UKH

We hope you can join us on Saturday 20th May to give this beloved bouldering crag a much needed tidy up. We're looking to collect litter and cut back brambles around the buttresses and boulders all along the edge.

We have the blessing of the local authority for the work.

Meeting is at 10am at the parking spot nearest The Old Glen House pub 53.84611300607255, -1.798967693881452 

Please bring your own equipment if possible - saws, pruning shears, gloves, litter pickers etc.

In reply to Team BMC: As climbers do we really have the right to destroy vegetation - Habitats for small animals and birds? What happened to leave no trace? A lot of the climbing is accessible without this.

Wait until the autumn/ winter for it to die back for the areas that aren’t.

In reply to annarfh00:

I think of many crags in the UK that had vegetation on them but with the develpment of climbing were cleaned. Thus, were is natural?

The clean up is cutting back brambles to access the boulders and picking up all the trash people leave. The council had already cut down a load of intrusive trees there.

On Stanage when they clean out of the cracks 50+ years ago and dropped in chock stones lots of insects lost there homes.

In reply to annarfh00:

Agreed, all vegetation removal should be done in autumn. Brambles form excellent hunting territory for wrens, gold and firecrests (which do occupy the crag area), as well as the other songbird and ground feeding species. Removing this in nesting season is irresponsible, no matter how much. We should be doing better as climbers and promoting biodiversity, and due care and responsibility for ‘gardening’ at the appropriate time of year.

Edit - blessing of the council means sod all, this is the same council that took a tractor mounted mower to the heather on Ilkley Moor right in the middle of nesting season…

In reply to mrphilipoldham:

It's preferable in autumn but removing recent bramble growth next to the popular areas of the crag is very different to removing well established bramble thickets in the area. Any nesting would stop BMC work and feeding areas are way better in established dense thickets than on patchy recent growth. I mainly helped keep Woodhouse Scar clean (horrific rubbish problems and bramble encroachment) but have done some work at Shipley Glen and never saw anything particularly worrisome.

If true, the council action on Ilkley was disgusting and illegal.

In reply to Team BMC:

There really is no pleasing some people. Nobody is suggesting a scorched earth approach, merely sensitive removal of isolated bramble patches from problems. 

In reply to Offwidth:

Better would be a wider choice of hunting grounds, not being confined to a select few established spots which only reduces time available to eat when those better spots suffer inevitable regular disturbance. It’s not only about the birds of course? There are numerous moths and other invertebrates that rely on a mix of new and old growth brambles. The pollinators that rely on the flowers. The mammals that’ll live amongst the rocks and rely on them for cover and food. We all know it’s a bad idea to do it now, and not in 4 months time, all I’m hearing is poor excuses for exceptionalism.

With regards the tractor on Ilkley I believe it transpired to be a council contractor, which quite possibly only serves to make the matter worse to be frank. 

In reply to mrphilipoldham:

My issue with this view is my experience of the proportion of brambles on the crag area being removed in such events is very small (and the proportion of litter removed, which also negatively impacts wildlife, is very large), let alone being miniscule compared to the amount of brambles in the wider area in general. I visit such crags a few times a year and climb lower grades in volume (often solo) with secateurs and remove brambles as I find them as it can makes climbing some worthwhile lines unpleasant (encouraging honeypotting). I never remove brambles away from the climbs and problems.