council and Forestry planning applications for their impact on
wildlife. This involves a lot of work looking weekly at all the applications to both Clacks and Stirling Councils
and Forestry Commission Scotland.

We objected to the planning applications for housing, a hotel and tennis and golf centre on the Park of Keir
between Bridge of Allan and Dunblane. One reason was that damage would be done to a magnificent bluebell
wood.

We also objected to aspects of
the Jerah forestry application
involving a large area of the
Ochils between Menstrie and
the Sheriffmuir Inn. We
managed to get the boundary of
the woodland pushed back from
Glen Tye which contains a
colony of early marsh orchids.

Quite close to the new Jerah
Forest we objected to a
proposed mountain bike track
development extending from the
heather moor containing the
Battle of Sheriffmuir ‘Gathering
Stone’ down to the A9 just east
of Dunblane. In this case the
tracks ran through an ancient
woodland. The site also
supports a remarkable 22
species of butterfly including
green and purple hairstreaks
and small pearl bordered
Park of Keir Bluebell Wood
fritillaries. In this case a biodiversity impact assessment has subsequently been required by the council before
the planning application can be considered.

On the other side of Stirling we
objected to the application to
recommence quarrying at
Murrayshall Quarry near
Cambusbarron. In this case we
were worried that Pirri Pirri Burr
an invasive alien plant which
infests this site would be
spread with the quarried stone.
We suggested that the
application required detailed
plans on how the developers
would eradicate the plant
before quarrying commenced.

During the last year we have
been confronted with a number
of major commercial forestry
planning applications. The
planning team members who
deal with them have found the
Forestry Commission Scotland
Pirri Pirri Burr at Murrayshall Quarry
web site difficult to use and the
procedures of challenging the
applications difficult to understand. As a consequence Liz Albert and Maggie Keegan from SWT HQ arranged to
discuss concerns with the FCS staff. As a result there has been significant progress in communication with FCS
and more improvements have been promised. Also, our group is now given the opportunity at an earlier stage,
to share knowledge and expertise about important forestry applications with all parties involved.

The Group’s campaign to get Local Nature Conservation Sites recognised in the local planning procedures has
taken another step forward in the last year. Laura Kubasiewiczi working with Guy Harewood (Stirling Council’s
Biodiversity Officer) has defined the procedures to be adopted to register LNCS sites with the Local Authority.
Sue Sexton, Gabi Rice-Grunert and Liz Lavery have been busy digitising the three filing cabinets full of maps
and surveys carried out by the SWT teams in the 1990s so that their status can be reviewed.
5. Our Local Reserves
Rory Sandison is the Reserves Manager with responsibility for these sites ( rsandison@swt.org.uk )
Counting birds at Cambus Pools Reserve

Alloa Inch: (Convenor Roy Sexton). This 100 acre island reserve in the river Forth continues to attract large
numbers of geese, ducks and waders. During the last year Rory has obtained a new outboard engine for our
boat which will make visiting the reserve easier.


Cambus Pools (Convenor Roger Gooch). Unfortunately the meadows were not grazed during 2014 partially
because windblown trees restricted access. Recently the Clacks Ranger service removed the obstructions so
we can get vehicles and animals down to the reserve again. In April we planted out the Devils Bit Scabious
plants which we had raised from seed. They were introduced because they are favourite autumn nectaring
plants for bees and butterflies which we are trying to encourage into the site. The reserve is regularly visited by
otters.
Walking Guides for Visitors. Joan and John Newman have produced excellent guides to walks along the
Forth taking in our three reserves and also around our Carron Glen reserve near Denny. The guides which
include illustrations of the wildlife likely to be encountered can be found on our website:
http://www.swtstirling.org.uk/
6. New Web Site http://www.swtstirling.org.uk/
Gabi Rice-Grunert has put a lot of time and effort into a new Group Web Site
7. The Committee
Thanks are due for the enormous amount of work done by the committee:
Chairman, Alloa Inch Reserve Convenor
Vice Chairman, Cambus Pools Reserve Convenor
Treasurer and Meetings Chairperson, Planning Scrutineer
Membership Secretary , Website Organiser
Moth Group Organiser
IT Advisor
General Secretary, LNCS Organiser
Minutes Secretary
Roy Sexton
Roger Gooch
Liz Albert
Jan Harbidge
Tony Rogers
Gabi Rice-Grunert
Sue Sexton
Helen McLaren
Contact: sextonsp@aol.cm
We would welcome one or two new committee members to expand our remit of the group. If you ae interested please
speak to us after this meeting or by email sextonsp@aol.com.