This last week has included a visit to Pickering, to set up for the AGM and the associated discussion meeting, that we are organising for 2nd October.
The venue for the meeting is the White Swan Inn, at Pickering, which justifies attending the meeting on its own.
The morning session will be a discussion meeting and a topic we will be focusing on will be the comparison between cutting and burning for managing heather. It is an issue that has come to the fore recently and this year we are investigating whether enough use is made of cutting as an adjunct to burning. There are those who swear that cutting or burning is the only way to manage heather, but I think there is a strong argument in favour of using the two techniques in conjunction. Cutting can be used to develop a small scale mosaic of heather and this can have benefits for grouse.
In the afternoon, we will be visiting Goathland Moor and this promises to be an excellent visit as in adition to excellent examples of cutting and burning, the moor offers a little bit of everything: from grouse, through heather beetle, to the construction of ponds. We will be circulating invitations, this coming week to people who are in range that we think might be interested in this gathering, but if anyone would like to pre-empt this, please let us know.
The AGM will take place back at the White Swan Inn after a well-earned cup of tea and the day's activities will conclude with a Board meeting. There will be no shortage of entertainment, but it will be a good opportunity for the Trust to 'strut its stuff' in an area where we have not held our AGM before.
