The Trustees want to encourage participation in the life of Holt Lowes. This falls into 3 categories:

• Public Guided Walks
• Volunteer Conservation Group
• Monitoring Wildlife

The guided walks provide an introduction to the Lowes, its wildlife and the conservation problems it faces. Last year’s walks sparked an interest in the participants in that many joined the conservation group run by the trustees. They worked through the winter, principally controlling invasive scrub.

We hope that as more people get interested in the Lowes they might get involved in monitoring the key species that are the reason for the SSSI designation. The results of this can then be used to modify and educate further conservation work.

We will publish the list of walk dates as soon as the trustees have decided on them

For all the walks meet at Mackeys Hill Car Park just off the Hempstead Rd at 10:30am. Finish 01:00pm . NB All walks are FREE

Conservation Work

Holt Lowes Volunteers will restart work on Friday 7th October at 10.00 am. Our focus is to cut back the scrub in the wetter areas of the Lowes to enable the special valley mire plants to thrive.  We then meet on the first Friday of each month until the end of February.

Dates and details

We meet on the first Friday of every month from October through to February. ie :4th November, 2nd December. 6th January, 3rd February

Meeting point: Holt Country Park, main car park ( off the Norwich Road), NR25 6SP. Car
park charge 2 pounds but parking costs will be refunded.
Registration: at 10.am.
Duration of session: 10 – 12.30pm but do feel free to leave before the end if you
need to.
Refreshments: Please bring your own drink. We will provide the biscuits
What to wear: wellington boots, Stout footwear and thorn proof trousers and tops
What to bring: A pair of thick gardening gloves, loppers and secateurs if you
have them. No worries if you don’t, we will have spares.
Access to toilets: Holt Country Park

For further info. please contact:

• Fiona Jolliffe  fiona.jolliffe@gmail.com
• 01263 713226 or Mob:07768717902
• Claire Roberts.  cgroberts17@gmail.com
• 01263 713817 or Mob 07760462693

The end of winter ‘ 23 work in February, great piles of cut gorse ready to be milled by the proffesionals

Some work during the 23-24 Campaign

Gresham’s Pupils and Staff working hard on the Lowes during Field Day (Oct 6th 2022)

Species Monitoring

For those who like recording, we would like to try and monitor more of the key species to be found on the Lowes. Already we have two people who record adder / grass snake numbers and basking sites. However, there is much else to do and that depends on your interest and to some extent your expertise.

• Some examples:
• Mapping breeding birds (some or all)
• Mapping and counting the rare plants.
• Insect recording, eg butterflies, bees, grasshoppers and crickets, beetles, moths, dragonflies an damselflies
• Mapping fungi

For further info, please contact David Horsley  davidth@holtlowes.org