Hosting our first conference
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Last week we held our first limestone pavement conference. Attended by 40 academics, students and conservation practitioners the conference was entirely focussed on limestone pavements and the organisms that live in them. We kicked off with two speakers from the Burren in Ireland.
The Burren limestone pavements are much more extensive than those found in Great Britain but importantly, their condition is rather better than those found in the UK. Emma Glanville from Burren National Park began by introducing us to the Burren and its pavements and then Sharon Parr, formerly of the Burren Life Programme introduced Burren Life. The Burren Life project introduced its won agri-environment scheme and was incredibly successful in engaging local landowners and improving habitat condition.
After coffee I presented my own research on 50 years of vegetation change and then we heard from Caragh Clayton-Chance and Lucy Brookfield from Natural England about challenges faced in limestone pavements in Yorkshire and Lancashire/Cumbria concerning agri-environment schemes and SSSI/SAC management and monitoring. It was interesting to see that while there are many common challenges there are also some large differences. Justine Patton talked on lepidoptera of limestone pavements and Alex Gray presented about the genetics of birds foot sedge. The talks were really interesting and all generated lots of discussion. The final four talks were a whirlwind tour of projects in the Limestone Pavement Partnership from Ezra Tattersall, Sophie Roberts, Hannah Risser and myself.
After lunch we made the most of the good weather and headed to Gait Barrows where Jim Turner gave us a really interesting tour of the pavements at Gait Barrows NNR. We saw lots of interesting things including a very rare moss and least minor larvae.
It was great to meet so many people in person as opposed to online and to have the opportunity to chat about pavements with so many knowledgeable people, something we hope we will be able to repeat in the future.
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