MALDON AND DENGIE - Ken Fitzgerald
Since our last 'Maldon notes' we had christmas, and of course prior to that Maldon victorian evenings. as has become somewhat customary, NEEBG was well represented both evenings. We also attended Mayflower nursery 'craft fair'. All these events not only raise cash for the coffers, but also permit us to meet a lot of people, often with badgery tales to tell.!. Very pleasingly, there seem to be very few "anti badger" people around. Though one farmer i had a chat with was very suprised to hear about the weight of independant research, establishing scientifically that culling badgers "has no place in the control of Bovine TB". Any mention of the potential cull, still under consideration, of these lovely animals is strongly rejected by a considerable majority of people.
The Maldon-Dengie section is well on top of most things, but as ever need all the help we can get with sett recording. we care lucky in having at our core a group of great members, all of whom i thank (on behalf of the stripeys) for their badgery support, they do sterling work for the local stripeys.
HALSTEAD-Neil Yeo
I have recently been out with new members and have handed a few setts down so to speak. This will hopefully allow me to go further afield to the borders to check setts that haven't been looked at for some time. i must say that looking after RTA's and the website and doing the newsletter keeps me kind of busy as doing the newsletter is a bit like being a newspaper reporter. I'm always on the lookout for stories and interesting things to drop in it.
Various planning queries and such are still things that need checking. I don't look forward to this time of year as already RTA's are coming in at a fair rate and you just never know what's round the corner.
I am still very worried about the threat of a possible badger cull and more unmeasured human (or perhaps inhuman) interference.
BRAINTREE - Renee Hockley-Byam
I've been out with new members over the last couple of months doing some "on the hoof" training, but the opportunity for some in depth understanding or our friend the Badger and it's lifestyle, ecology and habitat takes place at our training day, this year on sunday 6th of April. I do hope members old and new will make the effort to attend.
The show season is on the way and we really do need to ask for extra help at these events please- it's vitally important that we get out there and talk to people as the possibility of a cull hasn't gone away and we need the general public to be on Brocks side.
Thanks to all our "active members" for your efforts on behalf of Braintrees badgers.
COLCHESTER - Dennis Dungey
Compared to other sections and groups our lot have been relatively quiet this winter. how much of this is good fortune i am not sure, but i am a great believer in the idea that an active section/group has a considerable positive influence over anti badger actions.
Sometime over the next few months/years there are going to be projects in our section that will stretch our resources. these are: construction of a dual carriageway ( A120) from Braintree to Marks tey. A development of 10,000 properties at marks tey and construction of a water pipeline from Wormingford to Abberton and the consequent raising of the water level of the reservoir.
There are also two events that i urge you to attend- the training day and the AGM-details to be found elsewhere in the newsletter.
TENDRING - Gill Hagger
As reported in the last issue it was time to tackle the backlog of overdue setts in the Tendring area. Well i am very pleased to to report that thanks to some very keen Tendring members along with Dennis and a couple of volunteers the backlog is all but clear now.
Dennis with his knowledge of the area split the area into three, giving pauline, himself and myself segments to organise for sett checking. I would like to say a special thank you to Pauline and Elaine who have been especially busy.
On a positive note, while we have been out updating, we have bumped into people who have volunteered information on other previously unknown setts in our area, so now we can get down to searching these out and adding to our records.
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