Ferns of Ribblehead Viaduct - 26 July 2009

Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line organised a second Walking of the Ribblehead Viaduct on 26 July. The first walking was two years ago.

Would you like to come with me on the walk across this 24 arch bridge?
Across the bridge which British Rail attempted to close c 20 years ago?
Put on your waterproof and windproof jacket and strong shoes and come with me.

Look, there's a group walking along the railway now.

The event was possible because the Line had been closed for a fortnight or so for major works on the line. As in 2007, I volunteered to take people round the (now) Natural England Old Quarry Nature Reserve just behind Ribblehead Station. This entitled me to wear a flourescent orange jacket and feel very important.. along with the ?two hundred other volunteers in flourescent jackets.


What has this to do with the Tropical Rainforest Fund?

Well,
a) About half the St John's congregation had defected and were volunteers or walkers at this event. (Slight exaggeration - but I did see eight of us during the day. You can see six of us plus two visiting friends in the top picture here, having just arrived and stepped off the bus. This was before it started pouring with rain. The seventh settled down to sign people in in the Signing-In tent. And the eighth, Bill Mitchell arrived later to sign copies of his new book, "Thunder in the Mountains", the dramatic true story of hardship, violence and debauchery behind the building of Ribblehead Viaduct. )
b) A topic like this just might draw people to this web page so they will read more of the forest fund project..
c) I plan to make a web article on Ferns of the viaduct.. or maybe wildlife of the viaduct.
d) Taking people round the nature reserve is looking after a wildlife habitat... and what special people I took round! .. but more of that later.

Here you see the viaduct at 3.45pm with the very last group (at the top right) just coming across. Then as you walk down and back across to Ribblehead Station (left distance) you are given an archaeological tour of where the different buildings and workshops of the shanty town were.. all now covered with grass and bog.


Well I arrived and went to the big tent where there were lots of displays. I put out some programmes for Craven Conservation Group on a table.

...
..


Here are some ferns:
Why do ferns grow well on the walls rather than flowering plants? The viaduct is a very exposed place. They grow on mortar in the walls and in crevices where soil accumulates. Perhaps the windy exposure (and also on the tracks, the herbicide) prevent other plants growing and so give ferns a chance. Ferns do well in moist places - they need water at some stage for sexual reproduction to take place. (The male gamete has to swim to where the female gamete is, and after fusion a new fern plant will grow) I think they must have been reproducing well today.

Green spleenwort (Asplenium viride). Click on the picture to see a larger picture

The leaves, or fronds are "once pinnate" - that means they are divided into leaflets called pinnaes. Green spleenwort has a green stem.


Lady Fern (Athyrium felix-femina) is twice pinnate. Its pinnae are divided into pinnules. Its fronds are about 30cm long. In sheltered places they can grow over 1 m.
It is called "Lady Fern" because it is more delicate than Male Fern. It is not closely related to male fern. There is no sex involved.


Rosebay Willow-herb. (Chamerion angustifolium)
This is sometimes called Fireweed and has spread along the railways, and is at its finest in late July.









To be continued
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Settle Big-Lunch 19 July 2009

On 19th July communities all over the UK sat down for street-party big lunches.

Between 150 to 200 people came to Settle Big Lunch




We shared food. Some came early,


Others came later.




This girl had brough some Indian food she had made and some knitted flowers.

Burton Lonsdale Barbecue - tug of war and barn dance

I was invited by Andy Ive and Alison Service so go and play my piano accordion and join them in running a country dancing session during the barbecue on 12 July

I was pleased to be asked and to have the opportunity to play. The Burton Lonsdale organiser gave me a small amount for expenses which I have donated to the Rainforest Fund..

Dewsbury Choir

Dewsbury URC and Methodist Church came to our church on the evening of 12 July. how they sang for us!.

Several of us had made a sald supper for them which we served in the Church hall. I was able to show them the Rainforest Display and say a little about it, and invited them to buy cards.

They bought £40 worth of cards. thank you!!

Vibrant London People - the World

I attend a CEL Steering Committee Meeting on Sat 11 July held near Euston Station..
We agreed that CEL should sign up to the Prince's Rainforest Project
More to come...


On the way be ack to Kings Cross Sation I heard fair music and walked through back streets to find s street party/fair taking pace:

What a mixture of races and faces.

More to come...

Early Summer in Upper Wharfedale

Spring is turning into summer .. (More to come)

14 June - Lichens Day at Giggleswick Churchyard

The lichens Day/Wildlife workshop ran under near idyllic conditions- sun - a good turnout of interested people (over eighty) - sun - two good leaders to take people round to see lichens and flowers - teas kindly provided by volunteers at the church - sun - plenty of space in the church for me to set up stalls - with CEL leaflets, and selling lichen colour foldout cards (FSC), and Rainforest project greetings cards. sun.

I sold four handlenses and five rainforest project greetings cards.. and the profit from selling these adds £8-00 to the rainforest fund.

I have written about the day here . And I learned a few new lichens.

13 June - Hawthorn flowering starts above Malham Tarn

On the 13th June the Hawthorn was just coming out here.

There is far more bistort in the field to the right of the wall than I have ever seen before. And there was bistort in the field to the left of the hawthorn tree too. There was a couple of plants of wood cranesbill in the verge and a few plants on the slope over the wall. The Melancholy thistle plant I saw was almost but just not flowering.

13 June - hawthorn fowering starts

Flowers and Sedges at Malham Tarn

This evening I will be starting to teach a two days sedges course at Malham Tarn Field Centre.
Last week I taught a four day flowers course - wild flowers for beginners - which was actually quite intensive.. The nine adults and I
visited some beautiful habitats. It is good that some places have been saved in this country. There was a Dutch lady on the course - still going strong at 74, and one and a half days day Eva, a Czech field centre teacher in her twenties came out with us.

See the hawthorn tree on the left, topiaried by sheep grazing- it is in full flower. Some of the hawthorn trees just above the field centre still have flower buds... It was hot on Monday but the top of Mallerstang had a fresh coat of snow yesterdayI am told.

One third of the British Sedge flora can be found within three miles of the Field Centre. Not bad!!

Environment Sunday

Today is Environment Sunday or will be - in an hour or so on June 7th.
Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury) made a press release about this on 3 June.
See http://www.archbishopofyork.org/2437 It says "World Environment Day marks the third anniversary of the Church of England's environmental campaign Shrinking the Footprint which is being marked by a national event at Lambeth Palace on June 11 where new toolkits and other resources will be unveiled to help churches, cathedrals and other buildings reduce their energy footprint. The next phase of the campaign focusing on water and biodiversity will also be unveiled."

I had also sent one out about Environment Church Services in the North of England.

Fri 5th June is World Environment Day, and
7 June is Environment Sunday and
June 8th is World Oceans Day.

With Species extinctions occurring at 1000 to 10,000 times the natural rate, fish stocks plummeting, climate change increasing and the world population still expanding, Care of the
Environment for future generations is vital. Churches in the north of England who are holding environment services at this period include::

Hurst Green (near Clitheroe, Lancs but Bradford Diocese):

6 June: Children's workshop making cakes to be sold for Children's Eternal Forest Costa Rica, and Painting a panel for church service next day. This service will recognise World Environment Day as part of Trinity Sunday. The text of the Rainforest sketch to be used by children and adults can be seen at http://rainforest-save.blogspot.com

Ambleside and area: Eight different churches running "Creation Praise and
Care" services over Weekend 6-7 June www.gogreenambleside.org.uk/June.html

Ingleton (Yorks Dales): - 14 June - 10.30am - Environmental Re-think service at St Mary's. There will be live music, and presentations as well as prayer.

Ben Rhydding, near Ilkley. - 21 June - Environment Service- at St John`s
Anglican Church Ben Rhydding, near Ilkley. Speaker: Norman Crowson of A Rocha. Special Creation Communion - written for environmental services. Anyone who would be interested in seeing the creation communion with a view to using it contact Sylvia Walker 01535-652915 or by email Sylvia Walker

Then there are two churchyard events: (both near Settle, North Yorkshire)

Giggleswick Churchyard - 14 June- With visitors and scientists from the Institute of Biology and lichen expert Prof Mark Seaward and members of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Living Churchyard project. plus Children's activities.

Langcliffe churchyard is open 27-28 June as part of Settle and District Open
Garden Weekend

People needing resources for an event this month could use the Christian
Ecology Link Prayer guide, with a meditation / interesting fact for each
day of the month www.christian-ecology.org.uk/p0906.htm

Children's Rainforest Meditation Script

Look what Clare Hyde of Hurst Green Church near Clitheroe, Lancashire sent me - A Meditation / Script that the young people will use on Sunday 7 June.

Points 1 to 9 are read by the children at the front, then the 7 or so paragraphs after are read by different adult members spread through the congregation

"Thought you'd like to see this...put together for our service on 7th....
mixture of Trinity Sunday and Environment Day!

We're also having a Rainforest Workshop on the Saturday 6 June for
children- to paint a mural and bake cakes to sell on the Sunday ..in aid
of the Children's Eternal Rainforest.

All the best, Clare"

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IMAGINE that you are sitting on a log in a rainforest in Central America. This is part of the largest private reserve in Costa Rica, purchased and protected by the fundraising of children all over the world and named El Bosque Eterno de los Ninos or the Childrens' Eternal Rainforest.
We are going to introduce you to some of the plants and animals of this richly biodiverse habitat.

1. I am a KAPOK TREE. Measuring 230 feet, I am one of the tallest trees in this forest - what is called an emergent, as I emerge above the canopy into the strong sunlight, exposed to the wind. I am home to a huge variety of wildlife, which feed from my flowerbuds, fruits and seeds. Parrots and eagles, colobus monkeys and lemurs live up here in my branches. Other plants live on my boughs like lichens, bromeliads and cacti, looking like a tree-top garden.

2. I am a LIANA. I don't have a trunk of my own but I need a lot of light, so my slender climbing stems use the trees for support to reach up to the canopy. Tree frogs, insects and small mammals like to live in the dense, damp vegetation of the canopy.

3. I am a TOADSTOOL, that takes nutrients from the litter of dead leaves and branches on the forest floor. Not much light can get down here, where it is very humid. Even so, birds, insects and reptiles live amongst the roots and leaf litter.

4. I am a JESUS CHRIST LIZARD. I use my tail to balance, and the flap of skin on my hind toes enables me to run on water to chase prey or escape danger.

5. I am an EPIPHYTE - an orchid. I am a plant which attaches itself ton the branches of trees, using them simply as a way to reach the light, but getting nutrients from rainwater and plant fragments.

6. I am a SCARLET MACAW. my nest is 100 feet above the forest floor, and I can use my wings to glide through the trees.

7. I am a GOLDEN BEETLE. I am over one inch long. I can only be found in Costa Rica.

8. I am a TAPIR. I like to be active at night, swimming in the rivers of the rainforest, searching for leaves, fruit and seeds.

9. I am a JAGUAR. I am a big cat, with a spotted coat, which allows me to hide amongst the grasses, bushes and trees. Sadly, my coat was prized by humans and their hunting of us has nearly brought us to extinction. I spend much of my time on the floor of the rainforest, and hunt at night.


The rainforest may seem remote from the lives we lead, but we are as dependent on its survival as if it was a few miles away!

Every minute of the day, 100 acres of rainforest are destroyed. That's 100 football pitches! By the end of this service at least 6,000 acres will have gone!... and with it the animals that live there.

At this rate there could be no rainforests left in 30 years time - forests that have survived and thrived for millions of years.

The rainforest is home for valuable trees, like mahogany which bring in a good income for the native, and mostly poor , countries, The timber is sold to rich countries for furniture, doors, loo seats and coffins. Sadly, the huge machinery used to cut the trees down, damages the forest for miles around.

Some rainforests are rich in precious metals and gemstones - gold, silver and diamonds - and are laid waste by machines and pollution.

Rainforests are also cleared for farming, as the soil is rich in nutrients and yields are high for a few years. But the fertility of the soil, ironically, is dependent on the lush layers of vegetation which have been cleared. After 2 or 3 years, the goodness has been washes away and the farmers move on.

Cattle ranching and industrial farming , for example of soya beans and palm oil,are responsible for the loss of great swathes of rainforest, encouraged by the rich countries appetite for beefburgers and a vegetarian alternative.

DOES IT REALLY MATTER IF ALL THIS IS DESTROYED?
Apart from the myriad variety of life in the rainforest, many plants provide us with brazil nuts, chocolate, chewing gum, vanilla and the base for many medicines. But more importantly, the rainforests are the lungs of the earth. They regulate the world's atmosphere and climate.

TAKE A DEEP BREATH.....
now....
again .....

You are breathing in oxygen, vital for your survival.

These mighty trees provide YOU with that through THEIR respiration- absorbing the carbon dioxide that you exhale...not to mention the rest of the carbon dioxide we produce in our activity!
Now, more than ever in man's history on earth, we need these trees and the rich diversity of life that they support.

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This was written by Clare Hyde (clare.earthcare@hotmail.co.uk) of Hurst Green, Clitheroe. She is happy for other groups to use the text, provided she is credited.

Links: http://www.tropical-forests.com/
http://mclus.org/home/

The Prince's Rainforest Project

Cherry Blossom Time

Cherry Blossom Time at Harrogate Stray

The cherry blossom is at its best today on the Stray at Harrogate... and the grass below carpeted with petals.

I went to visit a friend in an old peoples' home next to the Valley Gardens, at Harrogate on 3 May. We went for a short walk in the Gardens, also lit up by cherry blossom. We watched people on a trampoline with bungie ropes turning somersaults in mid air.

Great.. This is the first "walk with and old person" I have achieved in 2009 - This is the activitiy I have put to be sponsored for when I ask people to sponsor me for the Rainforest.

Green Trees from hospital window

Please donate to one of the funds the blog supports. Please save the important habitats of our natural world.

Happy May Day.

I am still visiting my mother in Harrogate Hospital. She has been in hospital a month now and has been missing seeing all the trees come into leaf, and missing the spring flowers.

On Monday she was moved from the room for six that had no view at all except for two tiny high up windows which overlooked a brick wall, into a single room that has a relatively large window with a view onto young horse chestnut trees - and if you could see beyond these there is the Stray beyond (mown grassland with trees inside Harrogate). I was so pleased she has a view of green trees, and the sky and clouds and sun. (Even though she was only moved here because she now has hospital diarrhea). The nurses are nice.

Research has shown that people get better quicker if they can see green natural environments.

On Wednesday I also had the good news that her (now my) 15 year old car which I drive passed its MOT test. What a relief. I dreaded it failing. But it passed. So I can continue to use it to go and visit her. Not very good for the CO2 this driving though.

Settle's Answer to Oberammergau

The topic of our local Passion Play at Settle is stretching the topic of this blog a little but there are links:

1. We used as our robing room St John's Church Hall which house the Rainforest Fund display board (and someone did ask me how we did at the Coffee Morning)
2. People all over the world, including near rainforests, have special Good Friday events
3. Sean McDonagh has produced a powerful piece of writing and slide set Stations of the Forest based on Stations of the Cross. (If you live locally I can lend you the slides) - about loss of tropical forest.
   
4. There are other people who have lost their lives through working to try and save habitats.

Pictures:
1. Barabas asks why was Jesus crucified when he should have been.
2. Walking up Kirkgate
3. Jesus washes the disciples feet
4. The last supper - outside the Catholic church.

Hospital chaplains and Prayer Rooms

Tue 7 April

In the early evening I went to Harrogate Hospital to visit my Mother who is there because of her broken hip. She broke it a fortnight ago.

Whilst I was there Graham Sturdy came to visit her - the Minister from her church in Ripon. It really perked her up.

If Mum was to be in hospital over Easter I wondered if she would be able to go to a service on Easter Sunday. He suggested I leave a message for the hospital chaplain. (I had seen a palm cross and a card on her table so presumably the chaplain had been to visit her )

Later that evening I asked where the prayer room was and wandered down there.
It was a peaceful place, and a sat there a short while, and appreciated it. It was a different place to go within the hospital.

I value the hospital chaplains. I am just saying this here, because this morning I heard on Radio 4 a man saying that the hospitals should not pay for chaplains. Well I am pleased the chaplains are there.

Greenery at the hospital.

My mother has a bed next to the window which is nice because it gets lots of sun. However it just looks on to another anonymous wing of the hospital so she cannot see "green hills" or even green trees. However if you go to the window and look straight down there is an area planted with bushes below... and as it is still only April they are not green yet.. The bunch of daffodils from my neghbour's garden and from Settle market, and other flowers on the windowsill make a difference.

First Aid Course

Must dash. I I have the privilege of attending a day First Aid Course up at Malham Tarn Field Centre - I will be teaching some courses there later this year.

Tuesday 8 April

Last year in February we raised £80-00 at the Church Coffee Morning for the Rainforest. This year we raised £172!! - Double! - Plus a friend came and donated an extra £50 for his own acre -

Left shows a dog's eye view of the coffee morning. And right, a hopeful hound.

A big thanks to all who came. The total of £172 included £34 from sale of my cards including £20 to one person, and a £20 donation.
Hilary Briggs and C. who served the teas both had a display of the cards they make, including Easter Cards, and apple pies that Hilary made with the last of her store of 2008 apples.

We were lucky - the Craven Herald had managed an article last Thursday on our event.

I went round Settle at 9.30am and gave leaflets to people I knew and asked several shops and market stalls to display the leaflets. - "Where is the church?" asked someone in Age Concern- That was a good point - if we want toursits/daytrippers to come we need to make it easier for them - "It's the church under the railway bridge past the petrol station just north of the market" - I shall have to put that on posters in the future. the picture on the left shows two ladies in the foreground looking at the greeting cards.

Speakers Club Rainforest Certificate

Monday 6 April

Craven Speakers Club had raised £120 last year to buy two acres of forest through World Land Trust. I used my turn to give a speech this evening to show everyone the certificate for Two acres of Brazilian forest

Settle Spinners

Settle Spinners at the Church Hall invited me to go and open the bottle of "loose cash" they had been collecting over the year.

It came to £26 87p.

A big "Thank you".

One of them kindly posed in the grounds at the back of the hall.




Here is some weaving that one of them had done.

Settle Spinning and Sewing Club to donate

Settle Spinning/Sewing Club that meet on Tuesday afternoons at the Church Hall have been collecting "coppers and change" in a bottle over the past year for the fund. This afternoon they are going to open the bottle and I will give a little talk at coffee time. I am looking forward to that. - To opening the bottle - and to seeing all the interesting craftwork that they make.

Also today we have arranged to have a Coffee Morning at St John's Church on Tuesday 7th April 10am to midday. I have just sent an email to the Craven Herald.

The Prince and the Rainforest

I arranged to be at watching ITV on Sun 22 March 6.30pm to see "The Prince and the Rainforest" - featuring Prince Charles, first in the Amazon Rainforest and later at the Galapagos.

He had visited this area in 1982 and was now back again. He visited some sustainablity projects and permaculture - to show positive projects.

The interviewer said "Six/eight years ago most scientists agreed that climate change was taking place.. (as opposed to disputing that it was taking place) Now the scientists are saying it is taking place much faster than they thought six/eight years ago. Things are moving on much more rapitly than we expected.
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Later that evening I heard the Radio 4 Appeal - for Rainforest Foundation UK. It was given by Stephen Fry (of Twitter fame) I hope that raises lots of money.

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Prince Charles in the Yorkshire Dales and examples of how he likes nature ...

I have seen him in real life four times -
When he opened the National Nature Reserve of Ingleborough, above the Hill Inn
When he opened a room at the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, two weeks after the above event.
When he opened a "Post Office in the Pub" at Stainforth
When he went on a ride on the Settle Carlisle Railway
(And I know he came up to Malham Tarn Field Centre to open a new wing there)

He recently commissioned a book of botanical illustrations of the plants that grow at Highgrove House - a Florilegium .

Prince Charles is doing his best to protect nature -
What are you doing?


.

E-peace, Students and Wildlife Conservation - Practical and Campaigning

Sat 7th March

It is a whole year since I acted as a resource person for Leeds University for their First Year Field Course in the Dales in their role play session.

To help them were a quarryman, a farmer, a walker , a local, several others - and myself as an environmental activist.

I was pleased to be asked back again, and this time they held their day at Grassington.

As I understood it my group of 12 students would be representing an environment campaigning group (with a made up name E-Peace) in a role play situation. I, as a member of our local wildlife group "Craven Conservation Group" had been invited to answer their questions in preparation for their task.

They showed me their excellent poster. - I thought the aims on the poster were good.

They had visited this website, to last year's page .. through a web search for E-Peace. (Brilliant - all hits welcome -Thanks!

I belong to so many environment groups and wanted to get so much information across - I had produced some photocopied material - that I talked (in response to questions) rapidly for about five minutes till I could see it was getting rather much for some of them (igo - eys glazed over) - So I asked questions instead -

"Do you belong to any conservation organisations?" I asked.

One girl did. She did practical world with a voluntary group at the university - cutting down trees etc. I had a really goood chat with her and it was good to see the other students interested in what she did.

"Are you interested in conservation or did you just get put in this group?" I asked.

"The latter."

"Are you members of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust?" I asked - After all Leeds in in Yorkshire. Zero uptake. "Well you should all go away and join". (Was that too bossy? - and let's face it, I only started joioning such organisations quite a few years after university..

They asked about otters, they asked "What would you do if you could improve the Dales for conservation... Hmmm...

Yorkshire Dales Snow Scenes

Friday 6th Feb was sunny and the snow left from Monday was beautiful. Bill Mitchell and I went for a drive following the River Ribble up from Settle.

A chance to appreciate how we fitted in to the land.

This area was glaciated during the last ice age. Just the tips of the peaks of Pen y hent (left) and Ingleborough and Whernside may have stood up above the ices sheets and glaciers 18,000 years ago.

Some rare arctic-alpine flowers and mosses grow near the summits on the crags.

The natural vegetation in this area from summit to valley bottom should be trees. It is sheep and rabbits that stop them growing now...( and peat in the boggy areas - but there is evidence of trees under some of the peat)

Here is a picture of Horton in Ribblesdale Church, with Pen y Ghent in the background. I once used this view of the church to design a t-shirt for the Pen y ghent Fell race organised by Settle Harriers. Bill showed me an old stained glass window above the brown door - of the severed head of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered in 1170. You learn something new every day. The window may have been brought from Jervaux Abbey

The oldest rock is Silurian rock, sometimes (wrongly I am told) called slate, whereas it should be called greywacke, or locally "Horton flags". The big slabs of "slate" are used for the floor in many houses, for rooves, for cattle troughs, for grave stones, and many other uses. It had been used for Horton church roof at onetime but now it is covered with lead.

Above the slate is the Yoredale Series - sandstone, shale and limestone beds repeating the pattern. Near the summit of Pen y Ghent are some thick beds of limestone, then at the top there is hard millstone grit.

Thus:
The geology affects the landscape.
The glaciers have affected the landscape.
The mangement - sheep and rabbits affect the landscape (No trees).
And Bill alerted me to a fourth factor: - The quarry men.

Land has been quarried since people came here.

For stone walls
For lime for "burning" in the kilns to make the ground "sweeter"
For building up the Settle Carlisle Railway banks and viaduct
For "slate" for rooves
And more recently for roadstone and for the chemical industry

Finally we visited St Leonard's church in Chapel le Dale, two miles from the viaduct.

Britain's Rare Animals and Plants - How they came here

In this blog yesterday I said

"If the whole of Britain sank under the sea the world as a whole would only have lost a few species.

"There are comparatively few species under threat of global extinction in Britain.

In today's entry I will think about the British vegetation and fauna - why it is so limited, how it has come to be here at all - and alert you to some threatened species.


What - Few British Species under threat of global extinction?

A good number of plants, insects, etc are threatened nationally, and within each county, over the past 100 years, on average one native species of wildflower becomes extinct every two years. (I'll write about that later, with examples of species lost in West Yorkshire)

78 UK higher plant species are now designated as threatened with extinction within Britain.

Only a few species in the UK are under threat of world extinction - and of these we should take especial care.

I'll have to look some of these up!! -

Oh I have just learned about the Lundy Cabbage. The Lundy Cabbage Coincya wrightii only grows on the cliffs on the East side of Lundy Island It is endemic to Lundy. (Endemic means Native to or confined to a certain region). - And it has two endemic beetles living on it!..

Actually that reminds me that near to us in Settle, the Rock Whitebeam Sorbus rupicola which grows in the Malham Cove area is another endemic.. It is slightly different to the Lancastrian Whitebeam which grows across the border in Lancashire Sorbus lancastriensis: the Sorbus rupicola grows near Malham Cove so that my guess is that the whitebeam on the vertical part of the Cove face is also Rock Whitebeam,

but without ropes, I cannot prove it...


Why does Britain have such a relatively poor flora and fauna?

Look at the numbers of native wild flowers found in these three countries:

Native wild flowers in UK:1550 (1,756); France: 4,500; South Africa 23,000.,

Doesn't make you very proud to be British, does it!
Source: Earthtrends website using data from World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge.

It is all to do with the ice.

Britain was covered by ice in the last Ice Age, 18,000 years ago, Plants and animal could not survive then.. Land not covered in ice in the south of England had very cold conditions.

Since then, temperate animals and plants have come back into Britain in the last 12,000 years from the continent. If we lose some of these species - and it would be sad if we did - most still exist in other countries. -

One such example of a very rare plant is the Large Yellow Sedge Carex flava. It only grows in two places in the UK, one of them being at Malham Tarn, seven miles from our church. It is a highlight of the Sedges courses I sometimes run. But it does also grow in Scandinavia.


More interesting facts: How did the animals and plants get back to Britain after the ice age.?

Many walked across the Land Bridge from the continent. During the Ice age 20,000 years ago the sea level dropped 120m (400ft) below its present level because water was locked up in ice, and also the sea was colder and so had contracted. There was a land bridge stretching across from eastern England to Denmark and the Netherlands . - Fisher men have found flints, remains of conifer forests and on

Why has the land bridge gone? - after all it is only say 9000(?) years ago - 360 generations ago since it went. (The land bridge to Ireland was lost 12,000 years ago).. The ice melted, the cold water expanded. Also the ice on the North west of UK, especially Scotland weighed Scotland down so the south east of England stuck up like a seesaw - Now the Scottish ice is gone Scotland and Western Ireland are Rising, the south east of England is sinking. If the sea level has risen this much already - think what global warming will do..)