New Access Paths at Cromwell Bottom - Good on the whole, just one query.

My response to a statement from Hugh Firman (Chief Conservation Officer) on the Calderdale Wildlife Network which some birders may not get. My opinion, not that of Halifax Scientific Society as a whole.

"Hi Hugh,
Was the Environment Agency consulted? Does Calderdale know about the spillpway into Brookfoot Loop?
Because in course of making the path, soil has been deposited at the side, raising the spillway height. Now the river will not spill over until it is even higher than January's flood, so now Brighouse's cellars are more certain of being flooded. (It should actually have been lowered, not raised, as Brighouse was flooded this January.)
It can easily be rectified before the path material is put in - less easily after.

The good work is that a lot more light will get in, many annual and perennial flowers will bloom on the disturbed soil, these will attract lots of insects, thus more birds and birdsong. Excellent. A lot more trees need removing in my opinion, especially many of the invading oaks and hollies.
Personally, I am against tanalised timber. They can say what they like, all those chemicals (cyanide is involved I believe) have got to go somewhere when the wood eventually rots, not to mention the appalling pollution at the treatment plants.
Some edible wild plants grow at Cromwell Bottom, e.g. Bistort, the dock-pudding plant.
Congratulations, generally, though."
Steve Blacksmith, Bird Recorder for
Halifax Scientific Society