Summary of 2010 by Adrian Pickles (Head of Centre)

This is my tenth year as Head of Malham Tarn Field Centre and whilst I am getting the hang of things, there is always something new to learn and someone else to learn from. 2010 began and ended with snow and ice affecting everything that we did. Living and working on Malham Moor presents a number of challenges when the weather is cold and I should say thank you to the many people who helped us out particularly in the first three months of the year. The Tarn froze for 80 days in what was probably the coldest winter since 1982. Winter was followed by a cold and dry spring with less than 12 cm of rain between April and June. The moor stopped looking like Siberia in March and started to look like the Sahara in May- the grass didn’t seem to start growing until June; full details will, as usual be available in the 2011 Wildlife and Weather Report.

There were many highlights during the year: we installed a fantastic stained glass window by Jackie Hunt, our Artist in Residence. In July the poet Simon Armitage stopped off and gave a reading as he walked the Pennine Way singing, or rather reading, for his supper along the way. In October we helped the film crew for the Secret Supper Club, a Channel 4 programme, as they used the Centre and the National Trust boathouse as a base for filming. The programme which features Olly Smith is due to be shown one Sunday evening in January. Earlier in the year, the BBC Countryfile crew popped in for a cup of tea whilst filming a programme about the plight of the white-clawed crayfish and the National Trust work on moving Cave Spiders.

We are what we do- as a trading charity we and the FSC rely on our customers to survive. Our visitors, who may come from schools, universities, through work or as interested individuals gave very positive feedback about their learning experiences. The FSC Kids Fund is an internal charity through which staff and friends of the FSC can help less fortunate groups to visit Centres. In 2010 the FSC Kids Fund helped two school groups to stay at Malham Tarn who would not otherwise have been able to come.

We continued to work with the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust to engage communities through the ‘People and the Dales’ project. Another new venture for 2010 was working with the YDNPA to provide visitor activities: so in June, July and August staff headed off to Reeth, Askrigg, Austwick and Bolton Abbey as well as Malham with pond nets trays and identification guides to accost passers by and enthuse them about small animals and plants.

           
As ever we rely on help from a huge number of people – farming, landowners, tenants, suppliers and neighbours. There are too many individuals and organisations to list but to all who have helped us to deliver our mission of bringing environmental understanding to all, through first hand experience thank you once again.