Protecting Otters in York Steering Group Meeting Minutes of the meeting of 27th March 2008, BTCV Office, 3 leake street, York. Present Liam O’Reilly – leg@riseup.net Kevin Rich – richkevin@gmail.com Rachel Midgley - midgeyrach@hotmail.com 1) Current progress of Greenprints application The stage 1 application was sent off by email on Monday the 17th March. We have received a message that this will be passed on to the relevant person and they will be in contact soon. The total cost of the first part of the fence came to £9,991, unfortunately this doesn’t leave us any space for additional features. 2) Maps Kevin looked at OS maps in order to get a scaled map & diagram for the project. However the scale of the OS map is quite large and therefore cannot be used. Rachel suggested that we look at www.magic.gov.uk, which is a free interactive map. It was decided that we should familiarise ourselves with the features and use of this map. Action – All. 3) Otter talk Kevin contacted Gordon Woodroffe who is a otter specialist. He said he may be able to give a talk to us between May 6th – May 21st. We agreed that this event should be held at the university on a late Saturday morning. Gordon is to be contacted again about this and arrangements to be made regarding booking a room at the university. We also need to start considering publicity for this event. Action – Kevin + All 4) Other information Gordon also informed Kevin that holts may be a waste of time as otters often prefer natural holts to man made ones. Gordon suggested that a river survey of fish might be more useful. Liam put forward that because the Lower River Foss is such an intensively managed area that not many natural holts exist nor will be created in the future. Also an artificial holt has been occupied on the River Foss in the city centre. However, Gordon is an experienced otter expert and this advice should not be ignored. We should at least look into what a fish survey involves and make the holts as ‘natural’ as possible. Action - Kevin 5) Next Meeting The next meeting will take place on the 10th April at 10.30am at the BTCV office.