Protecting Otters in York Steering Group Meeting Minutes of the meeting of 1st May 2008, BTCV Office, 3 leake street, York. Present Liam O’Reilly – leg@riseup.net Rachel Midgley - midgeyrach@hotmail.com Paul Appleton – p.appleton@btcv.org.uk 1) Environment Agency & Internal Drainage Board Jane and Liam sent off the EA water consent form and were informed that the Foss is the jurisdiction of the IDB. Fortunately the application was very similar and Jane completed it and sent it off. The IDB have replied and liased with Paul about the issue. In general they are fine with the application and see no problem with the fence. However, they have requested a few minor changes to do with the positioning of the field gate and the line of the fence. This may extend the length of the fence and thus extend the cost, this needs to be investigated. Action - Liam 2) Current progress of the greenprints application No real progress has been made on the application as efforts have been focused elsewhere. It is still on track to have a draft completed by mid-May. After this the draft will be given to Caroline, Paul & Andy for improvements and to iron out any problems. The deadline has been moved back by greenprints to the 20th June, this does not effect when we will get the funding. If anyone would like to be involved with filling out the application please contact Liam. Action - Liam 3) Volunteer time An Excel spreadsheet has now been set up to record the amount of hours we are all putting into this project. We will update this either at meeting or you can email Liam. The reason for this is twofold, first to show how many hours we are putting in for the greenprints application. Secondly to help the BTCV reach it’s V targets (the BTCV tries to reach a certain amount of hours every month for 16-25 year old volunteers). If you have any more questions about V please ask Andy. Action - All 4) Vcashpoint, CSV and other funding issues Vcashpoint cannot be used for the otter project as it states that it has to be a new project (not an addition or part of a larger project). Charlotte is compiling a list of grants from CSV. It is the intention that this group will go beyond just raising funds for otters. So if any other conservation opportunities arise please feel free to tell the rest of the group, as we may be able to use the funding from Vcashpoint or other sources to get this off the ground. There still maybe a possibility to fill in a SITA trust grant for the remaining fence and holts and get the remaining money from CoYC and YW. Action – Charlotte (CSV), All (Other projects/funding) 5) Otter Talk, 17th May Kevin has made a poster for the otter talk and charlotte is the contact point. This is to be put around at various places (university, BTCV, places of work etc.). The publicity for these events needs to be branded with the BTCV logo, Paul will contact relevant people about how and what to brand. An introduction may need to be given at the talk, informing the audience what the BTCV otter project is about and introducing Gordon. The Facebook group needs to be opened up to advertise this and other upcoming ones. Action – Kevin, Charlotte, Liam & Rachel (posters), Paul (branding info), Jane (Facebook). 6) Resources in kind If any resources are received in kind (e.g. room hire) please make a note of it and bring it to the meeting. This can then be added to the application. Action - All 7) New Earswick Open Day, 14th June The New Earswick Angling Club have agreed to allow us to set up a stall on their open day on the 14th of June. We need to consider getting materials ready for this and organise people to run it. Action - All 8) Letters of Support We have got letters of support from the New Earswick Angling Club, letters of support have been requested from Johnny Kingdom, Philip Wayre (Otter Trust), various lecturers, Bob Missin (Local Biodiversity Officer) & Jon Trail (Mammal expert at YWT). The Vale of York Environment Group (VoYEG) and ourselves can also show our personal support for the project. Even if we only get 25% of these this will be plenty. Action – All 9) VoYEG Annual General Meeting, 23rd May The VoYEG AGM is taking place on the 23rd May at the BTCV office at 10am. It is followed by a Guided Nature walk at Kiplingcotes Nature Reserve by Roy Lyon of the Hull Valley Wildlife group at 2pm. As we are applying for this under VoYEG it would be great if anyone could turn up, just ring the office to book a place or email Liam. 10) Quiz Night, Tues 17th June Kevin, Lottie and Lena (University Conservation Volunteers) have started to organise a quiz night to raise funds. By email we were informed that the night may involve food and drink. There are several issues surrounding this especially on the H&S side, legality of raising cash and organisation. Kevin and Lottie will be contacted about this. Action – Liam, Kevin, Lottie 11) Fish Surveys From initial research into fish surveys, it looks a little complex, costly and intensive for us to carry out fish surveys. This is because the technique (electric fishing) requires a lot of equipment and knowledge to carry it out. Not only this, but it must be done at different times of the year in different locations. Then a statistical analysis would need to be carried out. However, it may be possible that there is another method, or it could be done just for training purposes, or possibly as a final year project. From local knowledge it seems that the river Foss has a healthy fish population. 12) Next Meeting and Meeting Times A date for the next meeting wasn’t agreed as a change in meeting times may be needed due to task days, people at work and university commitments. We are probably looking at a Monday evening, people in the group should be contacted about this. Action - Liam