News, News, News!!!

There is so much to get through. So, lets cut to the chase and lets do this!

Starting us off… On the 16th May our very own Dave and Mike were invited by the newly formed Rotary Club of Skelmersdale and Upholland to give talks on FoTV, Tawd Valley Park and the wildlife of Skelmersdale. Thank you to the club for asking us to be part of it. They felt very welcomed and honoured to be asked.

The following day, we were at Edge Hill University for the first Lancashire Community Climate Action Forum event. We met some incredible like-minded people, who are just as passionate as we are about tackling the challenges we face in the natural environment. We hope we can utilise some great networking opportunities to help better the valley in the near future. Well done to Edge Hill and to everyone for putting on a stellar day.

During the same week, West Lancashire College Inclusive Learners took part in a number of community projects within the Valley. During one session, they planted trees and bushes, litter picking and collecting wood for wildlife habitats.

The 18th May saw another fantastic talk from our very own Mike. This time given to the u3a group at the Skelmersdale Library. We hope everyone found his talk about the Tawd Valley Park informative and entertaining.

The next day saw Team Tawd and Ranger Chris kick off the Balsam Pulling season and they began with the never-ending task of the removing the non-native plant species known as Himalayan Balsam. Well done, guys, Keep going!

The weekend before last – We were at the West Lancashire Borough Council Parks & Countryside Ranger Service Dog Fest up at Beacon Country Park. It was a glorious sunny day and we had a lot of interest in our stall.

The winners of our Dog Fest prize raffle were Steven Meadows (1st prize) and Tracy Mangan (2nd prize). Steven won a framed photo of local Fallow Deer and Tracy won a Wildlife Trust bird book. Well done, guys. Thank you to Dave Gibson Wildlife Photography who kindly donated the prizes for the raffle.

We continue on with another fantastic evening in the valley with the 42nd Ormskirk Squirrels, beavers, cubs & Scouts planting tree saplings between Yewdale and Mill Lane, to expand the woodland there. Thank you so much to the children, they did an absolutely awesome job. Well done!

A big thank you to everyone who joined us for our AGM last week. Peter Gateley’s Tawd Talk was absolutely fascinating. His knowledge on the Valleys plant life is very impressive.

And a massive thank you to Terry Lake who stepped down as chairman after 4 dedicated years in the role. FoTV wouldn’t be where it is today without his hard work and passion. A pillar of our community.

This weekend we had some amazing discoveries in the River Tawd during our riverfly kick sampling survey. We were super excited to find a Azure Blue or Banded Demoiselle Damselfly Nymph and not one, but TWO Stickleback.

Luckily, early indications show that the pollution that ran through the River Tawd the day before the survey had little effect on the life that calls the water home. Hopefully, it stays that way.

That’s it folks! You are all caught up. Thank you so much for taking the time to read through our weekly updates. Keep checking back for more updates soon.