Report 2011

THE FRIENDS OF THE TRAP GROUNDS
Summary of Report to the Annual General Meeting, 29 March 2011

IMPROVING PUBLIC ACCESS
The boardwalk was completed in October 2010 at a cost of £22,765 (paid for with grants of £5k from the National Lottery Awards For All Scheme and £15k from the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment, plus contributions from our own funds). It is 120 metres long and made of recycled plastic (environment-friendly, non-slip, and more durable than wood). It winds through the trees alongside the stream, then crosses the swamp and is linked by a hardcore path to a new viewing platform on the edge of a recently created pond in the western reedbed. The boardwalk has improved access for everyone, but particularly for wheelchair-users and families with pushchairs. We hope that school children and their teachers will benefit too.

CONSERVATION WORK
In the past 12 months we have organised four all-day work parties led by teams from Oxford Conservation Volunteers, supported by our own local volunteers. In July and September 2010 we cleared more of the brambles and invasive Golden Rod from the meadow, and removed innumerable wheelbarrow-loads of junk. In February 2011 we had another energetic day collecting rubble to feed into a stone crusher, to make the hard-core path at the end of the boardwalk. And in March our annual Rubbish Blitz once more filled an entire skip. We also cleared some of the dense scrub on the north side of the big pond and pruned the willows on the south side of the swamp in the western reedbed to create some sunny water and encourage dragonflies and other creatures. OCV have installed three log seats on the meadow. We have planted English Bluebells in the woodland and 12 oak saplings near the school fence, and have installed six hibernacula for solitary bees. The City Council’s Tree Team felled a couple more sycamores for us, with the aim of opening a flight path for small birds and insects between the main reedbed and the meadow; and they also felled another sycamore to reduce the shade and make way for the viewing platform. Finally, Stuart Cox, who built both the boardwalk and the viewing platform, dug out a small pond just in front of the viewing platform.

PUBLIC EDUCATION
On May Morning 2010 Alan Allport led about 20 visitors on an early morning Birdsong Walk. In July 2010 Hannah Bilston from the Oxfordshire Bat Group led a Bat Night: a talk and slide show at St Margaret’s Institute, followed by an expedition to the Trap Grounds in the twilight to look for bats, using bat detectors, which the children were allowed to operate. Glow-worm Expeditions in July 2010 produced disappointing results.

Anthony Grieveson continues to manage our website, www.trap-grounds.org.uk, which includes an interactive page where visitors to the Trap Grounds can record interesting sightings. Over the past year there have been scores of entries, including deer, Water Rail, Kingfishers, Bullfinches, Woodpeckers, several kinds of dragonfly, Common Lizards, Slow Worm, and – most remarkably – evidence of nocturnal visits by an Otter. Caroline Jackson-Houlston continues to update our booklet about the wildlife of the Trap Grounds, listing 36 species of breeding birds and a similar number of regular or occasional visitors; more than two dozen species of butterflies; nearly 100 species of moths and micro-moths; and well over 200 flowering plants.

FUND RAISING
Apart from external grants to pay for the boardwalk, we have relied for funds on voluntary donations from supporters, on the proceeds of the second-hand bookstall in Hayfield Road on Saturday mornings in the summer (organised by Ann Barrington), and on sales of notecards, designed by Mike Berger, featuring Alan Allport’s photographs of Trap Grounds wildlife.

FUTURE PLANS
In the coming year we hope to commission the installation of a screen (made of natural materials) around the viewing platform, and to install a secure tool vault on site. These two projects are estimated to cost at least £2,000 (in addition to the sum of £680 spent in February 2011 on the construction of the hard-core path and viewing platform, which does not feature in the annual accounts presented below).

CAUSE FOR CONCERN
All the above improvements to the accessibility of the Trap Grounds have led to a significant increase in the number of visitors coming to enjoy the wildlife (which is the purpose for which the site was registered as a Town Green in 2006). But it is essential to strike the right balance between nature conservation and human access, and expert ecologists consider that the site cannot sustain much more disturbance without damage to the wildlife population. We are extremely concerned, therefore, about a proposal to insert a gate into the Trap Grounds from Navigation Way, which would greatly increase the footfall in some of the most sensitive parts of the site. We intend to present expert evidence from naturalists as part of the proposed community consultation on this issue.