Press Release - International Bog Day 28 July 2013

PRESS RELEASE    21 July 2013

INTERNATIONAL BOG DAY 28 JULY

Events at Malham Tarn, Settle, North Yorkshire.

28 July is International Bog Day

     “Save British bogs – and visit one on International Bog Day- 28 July 2013”

says bog-plant botanist Dr Judith Allinson.

Malham Tarn in North Yorkshire has internationally important wetlands including the Bog and Fen, and a series of events are being organised for the public over 27 -28 July ...

Judith, who will be leading guided walks at Malham Tarn Bog and Fen on 27-28 July says:     “I recommend Malham Tarn Open Days (27-28 July). This is an opportunity to visit Malham Tarn Field Centre and grounds which are not normally open to the public, and to see stalls set up by many community organisations. The walks and workshops are a chance to learn why Malham Tarn Bog and Fen are so special, and to be shown the names of some of the plants and animals. Children welcome.”

The events are being organised by Malham Tarn Field Centre (Sat and Sun), the National Trust (Sun), Craven Conservation Group and the Yorkshire Naturalists Union Fresh-Water Group (various times)

1. What is a bog?

2. Why are bogs important?

3. Why have peat bogs been lost?

4. Why is Malham Tarn Fen and Bog so important?

5. Activities at Malham Tarn 27-28 July

6. Some International Bog Day events in different countries.

7. Wildlife examples for Malham Tarn Bog and Fen

8. Settle Age UK and Bog plant display at St John's Methodist Church Hall,  Settle

Peat Bogs are important fascinating vital habitats.

1. What is a peat bog?

As organic material accumulates in a wetland area, the organic material becomes more acid. Sphagnum (Bog-moss) starts to grow. This is too acid for decomposition to occur, so the Sphagnum piles up and up and forms peat. The peat may be several metres deep. If the bog forms above water it may be a quaking bog.

2. Why are bogs important?

Peat bogs are important for carbon storage (to avoid global warming), for water storage (to avoid flooding and droughts) and for wildlife. Peat bogs take thousands of year to form. Pollen preserved in peat tells us about past vegetation. Archaeological remains have been found in peat.

3. Why have peat bogs been lost?

Many of Britain’s Wetlands and Peat bogs have been lost by drainage for agriculture or sheep grazing.  If the water table is lowered in the surrounding area, or if birch trees become established, or tracks and foundations are built on pristine bogs for wind turbines,  the bog can dry out. Carbon dioxide is then emitted rather than being absorbed.

Many of Britain’s Wetlands and Peat bogs have been lost by drainage for agriculture or sheep grazing.  If the water table is lowered in the surrounding area, or if birch trees become established the bog can dry out. Bogs in Britain and Ireland are lost because the peat is used for garden compost and for fuel (including for power stations). There is a conflict of interests.

4. Why is Malham Tarn Bog and Fen so special.
The bog is acid. Round the edge of Malham Tarn bog there are limestone springs, and limestone  grassland. There is a gradation of vegetation types from the acid to the limestone which has been lost in most other bogs in England.  There are many special rare plants and insects here. The Fen and Bog are part of a National Nature Reserve, and a Ramsar Site (Wetland  Site of International Importance).

 5. Activities at Malham Tarn 27-28 July

 Guided walks for plants (from Mosses to Sedges, Ferns  to Flowers) will be led by Judith Allinson  of Craven Conservation Group at 11.15 am  both days and at a later time during the day.(01729 822138 to book) . Freshwater investigations (pond dipping and workshops looking at the creatures in the lab under microscopes) will be led by Sharon and Peter Flint (of the Yorkshire Naturalists Union) on the Saturday at 1pm. This is part of the Tarntastic Open Days at Malham Tarn Field Centre, held to celebrate 70 years of  activity of the Field Studies Council (F.S.C.) .(The F.S.C. runs  17 Field Centres .. of which Malham Tarn was one of the first four to start. The F.S.C. has leased the centre from the National Trust since 1947, and runs plant, animal, ecology, geography, art and other creative courses for schools, universities and the public)   

The National Trust which owns the Malham Tarn Estate will be running family events on Sunday 28^th from 11am to 3pm including pond dipping, craft activities and bird boxes. (01729 830416)  Malham Tarn Field Centre will be running some activities for children (01729 830331)

 6. Other events for International Bog Day include:

 The Northern Ireland Bog Snorkelling Championships at Peatlands Park

 ... Events in Chicago and Illinois  and British Columbia.

7. Wild life on  bogs and Wetlands at Malham Tarn

Examples of birds at or near Malham Wetlands: include: Curlew, snipe, redshank, golden plover, meadow pipit;  Insects: Great diving-beetles, dragonflies, damselflies and caddis-flies. Other animals: lizards, water-shrews. Plants: Carnivorous plants such as sundew, butterwort and bladderwort; Edible fruit: bilberry, cowberry, cloudberry, cranberry;  Beautiful flowers: bog asphodel, bog rosemary, cross-leaved heath; Mosses: In Britain there are 34 different species of Sphagnum (Bog-moss) of which half can be found at Malham Tarn. Amazing!.

8. As a precursor to International Bog Day Judith gave a workshop at St John's Methodist Church Hall, Settle to Settle Age UK, on Friday 19^th July and with the help of the participants prepared a wall display which hall participants can enjoy..

Judith Allinson says

     "Do come to Malham Tarn - or visit a bog near you. Find out more about bogs from your local Natural History Society and avoid using peat-based garden compost."  

ENDS …………………………………………………………..

Charles Kingsley

For many year quotes from Charles Kingsley have illustrated the walks and field courses I lead from Malham Tarn Field Centre - whether on Pond dipping, Grasses and Sedges, General Walks or Flowers. - including the flowers walk I led yesterday
When we ran A-level biology Weeks in the 1980s, Henry Disney (then the Warden and Director) would stop near the little stream spring in the field below what had been the Estate School and say "Charles Kingsley visited Walter Morrison at Malham Tarn House and used to take the children from the school for Nature Walks and tell them about the Water Babies at this stream."


There is a lot of science and chat about science in the Water Babies... do read it.
Charles Kingsley wrote an excellent poem about a stream, which I print near the end of this post.


He wrote the hymn: From Thee all skill and science flow
http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/f/t/a/ftalsasf.htm (You can hear the music here too)
Note especially the penultimate lines:-When ever blue the sky shall gleam, and ever green the sod.

From Thee all skill and science flow,
All pity, care and love,
All calm and courage, faith and hope;
O pour them from above.

And part them, Lord, to each and all,
As each and all shall need,
To rise, like incense, each to Thee,
In noble thought and deed.

And hasten, Lord, that perfect day
When pain and death shall cease;
And Thy just rule shall fill the earth
With health, and light, and peace.

When ever blue the sky shall gleam,
And ever green the sod;
And man’s rude work deface no more
The paradise of God.

 There are two earlier verses as well about consecrating a house

----------------------------------------

Here is "The river's song"  that Tom heard in the Water Babies:

However, down he went; like a brave little man as he was, though he was very footsore, and tired, and hungry, and thirsty; while the church-bells rang so loud, he began to think that they must be inside his own head, and the river chimed and tinkled far below; and this was the song which it sang:—

Clear and cool, clear and cool,

By laughing shallow, and dreaming pool;

Cool and clear, cool and clear,

By shining shingle, and foaming wear;

Under the crag where the ouzel sings,

And the ivied wall where the church-bell rings,

Undefiled, for the undefiled;

Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child.

Dank and foul, dank and foul,

By the smoky town in its murky cowl;

Foul and dank, foul and dank,

By wharf and sewer and slimy bank;

Darker and darker the farther I go,

Baser and baser the richer I grow;

Who dares sport with the sin-defiled?

Shrink from me, turn from me, mother and child.

Strong and free, strong and free,

The floodgates are open, away to the sea,

Free and strong, free and strong,

Cleansing my streams as I hurry along,

To the golden sands, and the leaping bar,

And the taintless tide that awaits me afar.

As I lose myself in the infinite main,

Like a soul that has sinned and is pardoned again.

Undefiled, for the undefiled;

Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child.

So Tom went down; and all the while he never saw the Irishwoman going down behind him.

---------------------------------

On reading Charles Kingsley's biography (1819-1775), I discovered that he campaigned much on Sanitation Issues -

That may not sound romantic- but improving water and sanitation has improved peoples health more than medicine!!

Here is an excellent brief biography:-
http://articles.ochristian.com/article13130.shtml

Quoting from this:-

   In 1849 a cholera epidemic started in Jacob's Island in London's Bermondsey district. Kingsley and his friends, manifesting the practical stress of the Christian Socialist movement, worked incessantly in the district to arrest the outbreak. Indeed, he later became so well known for his work in sanitary reform that he was asked in the spring of 1854 to speak before the House of Commons on the unhygienic conditions prevalent in urban areas and the low remuneration of parish medical officers. The following year he led a deputation on the issue of sanitary reform to the prime minister.

      Kingsley's horror at the frequently atrocious sanitary conditions in Victorian cities accounts for some of the most striking episodes and passages in his novel Alton Locke (1859). This work, purporting to be the autobiography of a working-class Chartist poet, had as a principal aim the exposure of the dreadful working conditions, especially the shocking lack of hygiene, of tailors in London's West End....

 In 1855 Kingsley published Glaucus; or, The Wonders of the Shore (1855), an introduction to natural history and one of the first books of its kind to be written specifically for children. Manifest in Glaucus is the author's firm belief in evolution. Kingsley, uncommon among clerics battling with the religious and moral problems introduced by Darwinian theories, saw no conflict between the teachings of science and the teachings of religion. Indeed, he consistently emphasized that by studying science one was in effect studying the work of God and getting to know him better.   Kingsley's knowledge of science was such that he became a fellow of both the Linnaean and Geological Societies and was even cited by Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man (1871).

1848:-  Soon, together with Maurice and the barristers John Malcolm Ludlow and Thomas Hughes, author of Tom Brown's Schooldays (1856), Kingsley was fully committed to the Christian Socialist movement. He was never particularly radical, however, and as he grew older he increasingly became an establishment figure.

He died in 1875 of pneumonia.

http://articles.ochristian.com/article13130.shtml

...........................

I'll leave this post, descending with Tom down the cliff -

You would have been giddy, perhaps, at looking down: but Tom was not. He was a brave little chimney-sweep; and when he found himself on the top of a high cliff, instead of sitting down and crying for his baba (though he never had had any baba to cry for), he said, “Ah, this will just suit me!” though he was very tired; and down he went, by stock and stone, sedge and ledge, bush and rush, .......

from the Water Babies - see http://articles.ochristian.com/article13130.shtml

So I'll go and prepare for my next sedges and rushes and grasses course..

Malham Tarn and Moor - 6 June - Flowers - Scargill House Group

Lisa Chadwick asked me to take the holiday group she was leading at Scargill House round Malham Tarn Fen. Knowing what an excellent time this is for flowers I was doubly pleased to agree.

(Wildlife Walks - Mon 4 to Fri 8 June - Hugh and Lisa Chadwick-Firman)

The group bought £18 of greeting cards towards the Rainforest Fund - Thanks.

Come and share the day with us:

First we have coffee in the car park

Lunch on the boardwalk

Lunch as seen from a Polytrichum commune hummock

Lunch, looking toward the peat pools which were dug  for
student pond-dipping exercises -
and to give dragonfly nymphs more place to grow - 

Charles Kinsley
In the background is the field with the stream next to the Field Centre road and beyond that the building used as the Estate School in the time of Walter Morrison (former owner of the Malham Tarn Estate), when there were many  families working on the estate. Charles Kingsley used to come and visit Walter Morrison, and (we say) used to take the children from the school and take them to the stream and tell them stories about the Water Babies.
"Charles Kingsley wrote some hymns" I say - "I must look them up". (No-one knew which one). "He wrote a good poem about the water going to the sea - pure and clean at the source, dank and foul as it went through the cities, then it became purified and free in the sea.... though I wonder if the pollution was just spread out.. or made the sea more polluted..  Must look up the hymn."

I did so in the evening and found an excellent green sermon by him and lot on his history - this is now in a separate post.

Photographing sundew and cranberry

We had a rest and at Malham Tarn House and then continued

Walking towards Ha Mire

Examining flowers beside the stream

Yellow mountain pansies on Malham Lings

Photographing the pansies

Yellow Mountain Pansies with the Field Centre in the Background

Photographing more yellow mountain pansies

Butterwort

Photographing Mountain everlasting flower or Cat's-paw

After the group left I walked around Malham Moor taking more pictures

A pink version of Mountain Everlasting -
I have walked over these hills many times before
but not seen them flowering in abundance
like this - we had just hit the time right. - 

Algae on a post. Growing richly here due to the bird droppings -
It is the highest fence post by a wall and the highest wall for miles around

Lichen

A good day.
I hope the group enjoyed the rest of their holiday.

Lichens of Malham Tarn House - 1

 "Malham Tarn House: Its building materials, their weathering - and colonisation by plants" is a paper written by Arthur Raistrick and Oliver Gilbert in 1963 in Field Studies, the Journal of the Field Studies Council.  You can read it online

1963 is 49 long years ago.

On 25 Feb 2012 Allan Pentecost led an introductory lichens day at Malham Tarn Field Centre, and we looked at the walls of the house. Will this blog post develop into a 50 year update?

Acarospora fuscata

Arthur Raistrick was a famous historian,  geologist, a Quaker and a conscientiousness objector. I was privileged to hear him give a talk in Littondale once when he was in his late eighties.  He had led excavations of archaelogical sites on Malham Moor, and wrote books on many topics. The room where students make their tea is now named in his honour.

When I lived at the Centre as Botany and Ecology Tutor, from 1979 to 1987  I used that paper many times to learn of the history of the house and I used to walk round the outside of the house peering up at the tall walls, working out which coloured blob was which lichen. I expect Mark Seaward who ran many lichens courses a the centre also showed it to people.

I met Oliver Gilbert when he came up to run a lichens course in the eighties.

Oliver Gilbert used to be a tutor at the Field Centre too. When I first met him, I regarded him in awe.. being tutor here, after Sinker, near the Beginning of Times. (The house may be old, but the FSC only started in 1947, and the Centre started in ....).  .

Oliver proudly showed me the boardwalk on the fen which he and his brother, Richard, had first built in the 1960s, with their bare hands. Before that access to the fen had been a black peaty squelchy path.The boards had been relayed several times since then - and now the National Trust  are putting plastic boards down which will last longer. Oliver told me me how very much he had enjoyed being tutor.

Now it was 25 February 2012  I  was at the Centre again, one of eight students attending a day course on lichens run by Allan Pentecost, sponsored by the British Lichen Society.

When we first went into the courtyard, I went to the coal house door, and chirped "Can I do this bit please?"

The wall to the (former) coal-house and other out-buildings is north facing and built of limestone but the wooden shutter of the coal-house opening is framed by sandstone building blocks. When I and Henry Disney had both taught here week after week, we always started our grand guided natural history walk of the estate with an examination of the lichens (and algae) on the building blocks round the coal-house door.


There is ecology under your nose, wherever you are.

Why did the powdery pale green lichen Lepraria incana grow where it grew.?

And why did the Orange Alga Trentepohlia (which looks like a lichen but isn't)  grow where it is growing?

Have a look if you visit the coal house door.

You might even see a slight depression in the sandstone block where I used to scratch away the sandstone and mix the grains produced with water - and add Universal Soil Indicator solution. A yellow orange colour was produced .. to show that water flowing over the sandstone had a pH of about 5.8 or 6.  The limestone rock is much harder and there is no tell-tale hole on the limestone block. - and the limestone powder added to distilled water and indicator produced a deep bluegreen colour - showing the water is pH 8.

New fact for me:
There are actually two species of Trentepohlia on that door. Both are filamentous algae, with ordinary green algae pigments, but they also have orange pigments.
 Allan showed us-
Trentepohlia aurea  link1-  a brighter, lighter more golden version of bright orange, a fluffier appearance
Trentepohlia umbrina a darker brick red colour (is umber a dark version of orange?), more adpressed to the rock.

I will take a photo of the coal-house door another day.

Meanwhile at the top of this blog post is a picture of Allan on the south side showing us Acarospora fuscata on the south side.

We actually started in detail on the East facing side which is sandstone.

Candelariella vitellina and Klebsormidium crenulatum (filamentous nuisance alga)

Candelariella vitellina.

The yellow-orange  lichen on sandstone is often Candelariella vitellina.

Well I've had enough writing now - and you've probably had enough reading.

In my next post I will write about the other twenty or so
 lichens (with pictures) that we found.
---------------------------------------------

Since starting this blog post, I have just  learned of the death of Audrey Disney  two days ago on 1st March  Audrey is/was the above mentioned Henry Disney's wife - Henry was Director when I was here, and then he moved to Cambridge. Audrey was Secretary at Malham Tarn Field Centre for a while. The funeral will be in Cambridge on 12th March.
She had a lovely smile and happy nature.
I don't think lichens were her major interest - but she was helpeful to people who came to the centre, and would have met Oliver Gilbert and Arthur Raistrick who lived in the area, and Allan Penteost. I have a picture of her skiing on the lawn, with the house in the background which I will add when I have opportunity.

Other Lichens posts (see also the Lichens link in the menu in the right hand column):-

1. 1. Lichens of Malham Tarn House - 2    29 February 2012
   2. Lichens of Malham Tarn House - 1    29 February 2012
   3. Lichens of Malham Tarn Fen - with Allan Pentecost 29 February 2012
   4. Lichens flourescent in bonfire light  5 Nov 2011
   5. Opal Lichens Settle    CCG walk led by myself -  2 April 2011
   6. Algae (and Lichens) for Beginners - Malham Walk with Allan Pentecost August 2009
   7. Lichens Day at Giggleswick Churchyard with Mark Seaward 14 June 2009

Lichens of Malham Tarn Fen

We're off to the woods today!

Allan Pentecost is leading the first of two introductory lichen days, as part of a series of introductory days run by the Lichen Society at FSC centres throughout the country - His second day will be 31 March

Today I am one of his eight students. We set off through the cutting . (N.B. this page has not yet been checked by Allan)

Past the snowdrops at the cottages

to the boardwalk on the fen, and the side bridge at the inflow stream.

Parmelia saxatilis  This foliose lichens has isidia on the older parts -( lots of tiny dark grey projections -)
and a coarse network of white lines on the younger parts
(click on the image to see a larger version)

Where we look at a willow tree in detail

Les takes a photo

In great detail.

Left: Parmelia sulcata This also has raised white lines, along which, on older parts, soralia  may develop
 It does not have isidia.
Right: Platismatia glauca -
This is only attached at one point, it is not flat on the bark,
so it is more like a shrubby lichen.
It is pollution tolerant.
The underside is dark and the thallus has frilly lobes.
Platismatia contains a lot of a chemical  called lichenin
-  a starch similar to that found in bread -

Pollution -

I remember 30 years ago (oh so long!!) being told by Mark Seaward whilst looking at the same trees (but 30 years younger..)  that the lichens we were finding could tolerate up to 60ppm sulphur dioxide pollution.  Sulphur dioxide pollution in the past limited lichen growth - from the Lancashire milltowns 25 miles away (south) and Yorkshire mill towns 30 miles -Plus to the east. Thirty years ago we found only one patch pollution sensative Usnea on a birch tree. This time we looked hard and someone did find a tiny piece of Usnea - but not near the board walk, and I haven't got a picture of it.

On a side branch of a willow tree we find an early coloniser - Fuscidia lightfootii

Fuscidia lightfootii This has colonies that are usually less than the size of a 50p piece.
It is light green with dark fruiting bodies.
It is found on twigs and you branches in wet and boggy places especially in the south and west.

On the same trunk as Les is photgraphing we have
Mycoblastus fucatus a grey crusotose lichen .
Now, is that the papery grey of patches 1a and 1b (note they have a few black apothecia)
or is it the more lumpy bluey grey of 2?

Next we follow the side stream about 20 yards and look at an area where the birch and willow scrub was removed about three years ago. We find not one but several species of Peltigera.

Peltigera

Peltigera are the only lichens that we find on the fen that have Cyanobacterai (Blue green algae) as the algal part of the lichen - all the other Lichens have green algae. Allan suggests this is because bluegreen algae tend to prefer less acid conditions - and the fen and peatbog are made of Peat - perhaps the parts where we find the Peltgera are lower down and growing on plants that receive more base rich groundwater.

There are two Peltigeras here. There one with a felty surface and one with a smooth surface.

 

Need to look at them with a hand lens or under a low power microscope to look at the rhizinae. 

We found P praetextata, P hymenina, P horizontalis, P membrancea,.. but I still need to sort them out.

I think we could have had a whole day on Peltigeras!!

We found lots of different species of Cladonia:- 

Cladonia fimbriata
That's the one in the centre of the picture,
on the left side of the trunk.

We had a brief visit to the peat bog proper - but by, was it cold! 

then returned for lunch.- Hot soup and fresh sandwiches. Delicious.

Welcome Hot homemade soup back in Malham Tarn House.

In the afternoon we looked at our specimens .. and then ..... a guided tour of the lichens on the wall of the house... but that is for another blog post..

introductory British lichen society - FSC days 

Other posts on this blog on lichens:-

1. Lichens of Malham Tarn Fen - with Allan Pentecost 29 February 2012
2. Lichens flourescent in bonfire light  5 Nov 2011
3. Opal Lichens Settle    CCG walk led by myself -  2 April 2011
4. Algae (and Lichens) for Beginners - Malham Walkwith Allan Pentecost Aug 2009
5. Lichens Day at Giggleswick Churchyard with Mark Seaward 14 June 2009

Algae (and Lichens) for Beginners - Malham Walk

This was written in 2009.         Click for Other Posts about Lichens on this blog

Note added on 8 Sept 2012: Today On 8 Sept 2012 I am leading a walk along the same track - meeting at 10.30am in Malham Yorkshire Dales National Park Car Park. - - I have added some notes in red today to this blog post which was otherwise written in 2009. 

Today's walk is run for Plantlife members and for everyone else local or visitors who would like to come. Now back to my preparations in 2009..

We haven't got Rainforest in Yorkshire - so lets look at Nature at a small scale - algae, bluegreen bacteria and lichens.



On Wednesday 26 August 2009 I am helping Allan Pentecost in "An Algae and Lichens Walk" - Let's be honest - I have organised the walk and put the posters up .. and now hope to learn as much as I can from him!! - Thanks Allan. This Monday evening after it had stopped raining I went to Malhamdale to take some photos. The views just before I dropped down to Malham village were great! You are looking towards Gordale above.

Focusing on the wall top we see Verrucaria nigrescens and on top of the cap stone is a yellower lichen, seen closeup below.




On the other side of the road I looked across a stone along the road - You can see Malham Cove in the distance. On the stone there is a white lichen Aspicilia calcarea  and an orange one Caloplaca flavescens. Here below is the same rock and lichens but closer up.

Once in the village, I park in the National Park Car Park. the sun is shining on the trunks of the two small ash trees. Near the base of the trunk is Xanthoria parietina and next to it a species of Physcia. Let's go for Physcia tenella

The tape has mm on one side and 1/8 ths of an inch on the other. The pictures below have ended up sideways.


This is of Lecanora chlarotera.


This lichen has black fruiting bodies.



On a Mountain Ash trunk near by is some Usnea subfloridana  (Sadly by 2011 it had disappeared)





this tree has Ramalina farinosa

and Parmelia sulcata

The border of the door for both Ladies and Gents toilets is sandstone. This lichen grows on it.It is Lecanora campestris




Outside the chapel the wall tops are also sandstone and have large patches of a whitish lichen



and also one with black fruiting bodies




On the fence post over the road is this green. Is it alga or is it lichen?.. I think it will turn out to be the filamentous alga Klebsormidium crenulatum


I set off. at the footbridge on the back wall of the Blacksmith's is some Caloplaca flavescens.


by now the batteries in the camera and the spare batteries are flat. . I have only gone 100 yards. Time to go home!.


Click for Other Posts about Lichens on this blog