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Children do their bit for local wildlife

 
23 March 2006

Children from a local primary school have been playing their part in helping to preserve an endangered species.

The children, aged 9 and 10, from Thorntree primary school in Charlton, have built a ‘loggery’ in their school grounds that will serve as a home to Britain’s largest terrestrial beetle Lucanus Cervus, more commonly known as the Stag beetle.

The creature - with its shiny black head and body, with chestnut brown wing case (adult males are easily recognised by their prominent 'antlers') - is in decline in most parts of England and believed to be extinct in some countries.
 
The school formally declared the loggery open during Science Week, in a project that also offered pupils a chance to learn about stag beetles, and how to protect and conserve them. It was facilitated by local wildlife project Wildspace!, with support from Greenwich Council and English Nature.

Greenwich Council and Wildspace! have also worked in collaboration to ensure the declaration of two nearby sites as a Local Nature Reserve. Maryon Wilson Park is home to trees that are more than 400 years old, while Gilbert’s Pit – a disused chalk, sand and gravel quarry – is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Both sites support diverse natural habitats that provide important protection for birds, animals and more than 150 species of flowering plants, and Gilbert’s Pit - with its visible strata of chalk and fossil material – has attracted geological interest for over a century and offers a unique aspect on 55m years of geological history.

The Local Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest at Gilbert’s Pit also has interpretative signage to publicise the site’s special significance and make it more
accessible for the public. This has been achieved through support from DEFRA’s Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund.
 
ENDS

Media information:
Greenwich Council communications
Andrew Stern  020 8921 5043
Wildspace!     
Jordan O. Ihama  020 8691 9742

Notes to editors:
1 Photos available – contact the Council’s press office.
2 Wildspace! is a New Opportunity Grant Funded Project, administered by English Nature
3 The stag beetle is listed on Schedule 11 of the EC Habitat Directive; in the UK it is classified as nationally scarce. It is also listed on Schedule 5 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1998, which makes it illegal to trade in them without an appropriate licence.
4 For more information on nature reserves in the borough visit http://www.greenwich.gov.uk/Greenwich/YourEnvironment/GreenSpace/NatureReserves.htm

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