Welcome to issue six of Tir Teg (Beautiful Land), the electronic newsletter from the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The AONB consists of 12 separate geographical areas - ten stretches of coastline, the Camel Estuary and Bodmin Moor. Here you will find the latest news on and from 'the best bits' of Cornwall.
 

The Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Annual Conference will be held this year on Saturday 9th May 2009 at the National Trust’s Trelissick Gardens, Feock, near Truro. 10.30 am – 4pm. The theme is "Landscape in Tomorrow’s Cornwall".
Morning speakers include: Janette Ward, Regional Director of Natural England and Professor Adrian Phillips, a National Trust trustee and former head of the Countryside Commission.
There will be afternoon site visits around Trelissick looking at issues around sustainable tourism, climate change and landscape management/access.
Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
Admission is free but places are limited so early booking is essential. Booking closes on Monday April 27th. Download a booking form from the website http://www.cornwall-aonb.gov.uk/latestnews.html#annual_conference or contact the AONB Unit on 01872 322350 or email info@cornwall-aonb.gov.uk.

Once again the AONB Unit will be attending the Royal Cornwall Show which is on 4th, 5th and 6th June 2009.
This year we are exhibiting jointly with the Isles of Scilly and Tamar Valley AONBs and will be having a large stand in the Heritage Pavilion (Stand Number 776, showground map ref F2). We will also be using the opportunity to canvas public opinion on landscape issues which will then inform our review of the AONB Management Plan.

As part of the AONB Management Plan review (a statutory requirement), a scoping report has been prepared to make an assessment of the purpose and structure of the review.  The main considerations to take into account are:

• Whether the current management plan is fit for purpose;
• What areas of work are currently recognised as needing to be addressed in the review
• What legislative/policy/strategy/actual changes have taken place that need to be incorporated into a new strategy
• What benefits would be brought to the management of the AONB through the review
• What resources are available for the AONB Unit to undertake the Review

This scoping report responds to these questions and provides the essential ‘next steps’ in the ongoing review. The scoping report is available on the Cornwall AONB web site http://www.cornwall-aonb.gov.uk/management.html#scoping_report.pdf

The Cornwall AONB Partnership has a new designer.
CTD is an independent graphic design studio based in Falmouth. They specialise in brand creation and management, printed publications, web design and exhibitions.
They are producing material for the AONB Annual Conference next month which will also ‘set the style’ for the AONB in the future. CTD will be working closely with the AONB Communications Officer.

The motto of the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies is ‘Gather up the fragments that are left that nothing be lost’. With this in mind the St Gerrans & Porthscatho Old Cornwall Society decided to record the wells, shutes and springs of the parish. These were, until quite recently, the sole source of water for domestic purposes.
The result is a beautifully produced booklet with photos old and new, illustrations and maps and a comprehensive description of how important these natural water sources were – and which ones still remain.
Edited and compiled by Hilary Thompson, the booklet was produced with the help of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership’s Sustainable Development Fund.

A National Trust campsite in the heart of the Cornwall AONB has just become even more environmentally friendly thanks to a host of new ‘green’ facilities including solar panels, composter toilets and a recycling point.  Highertown Farm Campsite at Lansallos is a small campsite with fine views of the South East Cornwall coast and is one of around 50 camping and caravan sites looked after by the Trust in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Thanks to part funding from the Cornwall AONB Sustainable Development Fund, the Trust hopes and plans to reduce the carbon footprint of the campsite.

Sal Erskine, National Trust Warden for Lansallos said: "Highertown campsite is located on the stunning Cornish coast; camping here gets you really close to nature, and as a small, simple rural site, the green improvements really will help to protect and enhance this experience."  Highertown is the only campsite looked after by the Trust in Devon and Cornwall but it is looking into the possibility of increasing the number of sites available for overnight camping in the future.

The Helford Marine Conservation Group is currently celebrating 20 years of working to protect the marine life of the Helford River. Encouraging people to become involved, the Group works with the local community to conserve the marine environment.  The Cornwall AONB Partnership recently awarded a grant to the Helford Marine Conservation Group, ensuring the running of this years events, newsletters and information leaflets. “The Helford VMCA Group would like to thank the Cornwall AONB unit for their invaluable support,” said VMCA Co-ordinator Rhiannon Pipkin.

The present Communications Plan for the Cornwall AONB has now expired.  It was produced in late 2004 and designed to run from 2005 to 2008. The original was based on a framework for a communications plan for protected areas, developed by the Head of Communications at Dartmoor National Park.  Some monitoring activity has taken place early in 2009 to measure communications success over the past three years and how well we have achieved the key aims:

• Increase awareness of the name (Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) and acronym (AONB)
• Raise the profile of the AONB Partnership and Unit
• Increase understanding of AONB designation and the specific sections of the Cornwall AONB
• Increase understanding of the value of the AONB landscape

Now this is to be followed by a review which will allow all partners, sub-partners and interested parties to identify any changes required. The work will be undertaken in consultation with the group of local authority officers currently undertaking the Management Plan review.

The AONB has sponsored two poetry workshops to help celebrate both our own 50th anniversary and the Centenary of the National Poetry Society.
The first, at The Dizzard in the Widemouth to Pentire section of the AONB, went well on Monday April 6th. Despite rain the poets managed to get a dry hour in the ancient woodland and were amazed and moved by the environment.  A second workshop is to be held on Saturday 27th June 2009 in the same location (meet at Boscastle Visitor Centre). Poets of all standards are welcome to take part – contact Helen Wood on 01840 212161.
Coincidentally a poem about the West Penwith section of the AONB was recently published in the national magazine ‘Outstanding’ the theme of which was the landscape and health.

Choices

Down west
In Zennor,
Near as far as one can reach,
There is a carved mermaid in the church;

Touch her and you will be healed,
So the story goes.

To reach the church you
Scale the wild cliff path
Or forge the moorland’s stones and thorns.

Watch the wild things scurry or soar
Feel the wind scour your soul
Let the sky put all things in perspective.

Down west
The mermaid she knows the landscape well
Touch and you will be healed.

The National Association for AONBs (NAAONB) and the host AONBs, Antrim Coast and Glens, Binevenagh, Causeway Coast, Lagan Valley, Mourne, Ring of Gullion, Sperrins and Strangford Lough look forward to welcoming delegates to Northern Ireland and the University of Ulster, Coleraine Campus for the NAAONB’s 11th Annual Conference. Entitled ‘Get a true sense of your surroundings: Valuing our Environment’, the conference will look at the different ways of valuing and getting value from our AONBs. It will also take this opportunity to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Causeway Coast AONB and the Giant’s Causeway World Heritage Site.
For further details and registration papers please see www.aonb.org.uk.  Closing date: 15th May 2009.

International Biodiversity Day is on May 22nd. The theme this year is Non Native Invasive Species.
This fits neatly with a (just completed) Cornwall AONB Sustainable Development Fund project.  A team from Duchy College, Rosewarne have been looking at an invasive plant on the Lizard. Entitled ‘Turning back the invasion’ the project suggests ways to promote the environmental remediation and reinstatement of rare Cornish habitats that have been decimated by the invasive plant Hottentot Fig (Carpobrotus edulis).  Research and greenhouse trials have come up with a number of possibilities.
For more information on International Biodiversity Day visit www.biodiversitysouthwest.org.uk