Malvern Hills Conservators

ISSUE ONE
AUGUST 2000

Contents

Why a Newsletter?

Who's who & what do they do?

Nicola Quinn reports…

Wardening in the Future
by Ian Rowat.

Campaigns - August 2000

How Often?

Bi-monthly initially, but it depends on what's happening, the time available, contributions.

Why a Newsletter?

Due to the growing number of volunteers for the Malvern Hills Conservators, a way of ensuring that both the volunteers and the Conservators remained up to date with information, was looked into. A newsletter seemed to be the most effective way of doing this (besides having someone willing to create it!)

The Purpose is to exchange information, news, ideas, and current interests and issues between the volunteers and the conservators. The newsletter aims to be the forum where contributions from all involved can speak out and have their views heard.

We can accept photos, pictures, drawings, discs or handwritten pieces so please feel free to drop them into the conservators office, care of the Newsletter Editor, or email them over.

I aim to be challenging and informative, and therefore if you have any comments on either the layout or the content please forward them to me (anonymously if you wish) and I will respond as promptly as I can.

Georgina Horton, Newsletter Editor

CONTENTS


Who's Who & What do they Do?
Below is a selection of the people you might come into contact with. It isn't everyone though!
*Nicola Quinn*	Warden - Meets the public, promotes the work of the conservators, enforce the byelaws, problem solves, co-ordinates the volunteers.
*Ian Rowat*	Director - Puts together strategies to guide the work of the conservators, develops partnerships, seeks funding.
*Valerie Whittaker*	Administrative Officer. Admin staff are Ann & Hazel.
*David Whitehorne*	Conservation Officer - develops & implements the management plan, with reference to the ecological and conservation issues.
*Paul Saunders & Staff*	Practically manage the hills and the 3,000 acres of MHC land.
*The Volunteers*	Us! The ones who give their time freely for the love of the hills to protect and conserve them for the future generations to enjoy too. CONTENTS

Nicola Quinn reports….

It's a historic occasion, the volunteers for the MHC have their very first newsletter. We've had such a fantastic response from local people wanting to be involved in looking after the hills and outlying commons that the volunteer service has grown quite rapidly during the past 6 months, from 6 to 20 people and the number is still growing! We want to keep in regular contact with you, hence the newsletter, and I hope that you enjoy the regular updates, with some gossip thrown in!

You may not know, but volunteers get up to all sorts of things on behalf of the conservators! A lot of expertise and interest is put into projects such as horse monitoring, wildlife surveys and photography. We even have a mountain bike warden, a practical conservation group, and now a newsletter.

We hope to make the best use of people's interests and offer our own support to help to make the volunteers group as enjoyable and as worthwhile for all concerned as possible.

CONTENTS

Wardening in the Future by Ian Rowat, Director

I have been delighted with the recruitment of new volunteers to become Voluntary Wardens. I myself was a Voluntary Warden in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in the early 1970's and I know what a rewarding and valuable contribution this can make in delivering a frontline service. In this first edition of your newsletter I would like to outline how I see the wardening service developing and in forthcoming issues we will look at all aspects of volunteer involvement - from guided walks to Butterfly surveys!

A recent visitor survey has indicated we get 1¼ million people on the hills and, as you will know, recreation trends over the last 10 years mean that people visit just as much during the week as at weekends and bank holidays. The visitor survey also indicated that the majority of visitors come from the counties of Hereford and Worcester, and many come regularly.

We own 3,000 acres of hills and commons and this vast amount of land is all open to public access as well as being one of the largest SSSI's (Sites of Special Scientific Interest), in other words wildlife site, in the West Midlands region. It is also a place where commoners can graze their animals and although it is common land not everyone has common rights.

The way I see a warden on the hills is as a friendly ambassador who can approach visitors and communicate with them, particularly bringing some of the key messages that we are trying to get across. I hope that by our regular communication with you, you will be able to pick up the messages that we are trying to get across. I would urge you to read the Conservators Management Plan and our Annual Report, plus any leaflets we have to inform you in doing this. What I am not expecting is that Voluntary Wardens become countryside policemen; however part of your duties is to uphold the byelaws. I see that as the service develops we will enter a pact with you. On our side we will offer training, information, support and materials, identification and equipment, and on your side we hope you will support our events, become actively involved and give a commitment to wardening the land. I wish you success and enjoyment for the future.

CONTENTS

Back to Malvern Hills Conservators Home Page

Issue Number	Issue Index
Newsletter ONE August 2000	Why a Newsletter? Who's who & what do they do? Nicola Quinn reports Wardening in the Future by Ian Rowat. Campaigns - August 2000
Newsletter TWO October 2000	News in brief Common Land & Commoners Rights Volunteer Opportunities Gardiner's Quarry Path
Newsletter THREE December 2000	News in brief Simon Burnham-Slipper NEW FEATURE! Byelaw of the Month Archaeology of the Old Hills & Wildlife

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