Our Library of Stories
‘Our Library of Stories’ has a range of articles covered in our newsletters which we believe are informative and inspiring. Instead of searching through newsletters, you can easily find articles of interest here. Each has an introduction and link to a pdf for the full article.
“LET FARMERS COLLECT THEIR OWN SEEDS”
Suzy Gallina, Turn Lyme Green’s lead on Seeds, Soil and Food Security, has written to West Dorset MP, Ed Morello, about the UPOV convention. You may well ask what is that? UPOV – The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants is an intergovernmental organisation. UPOV has a convention that makes it illegal for farmers to save or share their own seeds. And the convention is included in British and other countries’trade agreements. Do get in touch with your views and thoughts on this issue.
Nov 2024
‘IT’S NOT EASY TO BE GREEN’
Catherine Causley, the lead Climate Change Officer of East Devon District Council, symphathised with us doing our best to tackle climate change. Can we make a difference? She outlined many tips and small steps we can all take to help us reach carbon free targets in our communities and in the world.
Talk Oct 2024
OUR AMAZING 8 INVERTEBRATES!
The RIVER LIM ACTION Riverfly Team monitors 7 sites on the River Lim every month to detect and count 8 key invertebrates which indicate the ecological health of the river. Each site gets a score which is then updated onto the national Riverfly Partnership Cartographer. The following articles, by Fran Swan, the Riverfly Team lead, give us an intriguing insight to the lives of these invertebrates. Be prepared for a giggle!
No. 1 INTRODUCING ‘Cased Caddis!’ Cased caddis larvae construct themselves a made to measure portable case to camouflage and protect their soft body from predators. These are made by sticking together small fragments of plants, twigs, grit …. in fact, any suitable material available using a silk like substance made in salivary glands close to their mouths. Read more…
No. 2 INTRODUCING ‘May Fly!’ Meanwhile …… 300 million years ago, way before dinosaurs appeared, there were these flying insects of the order Ephemeroptera meaning “short lived with wings” in Greek. “Not so fast!” these Mayflies might say, “We may appear to be short lived in our adult form but our life cycle is far from ephemeral!” Read more here..
No. 3 INTRODUCING ‘The Heptageniidae! - commonly known as the Flat Bodied Stone Clinger’
We find quite a few of these feisty little alien looking Heptageniidae of varying sizes (from a few mm up to about 15 mm) depending on how many moults they have made and how close to adulthood they are. Their common catchy name is Flat Bodied Stone Clinger and they live up to that description very well.
Read more….
No. 4 INTRODUCING ‘Amorous Grammarus’
Our ecologist recalls these prolific little shrimp-like crustaceans being found in streams in their thousands 30 years ago. Recently, we found 30 in our kick sample and the most any of our team has ever found on the Lim during Riverfly monitoring is 90. Read more…
No. 5 INTRODUCING ‘Stoneflies’
Q. Tell us a little about yourself, Stonefly nymph
A. Stoneflies like me have been around for millions of years and are part of the order of Plecoptera. We have a wealth of experience in freshwater habitats and are keen to indicate the ecological health of river and streams for all. Read more…
INTRODUCING No. 6 Olives and No. 7 Blue Winged Olives
Killing two birds with one stone here. Well, not birds and no murderous intent so rest easy! But a piece on two of the Riverfly which often give us monitors a bit of difficulty when we’re doing our identifying. Why? Well, one reason is that they are so small (1-10 mm) and the less we say about the
demographic of our monitors the better! And we do go to Specsavers! Read more…
INTRODUCING No. 8 Caseless Caddis
AN INTERVIEW by RLA with Caseless Caddie
RLA: Greetings, Caseless Caddis. You are the last of the Riverfly 8 to
feature in our series.
Caseless Caddis: Yes, I wanted to question why this has happened. I am following even the diminutive Olives. No offence guys! We’re on the same Ecological Health for Rivers team! But why am I last in line? Read more…