The dates for the above are now on the Beach Clean Dates page on this website. If you’d like to help, please put them in your diaries.
Category Archives: News
A Tree Walk around Ferring 30th November
On a relatively mild, but damp morning nine members of Ferring Conservation Group met up on the Village Green to admire and learn more about the many beautiful trees in
the village. The walk not only coincided with the wonderful display of autumnal colours at this time of year but also with National Tree Week. This is the UK’s largest annual tree celebration when people across the country are encouraged to plant thousands of trees to mark the start of the winter tree planting season.
The Group’s knowledgeable guide for the day was Tricia Hall who handed members a list of trees to identify as part of an ‘Eleven Tree Winter Challenge’. After admiring the vivid red of a nearby Dogwood shrub the group’s first stop was a Horse Chestnut tree recognised by the brown sticky buds and large palmate leaves.
At the next stop there were no acorns to give up a clue, but the distinctive shaped leaves of the Oak quickly gave the game away. When a nut-bearing tree like the Oak
produces a high yield of acorns the year is referred to as a ‘mast’ year. The theory is that this behaviour is ‘predator satiation’ as squirrels, jays, mice and badgers feed on the acorns and when smaller crops are produced for a few consecutive years, they are helping to keep the populations of these animals in check. The abundant year will promote the chances of the tree surviving as the glut of acorns will ensure that at least some will survive and grow into new trees.
Moving away from the Village Green and heading down Ferring Street, the Group
passed the bright green leaves scattered on the ground under a Common Lime Tree – as for many trees the leaves had been stripped from its branches by Storm Arwen.
As the Group turned into the entrance of Little Twitten they could see ahead of them the striking white bark of two mature Silver Birch with elegant drooping branches – these trees are attractive at all times of the year. By the side of the path a well-shaped young Field Maple could be seen that had been planted several years ago by the Group in memory of its founder member, Joyce Cooper. A well-formed Sweet Chestnut was thriving, more so than others planted along the Rife that suffer competition from other trees. Tricia pointed out the lichen that had grown on many trunks and branches and this is a welcome sign of clean air. A sapling Oak Tree was spotted with a few oak apples hanging from its branches. Tricia explained that although many people believe these are the fruit of the tree they are in fact formed when chemicals are injected by the larva of certain kinds of Gall Wasps. At the eastern end of Little Twitten, in the centre of a copse of trees, a magnificent Monterey Pine stands proud. It is the tallest tree in the area and believed to be around 150 years old. This remarkable tree which can also be spotted from Highdown Hill has distinctive needles in groups of three, unlike the Scots Pine which are in two. Its bark is very attractive to unusual birds like Tree Creepers who have been seen on the Plantation in Goring.
Retracing their steps the Group had their last stop in Grange Gardens where a striking Sweet Chestnut graced the front lawn in front of Phoenix House. The spiral bark is another interesting feature of this native tree. Jane Hayman from the Group commented that ‘all the trees on Tricia’s list were located on the walk and much had been learned along the way’. Most of the members gratefully partook of a hot drink in Kingsley’s Coffee Shop to warm up after a most enjoyable morning.
Annual Tidy Up Around Warren Pond
Ferring Conservation Group members were joined recently by a number of Councillors from Ferring Parish Council, including the Chairman Pete Coe, to carry out the annual tidy up of the surrounds of the Warren Pond in South Ferring. It was an unsettled
morning and the work party was caught out by one rain shower, but this was made up for by the sight of a double rainbow to the north.
About a dozen or so members carried out the necessary work to cut back the brambles and some of the ivy and other overgrown vegetation which allowed better views of the pond especially from the Florida Road side. It was great to welcome one very young volunteer who was accompanied by his Dad, and he can be seen on the skip in the accompanying photo.
The pond which is in the ownership of the Parish Council is maintained as a nature reserve at present, and the work allows this to continue but with an element of control so that passers-by can view some of the wildlife that passes through or calls it home. This has included recent sightings of a feeding Grey Heron on the central platform.
Anybody is welcome to join our regular work parties which are publicised on the website and in Group e-mails.
Thank you to our members who support these events for the benefit of the village and its ecology.
Rife Memorial Bench
Roy Westwater, one of FCG’s long-standing members, has donated the cost of one of our new ‘perch benches’ on the banks of the Rife in memory of his late wife Barbara.
We were pleased to have a suitable plaque engraved and mounted on the bench, and to take this photograph of Roy and members of his family being among the first to use it.
Fungi Foray 2021
A dozen Ferring Conservation Group members met up recently at the RSPB
Fly Agaric
Pulborough Brooks reserve for a fungi foray, led by Group committee member Tricia Hall. The wooded area of the reserve is one of the best locally to view a wide variety of fungi at this time of year. The RSPB have marked out a “Fascinating Fungi” trail there, with information notices throughout the woods highlighting the various types to be seen in each location.
The first fungi seen by the Group was right on the boundary of the car park itself where there were a number of specimens of the iconic Fly Agaric – with the well-known red and white spotted cap.
On moving down into the low lying and damp Black Wood area, a whole variety of further types were found, some of which have fascinating names including Amethyst Deceiver (a beautiful purple mushroom amongst the leaf litter), Common Earthball (quite numerous and which smell of rubber if broken open) and Turkeytail (a bracket fungus growing on tree stumps and research into this may result in its use in cancer treatment).
All of this searching was carried out to the background of birdsong from within the trees, and the visit was ended at the view point of Hail’s View overlooking the brooks, where there were distant views of various geese and swans, with two Marsh Harriers hunting over the reeds and vegetation, and a Kestrel hovering overhead.
A visit to the reserve is recommended at any time, but an Autumn trip to see the fungi is an added bonus.
2021 Christmas Cards are now on Sale
Please note that our next Group monthly meeting commences at 2.30pm (not 7.30 pm as stated on the poster) Friday 29th October in Ferring Village Hall‘The Great British Rake Off’
After a fallow year in 2020 due to Covid restrictions, volunteers from Ferring
Conservation Group came together again with those from The Good Gym Worthing to rake up the cut vegetation at the foot of Sea Lane Ferring at the start of the month.
The Good Gym is a charity with branches across the country where groups of runners combine regular exercise with helping local communities as happened here in Ferring. The reason for the work was to remove the thatch of grass that would otherwise swamp the wild flowers on the verge, which include the attractive Salsify amongst others, and allow them to thrive in
future years.
About 20 volunteers from both groups met up one tea time, but were greeted by a sudden downpour of rain at the start of the session. Luckily, this soon relented and the task was completed in a friendly way with people mixing well for a chat whilst carrying out the raking. Daylight began to fade, but by then the task was completed.
Ferring Conservation Group Chairman David Bettiss said, “We’re very grateful to our friends from The Good Gym helping us out once again alongside the regular volunteers
from our own group to carry out this important work. We’ve already seen a definite improvement in the biodiversity here since the annual raking started a few years ago, and trust that next Spring and Summer we’ll all see the fruits of our work with wild flowers blooming. At this time of climate change, it’s critical that we all do our bit to improve our local environment as much as we can, whilst providing a good habitat for our wildlife.”
Last ‘Beach Clean’ of the year and the ‘Great Big Green Week’
On a glorious late September morning around 35 members of Ferring Conservation Group met at the beach huts in Ferring to carry out the last scheduled beach clean of 2021.
As in previous years this September’s beach clean was conducted as part of the Great British Beach Clean. This national initiative is a week-long citizen science event running from 17th to 26th September, driven by the Marine Conservation Society, with many beach cleans taking place across the UK. During each clean a 100 metre section of the beach is surveyed and all items of litter recorded with the results fed into the International Coastal Clean-up (ICC) initiative. 
This global event was established in 1986 to encourage volunteers to act as ‘citizen scientists’ by tallying the items of litter found with a view to identifying the sources of marine debris, examining the trends of items and to increase awareness regarding the different threats to marine life. Sadly whales and dolphins have washed up on beaches either already dead or dying due to them ingesting large amounts of plastic. Tragically, in 2019, a young Cuvier beaked whale was spotted in great distress off the coast of the Philippines. It was soon washed up on a beach and shortly afterwards sadly died. To the astonishment of vets carrying out a post-mortem, 88 pounds of plastic was removed from its stomach (including 16 rice sacks on top of other types of plastic bags; plus large tangles of nylon rope). This distressing story demonstrates only too well the race against time we all face for immediate action to be taken worldwide.
Jane Hayman from the Group said “there were relatively few items of litter on Ferring beach due to the recent calm seas and the largest item found was a particularly heavy wooden pallet that became a two-man job to move it along to the collection point. Disappointingly the worst area for litter was to the rear of the beach huts and around the Bluebird café area”.
The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) is taking place in Glasgow from 31st October to 12th November 2021. Leading up to this crucial conference a national initiative is taking place and from 18th to 26th September over 2000 communities across the country are joining together for the ‘Great Big Green Week’. Events are taking place in many towns and villages involving local groups highlighting how people can take action to tackle climate change and protect our wildlife and green spaces on a local and personal level, with a view to encouraging others to become involved too. The events will range from climate cafés, community stalls, art installations, concerts and many more all with the aim of putting pressure on the UK Government to up its game on climate change. Ferring Conservation Group have provided an interesting and thought provoking display which can be seen in Ferring Library until Friday 24th September. Please do go along and take a look at it and even put some of the suggested actions into practice.
FCG provide new benches for Ferring Rife
Ferring Conservation Group has completed the construction and installation of two rustic wooden benches on the Ferring side of the local Rife River. It’s hoped that these will provide a welcome stopping point for walkers to take a short break to appreciate this much loved and protected Local Wildlife Site.
The benches are made of solid oak and were constructed by Group committee member, Graham Tuppen, and he was assisted in the installation by fellow committee member Colin Annis and Group chairman David Bettiss. The work was carried out with the full cooperation of the Environment Agency who own the land, with the benches designed to fit seamlessly and naturally into the local environment.
They were paid for out of Conservation Group funds, and specifically by donations received from generous members during the recent 2021 membership renewal process. The work was carried out by the volunteers in their own time and expense.
David Bettiss said, ‘We’re very pleased to have been able to install these excellent and well-crafted benches for the benefit of the local community on the Rife. Whilst working on them, we were overwhelmed by many positive comments by people walking past, so I know they’re going to be well used, and will hopefully last a long time. I’m very grateful to our members who have given us donations which allowed us to complete such a project for the benefit of the whole local community, and particular thanks must go to my fellow workers, Colin Annis and especially Graham Tuppen, who did the bulk of the work.’
Persimmon tries again
Persimmon’s PersistenceWe learned this morning that Persimmon have lodged an appeal against Worthing Borough Council’s refusal of their 475-home estate on the North Goring Gap. This was quite a surprise because they told the planning officers that they would not appeal but try to get the land designated for housing in the Planning Inspector’s review of the new Local Plan.
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