Roy Sexton

Member since 27 December 2021

All input submitted by this participant

There are 3 projects available.

Trending ideas have loaded.

Roy Sexton4 years ago

Roy Sexton5 years ago Areas of land under Council Control should be clearly designated as being managed for wildlife or amenity. Areas managed for wildlife should be reserved for native species and a programme put in place to gradually remove non-native plants. In particular this must include Invasive Non-native species like giant hogweed. Community Councils should be tasked to set a management group to develop a Wildlife Management Plan for their area .... both Dunblane and BoA have large numbers of knowledgeable naturalist as residents and would have no trouble doing this. There is also have a lot of council land in these areas to be managed like Mine Woods, Hawes Park. Laighills etc. I am worried about plans to stop the use of use of herbicides. It sounds a great goal but BoA and Dunblane would quickly get over-run by Giant Hogweed were such a plan implemented. The pollinator strategy also needs careful thought. If you really want to increase pollinators like Bees it would be much more effective to manage areas of existing grassland to stop them getting overgrown rather than planting wildflower verges. These verges make the uninformed think the jobs done when a small area is seeded with wildlflowers. However the impact on the real insect population is trivial. There are huge areas of council land that are getting overgrown with coarse grasses followed by scrub and woodland. Simply mowing rides through them once a year would help bees a lot. For example the verges on the A9 and M9 in the Dunblane and BoA areas could contribute many hectares of pollinator friendly wildflower meadows. The Lecropt Orchid Bank on the A9 could become a wildlfower and insect oasis with a few man-days of management work per year. As it is it will become scrub covered in two years. There is a need for a system of marking areas of council maintained land that contain rare plants like orchids to avoid council staff damaging them. Last summer all three areas of the castle mound containing 'star of Bethlehem' were strimmed to the ground. The rare 'toothwort' in Cameronhaugh Park in BoA was partly mowed down too. Dr Roy Sexton (Botanist)

Roy Sexton5 years ago During the local Scottish Wildlife Trusts vegetation surveys (see below) of the Council Managed Lands around the Castle and in the adjacent Kings Park site we were struck by the loss of biodiversity, the rapidity of recent change and the unbelievable lack of a coherent management plan for such an important national asset. In 2013 the responsibility for the entire Kings Park area was shifted from the Crown Estate to Stirling Council for the next 150 years. This should have been accompanied by a reassessment of the council's responsibilities for open ground and an appropriate resource allocated to this new commitment. At least one council employee should have responsibility for the area. A management committee needs to be set up to allow discussion to accommodate the aspirations of the various interests in constructing a long term management plan.With respect to the pollinator strategy urgent action is required on both Gowan Hills and the lands around Kings Park Golf Course to save what little remains of the once widespread pollinator rich meadow lands. I joined Andrew Hipkin as a volunteer to try and stop the picnic area on flagpole hill which used to be covered in nectar rich wild flowers (see photo) from getting over-run with bramble/elder scrub. This was halted when I understand the council could not finance the removal of a lorry load of cut brambles. This completely demoralised the team. The council should be ashamed of the overgrown viewing sites complete with benches and display maps that are now completely hidden in the gorse scrub both above Kings Park Farm and on the Gowan Hills. This is a wonderful wildlife resource I am glad to see an attempt being made to manage it ... if I can be of any assistance I would only be too glad to help. Dr Roy Sexton Articles Sexton R. 2014 Changes in the flora of Kings Park during the last Hundred years Forth Naturalist and Historian vol 37 17-29Sexton R 2019 The Vegetation of Stirling's Castle Rock. Three centuries of change: The Back Walk and Cliffs, The Haining and Kings Knot Forth naturalist and Historian vol 42 10-28Sexton R 2020 The Vegetation of Stirling's Castle Rock: Gowan Hill Forth Naturalist and Historian Vol 43 10-32