Hornsea Mere: Volunteers to repel invaders at freshwater lake
Volunteers are being urged to take part in efforts to restore Yorkshire's largest freshwater lake.Hornsea Mere is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, but environmentalists say pollution and invasive species have taken a toll on the beauty spot, which is one of the region's most important wildlife habitats.Now, the Groundwork Yorkshire charity has been awarded money from the government's Water Restoration Fund to create a plan to deal with the problems.As part of the work, it is asking people to help map invasive species, such as Himalayan balsam, around the shores of the mere.
Luke Ball, who is working on the project, said: "We are going to train people up in identifying them and eventually we'll have groups going out and actually removing the invasive species and making sure that the natural species can thrive."
Hornsea Mere was carved by a glacier in the last Ice Age. It sits in a huge dip in the landscape and some 12,000 acres of rural and urban land drains into it.Identifying where pollution is running from and working out how to prevent it is a big part of the project.Helen Ball, who also works for the charity, said it was the "most perfect location for wildlife" but "has so many challenges"."The water is receiving all the pollutants and all the issues from the surrounding catchment, even down to washing our cars with shampoo on the driveway," she said."It's ultimately going to feed straight down into the mere."Groundwork Yorkshire said it was working alongside the trustees of the Wassand Hall estate – which includes the mere.Further funding would be sought to put the completed plan into action.Anyone interested in getting involved is asked to contact Groundwork Yorkshire.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Is this the world's toughest job... catching tiny ANTS at 1,700 sq-mile beauty spot?
IT'S a task that makes looking for a needle in a haystack seem easy – hunting down a tiny insect in a vast area of Scottish wilderness. Yet as part of a remarkable project to save one of the country's rarest creatures from extinction, trackers are now being challenged to scour the Cairngorms National Park in search of the narrow-headed ant. It may not have the same profile as other at-risk animals such as the rhino or panda, but conservationists believe the half-inch long ant deserves to be protected – as it plays a surprisingly large role in the well-being of our ancient pine forests. In Scotland, narrow-headed ants are known to nest in just a handful of places in the Cairngorms, while the UK's only other recognised population is found at a single site in Devon in the south-west of England. And despite previous conservation schemes, its numbers are declining at a worrying rate. Now the body which runs the 1,700 square-mile Cairngorms National Park wants to reverse the insect's fortunes by setting up a captive breeding programme. The park authority has set aside £50,000 to hire experts to carry out an 'ant captive rearing project' that will last for up to three years. The aim is to establish at least 50 'farmed' colonies and build up large populations of the creatures in captivity – before later releasing them into new sites in the wild. The first major hurdle, however, involves being able to track down and capture enough of the ants to start the breeding programme. Cairngorms conservation officer Hayley Wiswell said: 'This work is ground-breaking and could completely change the fate of the species in the UK. 'But finding the nests can be challenging. They're about the size of half a football, sometimes even as small as a fist. 'They're made with pine needles, twigs, heather, moss and grass, so they're really well camouflaged. 'And they're found in woodland among pine or birch trees, on lumpy, mossy ground with lots of hummocks, hollows and deep heather. Sometime you don't see them until you're on top of them.' To set up the colonies, the trackers will need to find queens and males from different nests. Ms Wiswell added: 'You have to sit by the nest early in the morning on a cloudy but mild day – and as they come out, you have to pick them off the surface really quickly. It's tricky because the queens in particular are really fast – you have to sneak up on them and grab them.' Caution is needed as the ants can deliver a sharp, pin-prick bite. The narrow-headed ant – scientific name Formica exsecta – is black and red, with a characteristic notch in the back of its head. It builds a distinctive domed nest typically containing around 1,000 individuals. Males are up to 10mm long while queens are slightly larger, at around 12mm. Queens and males from different nests will be put together in a netted cage to mate before being moved to 'ant modules' – purpose-made enclosures that replicate an underground nest's tunnels. The aim is for the queen to start producing eggs which will then seed the captive colony. The ants will be kept in their modules under close supervision for 12 months until they are self-sufficient enough to survive in the wild. Ms Wiswell added: 'Nobody's done this before – it's really experimental.' Despite the difficulties, she explained that the tiny ants offered huge benefits for the environment. 'They are a keystone species, doing all kinds of things in the ecosystem,' she said. 'They're highly predatory and prey on herbivorous insects like caterpillars which can defoliate plants. They also interact with the soil because their nests are largely subterranean – earthworms, for example, are significantly more prevalent around ant mounds. 'They also pick up and disperse plant seeds throughout the environment. And of course they provide a food source for lots of other animals, like badgers and pine martens.' Nests have been identified on the Mar Lodge Estate, a national nature reserve that covers 70,000 acres in the Cairngorms and is run by the National Trust for Scotland. The recruitment advert for trackers says: 'The species is considered to be vulnerable. Captive breeding is considered to be the next step to securing the future of this species at Mar Lodge Estate, near Braemar, and to expand the population on Deeside. 'This work is still very much experimental, and as such methods for captive rearing will need to be tested. ' Anyone taking on the task of tracking the narrow- headed ant is advised they should have access to a 4x4 vehicle, or be willing to mountain bike, walk and camp overnight in remote locations.
The Independent
8 hours ago
- The Independent
Exhibition of prehistoric Giants to make UK debut
An exhibition of giant prehistoric animals will make its UK debut this year. Giants, developed by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and toured by Nomad Exhibitions, will open at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on August 2. It will then move to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh in January 2026. The exhibition focuses on creatures such as the woolly mammoth, which roamed the Earth after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Giants spans a period of 66 million years to the present day, and highlights the need to protect existing giant species such as elephants and whales. It features life-sized 3D models and nearly complete skeletons, including giant shark Otodus megalodon; the Mammuthus primigenius or woolly mammoth, which weighed between six and eight tonnes; and Gigantopithecus blacki, an Asian primate the size of three orangutans. Visitors of all ages are encouraged to step into the shoes of palaeontologists and biologists, using interactive resources and engaging with the scientific processes behind fossil discovery and reconstruction. Immersive projections recreate the natural habitats of previous giant species, providing context to their existence and extinction. The exhibition also warns of the threat of extinction posed to elephants, rhinoceroses and whales and the 'urgent need' to protect endangered species. The announcement coincides with World Environment Day on Thursday, which this year is focused on ending plastic pollution. Zak Mensah and Sara Wajid, co-chief executives of Birmingham Museums Trust, said: 'We are delighted to welcome the Giants exhibition to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. 'This inspiring installation not only captures the imagination with its monumental scale but also delivers a vital message about sustainability and our shared responsibility to protect the planet. 'Birmingham Museums is committed to using storytelling to engage communities with the challenges of our time and Giants does exactly that in a powerful and accessible way.' Dr Nick Fraser, keeper of Natural Sciences at National Museums Scotland, said: 'We're really looking forward to bringing Giants to Scotland next year. 'Popular attention on prehistoric life tends to focus either on dinosaurs or on our own earliest human ancestors, which leaves a relatively neglected gap of around 60 million years of natural history. 'Giants is a striking invitation to us all to think about that period, to see how nature adapts over time, and also to reflect on the ways in which current human activity is denying that time to today's endangered giants.'
Telegraph
8 hours ago
- Telegraph
The British military base preparing for war in space
In a fake village in Buckinghamshire, several members of Space Command are huddled around a computer screen watching a foreign missile approach to a Ministry of Defence communications satellite. It is just an exercise, but it is a scenario that is increasingly worrying military chiefs, who fear space is now the most important theatre of war. Modern life is largely space-based, with satellites controlling everything from EasyJet flight plans to Amazon deliveries and army advances. Taking out satellites would cripple society. Russia took down the country's satellite communications just hours before it began the land invasion. China and Russia have also both tested anti-satellite missiles, while Moscow is allegedly developing a programme to arm some of its satellites with nuclear warheads, meaning it could destroy enemy networks while in orbit. In recognition of this new orbital battlefield, Space Command was established at RAF High Wycombe in 2021, to 'protect and defend' UK interests in space, and is now home to the UK Space Operations Centre, which was officially opened by government ministers this week. The RAF base is the former headquarters of Bomber Command, a military unit responsible for strategic bombing during the Second World War. With its winding streets, faux church towers and manor house office blocks, was designed to look like a quintessential Home Counties village, should the Luftwaffe be passing over. The Bomber Command logo 'Strike Hard, Strike Sure' has been replaced with Space Command's 'Ad Stellas Usque' – Latin for 'up to the stars'. Where Bomber Harris's team had its eyes fixed firmly on the ground, Space Command's gaze is now turned skywards. Maria Eagle, minister for defence procurement, who helped open the operations centre this week, said: 'From a national security point of view, space is a contested and congested and competitive domain, and we need to make sure, as our adversaries advance their capabilities, that we're able to deal with what that throws up.' She added: 'It's an extension of the more earthbound worries that we've got. The usual kind of things that you worry about on Earth, it's just extended upwards, because that's now a domain that is as important as land, sea or air to the potential of war-fighting or defending national security. 'The National Space Operations Centre does vital work in monitoring and protecting our interests. It's a recognition of the fact that our adversaries are active there, and we need to know what's going on.' Although the United States performed the first anti-satellite tests in 1959, space warfare has largely been consigned to Hollywood and science fiction until recently. Fears began to ramp up in January 2007, when China shot down one of its own ageing weather satellites with a ballistic missile creating a cloud of space junk, which is still causing problems. In November 2021, Russia conducted its own direct-ascent anti-satellite test, destroying the Soviet intelligence satellite Kosmos-1408, and generating a debris field that forced astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter. However it is not just anti-satellite missiles that are causing concern. According to the latest Space Threat Assessment, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, nations are developing evermore elaborate space weapons. These weapons include electro-magnetic pulses, microwaves and lasers to fry electronics, dazzlers to blind optical sensors, and grapplers to latch on to satellites and pull them out of orbit. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea all have the capability of jamming and hijacking satellite signals and launching cyber attacks. A 10-second delay in Google Chrome loading may seem like a domestic internet glitch, but bad actors could also be behind it, Space Command has warned. 'Counter-space arsenal' Space Command is particularly worried about China, which in the past year has launched increasingly advanced and highly-manoeuvrable satellites for purposes that remain unclear. CSIS believes Beijing may be creating a ' formidable on-orbit counter-space arsenal ' and that manoeuvrability testing is allowing Chinese operators to develop 'tactics and procedures that can be used for space war-fighting'. US Space force commanders have also warned that Chinese satellites have been spotted 'dogfighting' in space, moving within less than a mile of each other. 'China continues to develop and field a broad set of counter-space capabilities,' a member of Space Command told The Telegraph. 'It's certainly one of the more capable adversaries. Space is no longer a sanctuary, it's a space of contest. It's the modern battlefield.' Russia's Luch satellites have also been spotted stalking European communications and broadcast satellites, moving close to their orbits for reasons not fully understood. Space Command fears they are probing the systems to find out how best to disrupt signals. Although Russia continues to deny it is developing an orbital nuclear anti-satellite weapon – which would breach the 1967 Outer Space Treaty – US intelligence suggests otherwise. Chris Bryant, minister of state for data protection and telecoms, said: 'There's a lot of stuff up there now … and the risks from deliberate bad actors, in particular from Russia and China, and the havoc that could be created either deliberately or accidentally, is quite significant. 'So we need to monitor as closely as we possibly can, 24/7, everything that is going on up there so that we can avert accidental damage, and we can also potentially deter other more deliberate, harmful activity.' Space Command currently employs more than 600 staff, roughly 70 per cent of whom are from the Royal Air Force with the remaining 30 per cent from the Army and Navy, plus a handful of civilians. Not only is it monitoring the sky for threats from foreign powers but it is also keeping an eye out for falling space debris, asteroids, and coronal mass ejections from the Sun which could wipe out power grids and satellites. When a threat is spotted, the team can contact satellite providers to warn them to reposition their spacecraft, or advise them to power down until a powerful jet of plasma has passed through. It also informs the government and the security services on the orbital movements of foreign powers. Space Command also launched its first military satellite last year, named Tyche, which can capture daytime images and videos of the Earth's surface for surveillance, intelligence gathering and military operations. It is part of the Government's £968 million Istari programme which will see more satellites launched by 2031 to create a surveillance constellation. Mr Bryant added: 'Lots of people think 'space' and joke about Star Trek and the final frontier, but actually the truth is you couldn't spend a single day of your life these days in the UK without some kind of engagement with space. 'The havoc that could be created, which might be military havoc, or it might be entirely civil havoc, could be very significant.'
