As part of a two year OTEP funded project the Environmental Conservation Section, guided by Horticultural Support Officer Lourens Malan, is extending its seed collection programme to a broader compliment of native species in need of conservation intervention. Banking seed by storing them under the right conditions will provide medium term storage opportunities and ensure that seed is available for conservation programmes when needed and provides a safety net for the unexpected. Lourens brings to the team a broad base of knowledge and experience and is supported by Vanessa Thomas the Nursery Officer, currently on secondment from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Thomas Heller, a seed expert based at the Millennium Seed Bank, will be arriving in February. Thomas’ visit is supported by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, one of the OTEP project partners, and he will be able to provide further specialised technical support to ensure that we are establishing the right techniques across the whole process from collecting, to cleaning and sorting seed and storage. Thomas will be giving an overview of the work of the Millennium Seed Bank and an introduction to seed collection on Monday 16th February. The project as a whole aims to increase conservation and horticultural skills and experience across all sectors and so is not just limited to ANRD staff. If you would like further information about the project or Thomas’ talks contact Conservation Officer, Margie Fowler on conservation@anrd.gov.sh or telephone 4724.

A landscape and ecology mitigation plan (LEMP) has been produced to provide compensatory habitat and landscape treatment to reduce and offset the permanent direct loss of habitat and the direct and indirect impacts on the landscape as a result of the Access Project. Large numbers of many different native plants will be required to re-instate and rehabilitate habitat on Prosperous Bay Plain as well as provide landscape treatment along the whole length of the haul road. This requires large amounts of seed, which will either be direct sown in-situ or grown on to increase seed production through cultivation in advance of the re-instatement and rehabilitation works. The volume of seed required is massive and the works required are on a scale that has never before been attempted on the island. Despite a pause in negotiations for the airport project work is continuing so that no time is wasted in securing the seed and plant material needs of this ambitious and demanding project. The LEMP is being managed on island by Rebecca Cairns-Wicks for Faber Maunsell, environmental assessment and management support consultants for the air access project.

A key element of the collection programme is learning and extending experience as we are all working with species we’ve not previously worked closely with. Honing timing and techniques to suit the individual needs of each species. Anyone with an interest is welcome to join in. So far the collection programme has engaged not just staff but also volunteers eager to support conservation. In December thirteen people, including five volunteers, visited Prosperous Bay Plain and Gregory’s Battery to learn how to collect seed of the desert endemic annual Baby’s Toes (Hydrodea cryptantha), the cliff hugging Old Father Live Forever (Pelargonium cotyledonis) and the wiry tiny leaved Tea Plant (Frankenia portulaifolia). The programme is now a weekly event and continues to be well supported by volunteers. So far this month trips have been made to Dry Gut and Flagstaff to collect Boneseed (Osteospermum sanctae-helenae), Bellstone and Little Stone Top to collect Bulbostylis lichtensteiniana and Barren Ground to collect seed from the St Helena Rosemary (Phylica polifolia) growing extremely well in a dedicated seed ‘orchard’ managed by the Environmental Conservation Section.

By Rebecca Cairns-Wicks
LEMP Project Manager

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