Greetings once again from the National Trust Office. We have had a number of changes of Administrative Assistant. Vanessa sadly left us at the end of August, and Carolyn Yon ably filled in for a short period, but missed teaching so returned to that profession. Olive Williams, our Treasurer is filling in this part time post until the end of January, when she goes on holiday. Over a period of 3 months we had voluntary help from Katherine Willett, a St. Helenian on holiday from UK, and she did a tremendous amount of work that otherwise there is not time to do – finishing off some School Resource Packs, and proof reading Ken Denholm's research which we will publish for local reference purposes initially.

We are grateful to all these people for their friendly manner and invaluable contribution to the increasing work of the Trust.

Greetings to all of you for the Festive Season, and a Peaceful New Year

Barbara B. George, Director

FRENCH MEDALS

THE ST. HELENA MEDAL

The Hon. French Consul sent us this photo of medals given by Napoleon 111, to soldiers who fought in the Napoleonic wars

The Medal of St. Helena was created by decree on 13 August 1857

The purpose of this medal was to honour everyone in the Navy or Army who fought under the French Flag (including Foreign Nationals) during

the Napoleonic Wars between 1792 and 1815, ending with the Battle of Waterloo.

It is cast in bronze, topped by the Imperial Crown – all in one piece which is unusual. Since the colour of the patina was dark, it was nick-named "The Chocolate Medal"

The ribbon is 37mm wide, with 11 stripes – 5 red and 6 green.

On one side is the face of the Emperor Napoleon 1, on the other side, it says:-

"Legend of military campaigns 1792-1815, to thank his companions of glory. His last thoughts 5 May 1821"

As a result of Napoleon being on St. Helena at that time – this being a request made by him in his Last Will and Testament, the medal was called "The St. Helena Medal".

NEW BOOKS

Dr. Ian Baker, well known to many on the island, has written his promised book about St. Helena. It is called "One Man's Island", and is a very readable travel book from someone who has stayed here for a total of 2 years – not the usual few weeks – and who obviously loves the island, its geology and its people.

SNCG The new Bird Book " A guide to the Birds of St. Helena and Ascension", written by Dr. Neil McCulloch and supported by RSPB was given an official launch at the museum in August. This is beautifully illustrated with paintings of the birds.

Robin Castell.

St. Helena Proclamations. A massive collection with index. A very useful reference book

NEW VIDEO/DVD

Darrin and Sharon Henry are back on the island, and they have recently released a new tourist video of Ascension. This lasts 26 minutes and gives a good account of the wildlife and life on Ascension.

Postcard scenes of St. Helena on CD by Jonathan Clingham – 200 beautiful views of the island.

All these items are on sale locally or in UK at Miles Apart at www.sthelena.se

MUSEUM

Since the curator, Lucy Caesar has gone on training, the Heritage Society has not enough funds to pay a full time curator, and the opening hours have been cut down. Mrs. Edith Timm offered to be Acting Curator, at a very much reduced salary, and we thank her for this. Maureen Stevens, retired local archivist, is now the assistant, having replaced Peggy Byrne.

The Trust Council was concerned about the situation. In agreement with the Heritage Society, they arranged a meeting with the Acting Governor to discuss the way forward. All agreed that the present situation is unsatisfactory, and that the Government must support the running costs of the museum, as it is a public facility fulfilling Strategic Objectives.

The Museum held an exhibition on old musical instruments on the island, following the Festival of Music Week.

FLAX MUSEUM

Recent events regarding this Project are exciting. The Police have re-roofed the building and will help clean up. We had an estinate for the extensive work to be done inside, and Dr. Mike Pienkowski identified £4,500, through a contact he made through UKOTCF. This will go a long way towards the repairs necessary, and with the Display Boards almost catered for ( see below), our President hopes that this Project can be up and running for our third Anniversary in May 2005

NEW LAND DEVELOPMENT CONTROL PLAN

This has been taking up quite a lot of time as the Director is the representative of the Trust on the Agency, and it required a lot of reading and comment. It is important we get this right for St. Helena as this Plan will set out the Land Development for the next 10 years. The Plan will become available to the public on December 6th, and several meetings for discussion will be held in all areas of the island. Written comments must be received before 17 January. The new Land Development Control Plan will be on sale from SHG at a cost of £5 from 6 December 2004, and will also be on the Government Website.

St Helena Visit by UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum

For decades (we are from the stamp collecting generation!) we have wanted to visit St Helena, and this wish has been strengthened throughout recent years while Mike has been Chairman of the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum, enjoying working with colleagues from St Helena, both distantly and while they were in UK.

Our opportunity arrived this year when St Helena Environmental Advisory Consultative Forum invited us to visit St Helena as facilitators, working alongside Isabel Peters and colleagues, to help develop a strategy to implement the Environment Charter.  This arose because Mike and a Forum colleague, Dace Ground, had facilitated a pilot programme to implement an Environment Charter in Turks & Caicos. Mike had been keeping St Helena colleagues in touch with the progress on this, and St Helena had bravely decided to be the first other UK Overseas Territory to see if the model could help St Helena.  The programme to do this would include two visits to the Island, the first by both of us.

We were delighted with the good response, with strong involvement from senior government officials, voluntary organisations, the new staff officer and Councillors, among others. The first visit in August 2004 was essentially concerned with identifying what was already being done and what else would need to be done to meet the Charter Commitments; and the second visit in February/March 2005 will aim to set priorities and how to integrate this into normal procedures. In between the visits, the latest of a series of working document has been collated, and circulated in St Helena for comment.

Although we had a very full programme to achieve this, there were lots of other things to do as well. St Helena National Trust is a member organisation of the Forum, which had arranged some time earlier for one of its Council members, Martin Drury (recently retired Director-General of The National Trust [in England, Wales and Northern Ireland]) to visit and assist the establishment of the Trust. Therefore, we were keen to have the chance to join the Trust’s Council, meet the representatives of several of the diverse member organisations, learn of progress and challenges, and offer advice where we could.

It would, of course, be a sin to visit St Helena and not see some of its special features. Indeed, barely had we stepped off the RMS before Rebecca Cairns-Wicks and her children had whisked us off for an invigorating walk to Lot’s Wife’s Ponds – made even more challenging in that Ann was recuperating from a dislocated shoulder and broken arm, so that rope-assisted stages were one-handed. During both work sessions and any spare moment, we joined the Conservation Group on a walk to Great Stone Top, explored Jamestown endlessly, walked around parts of the peaks with Vince Williams and his colleagues at the Agriculture & Natural Resources Department as well as Rebecca and the project team, joined Emma Bennett on exciting dolphin surveys, found some fossil birds, planted some more gumwood trees to add to those planted for us in the Millennium year, visited Longwood House of course, searched for nocturnal spiders in this area of global significance for unique invertebrates, drove around to try to work out how the vast number of exciting and hugely different features fitted into such a small island, and took many pictures including several hundred of wire-birds. As Mike’s PhD was on plovers, this last was a must, and our bank balance was only saved from excessive spending on film by the existence of digital cameras! Something of a breathless list of activities, but St Helena has rather a lot of special places to fit into a short visit.

The chance to visit various places, with people who know them, as well as being a treat, was important for another task. Mike is coordinating a review of actual and potential Wetlands of International Importance under the “Ramsar” Convention. St Helena is rather different from most places – in fact anywhere! – and we were keen to work out how the Convention might apply. This was very useful, and the cloud forest of the peaks, as well as the coastal zone, and the oasis-like streams through the dry-lands most certainly have global significance.   

Impressions:

• Sadness that so much of what had been present before settlement had been lost;
• Delight that so much still remained;
• Impressed at the heroic efforts of Islanders to save species from extinction and help them recover;
• Enthusiasm that more of this can be done to restore the peaks and other areas;
• Hope that some of the recently lost invertebrates and plants will be found in some nooks and crannies;
• Profoundly grateful for the welcome, friendship and hospitality of the Saints, both those we have long known and new acquaintances;
• Enthralled by Jamestown and the other historic sites, and potential features like the flax-mill;
• Absolutely astounded by the natural variety; where else (apart from baby-sister island Ascension) can one stand in a cloud forest and look at a desert a few kilometres away?
• Excited by the prospects of Saints looking after this natural and built heritage, and building a high-value, low-volume tourist industry to show it to the many other visitors who would love it.

Thanks to all for your help and welcome. Mike looks forward to returning in February, and Ann wishes that she could too.

Mike and Ann Pienkowski, UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum, 102 Broadway, Peterborough PE1 4DG, UK.  E-mail: pienkowski@cix.co.uk  web: www.ukotcf.org

DONATIONS

We have had a number of small donations to the Trust, mainly for Q5 books and posters, which nonetheless mount up and we are very grateful to Solomon's Shipping, the Tourist Office, the Post Office and the RMS for continuing to collect these for us.

We gratefully acknowledge the large gifts from:- Vilma and Trevor Toms, who donated 100 Calendars again this year, Mr and Mrs. Holroyd who made the first Gift Aid donation in UK, and Aubrey George and helpers who raised £466 for us through various events on the Falklands. All these people are happy to put their donation towards buying a display board each for the Flax Museum, which with last year's donation from the Toms of 100 Calendars means we have almost the Funds for 4 Display Boards, plus one from the OTEP Project. This is a very encouraging start, and there is more progress (see Flax Museum article) on this Project.

MILLENNIUM FOREST

We also thank our anonymous donor who has again sent £2000 for the year. Having 2 full time staff is working well

UK DONATIONS

If making a donation to the St Helena National Trust, Museum of St Helena, or the Millennium Forest, please make out your cheque in the name of the particular organisation, as the bank accounts are separate.

UK Gift Aid

UK taxpayers may make Gift Aid Donations via the Friends of St Helena.  This means that 22% of your donation can be reclaimed from the Inland Revenue.  For a Gift Aid Form, please send a stamped addressed envelope to:

Mrs Vicky Beal

Treasurer, Friends of St Helena

2 Maberley Close

Ladygrove

Abingdon

Oxon

OX14 5PZ

NATIONAL HERITAGE REGISTER.

We were able to continue this time- consuming work for two days at Plantation House, with the help of Vanessa Yon, before Katherine Willett left the island. We are considering employing a person to help get this important work moving forward in the New Year.

SCHOOL RESOURCE PACKS.

This paper gives an update on progress for the Central Peaks Protected Area Planning Project. We hope you enjoy reading it and if you have any questions or thoughts about the project contact Rebecca Cairns-Wicks c/o The St Helena National Trust Office Broadway House, Jamestown or Email sth.nattrust@helanta.sh

To contribute to the planning process. We want to:
a) Find out more about some of the less obvious animals and plants of the Peaks: the invertebrates, mosses, liverworts and lichens.
b) Establish maps of the vegetation of the Peaks.
c) Find new ways of controlling flax and other invasive plant species growing on sheer cliff sites across the Peaks.
d) Know more about the status, ecology and methods of propagation of some of the most critically endangered plants of the Peaks.
e) Encourage participation from the community

Progress made towards this includes:
a) Establishing baseline data.
- Invertebrates
Philip and Myrtle Ashmole and Edward Thorpe have been busy in Scotland creating a database for invertebrates. The database is a register of all the invertebrates recorded on the Island with information just on the invertebrates ever recorded at 14 sites in the Peaks and High Central Ridge. The database will be completed next year after field work to be carried out by Philip, Myrtle, Edward and Howard Mendel, a beetle specialist at the Natural History Museum, to determine what invertebrates are present/still present.
- Mosses, liverworts and lichens
Martin Wigginton, a specialist of repute, has agreed to investigate the mosses and liverworts of the Peaks, as well as collate historical data and help in the production of an identification guide. Martin, like Philip, Myrtle and Howard has agreed to waive the normal consultancy fees for the project for which we are profoundly grateful.

Edward Thorpe, a herpetologist (snake and reptile specialist), has also been learning some new skills in invertebrate identification and mounting at the Royal Museum of Scotland. Establishing the field work and identification skills on St Helena is very important so during visits by specialists ANRD staff and volunteers will be getting involved and training.

b) Vegetation mapping
Work will start soon to produce a digital vegetation map of the Peaks, with more detailed mapping for Diana’s Peak National Park and High Peak. Thanks are extended to the Forestry Section of ANRD for providing a member of staff for this.
Mapping the vegetation of the Peaks will establish baseline data about what are the different types of vegetation of the Peaks and what is their extent (what area do they cover?). This will enable comparisons to be made to monitor change over time. We are most interested to monitor change in the extent of native species.
The map will include the whole of the upland land mass above the 600m contour. This is the area that most frequently experiences mist and receives the highest rainfall. This is the catchment area for the water we draw from springs, streams and boreholes. It includes the fragments of remaining tree fern thicket (Diana’s Peak National Park and High Peak) and land managed as forestry, pasture and redundant flax plantation.
Before mapping can begin, finding the appropriate mapping programmes and tools is needed. The Water division already use digital mapping and opportunities to extend this technology are being explored.

c) Alien Plant Control
– How do you remove flax from a sheer slope? Not easily that’s for sure!

Under the direction of Alan Thomas and with assistance from other staff members of the Fire Service, staff of the Environmental Conservation Section and Mark Coleman have embarked on a climbing training course to establish safe systems of work on cliff sites.

Here’s Jeremy Henry at High Peak, just about to go over the edge!

But then, how to remove the flax safely whilst on a rope? Different methods are being investigated.

Contracts are currently being drawn up for alien plant control work at High Peak. We’re starting in accessible areas first and will be aiming to remove primarily Bilberry, Whiteweed and Furze from the top and base of High Peak before starting work on the cliff face. This will help reduce the amount of weed seed that can spread into the cliff when work starts there next year.

d) Establishing recovery plans for the endangered plants of the Peaks.
Recovery Plans have been drafted for the She Cabbage, Redwood, False Gumwood and Large Bellflower.

We’re looking to finalise these drafts which will include detailed three action plans and develop additional plans for the Dwarf Jellico (pictured here flowering at the George Benjamin Arboretum) and Small Bellflower.

e) Encouraging interest
As guardians and future guardians of the Island we hope to inspire everyone and most particularly young people through working with New Horizons, youth groups and students of Prince Andrew School. Students from PAS students enrichment programme have started to look at Cason’s Nature Trail and the George Benjamin Arboretum with the view to enhancing experiences, interpretation and access, for people of all ages and abilities, to the Peaks flora and fauna.

Everyone is invited to join special walks to High Peak (21st November) and Diana’s Peak National Park (5th December) to find out more for yourselves. You never know you might be inspired to pick up a machete or grubbing axe on organised volunteer days (coming soon) to help the battle against alien invaders!