Pembrokeshire Climbing Club - Conservation
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Longstone Edge
Longstone Edge is a beautiful three-mile-long ancient limestone hill, prominently situated within sight of Chatsworth House, just to the north of Bakewell in the Peak District National Park. It is threatened by an enormous quarry at its eastern end. A massive scar will be made in the heart of unspoilt scenery in the second most-visited National Park in the world. Permanent damage is being caused by large-scale limestone aggregate removal from areas of Longstone Edge, situated in the centre of the Peak District National Park. Companies are exploiting ancient 1952 permissions to operate a primarily limestone extraction with no obligations for restoration of the damage caused. This is in direct contravention of the spirit of all National Parks which exist to protect areas of great natural beauty, and threatened species and habitats.
Global warming in action
A penisula long thought to be part of Greenland's mainland turned out to be an island when a glacier retreated.
Photo: Jeff Shea for The New York Times
All over Greenland and the Arctic, rising temperatures are not simply melting ice; they are changing the very geography of coastlines. Nunataks - "lonely mountains" in Inuit - that were encased in the margins of Greenland's ice sheet are being freed of their age-old bonds, exposing a new chain of islands. "We are already in a new era of geography," said the Arctic explorer Will Steger. "This phenomenon - of an island all of a sudden appearing out of nowhere and the ice melting around it - is a real common phenomenon now."The sudden appearance of the islands is a symptom of an ice sheet going into retreat, scientists say. Greenland is covered by 630,000 cubic miles of ice, enough water to raise global sea levels by 23 feet. Carl Egede Boggild, a professor of snow-and-ice physics at the University Center of Svalbard, said Greenland could be losing more than 80 cubic miles of ice per year. “That corresponds to three times the volume of all the glaciers in the Alps"
Read the full report from the New York TimesHuntsman's Leap Clean up - Part One
Local climbers have removed the wreckage of dozens of fridges washed ashore at the foot of Huntsman's Leap
A container and its cargo was washed ashore, littering a wide stretch of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.
Lynne Ferrand, Castlemartin ranger for the National Park, said: "There's a lot of metal and foam down there. Local climbers and the British Mountaineering Council have come up trumps and put in a lot of effort to pull the metal pieces up the 140-ft cliffs, using large builders' bags."
Ms Ferrand said the National Park was also working with the Ministry of Defence and the Countryside Council for Wales in the operation to bring the rubbish up. The MOD is getting rid of the metal and the park authority has paid for the disposal of the hazardous foam from the fridges.
Huntsman's Leap chasm is named after local folklore: a hunter is supposed to have leapt the gap and then dropped dead when he looked at what he had done.
The beauty spot is popular with walkers and climbers. Graham Lynch, from the BMC, said the volunteers - mostly local climbers - had to abseil to the foot of the cliff to get the rubbish.
Huntsman's leap has got a particularly unique atmosphere - it's one of those places that you have to climb to a reasonable standard to be able to get out. "It does have some classic difficult routes - some real gems. It's a good chance for climbers to show they care about the place."
Ms Ferrand said there were still at least three tons of rubbish left at the bottom of the cliff.
Huntsman's Leap Clean up - Part Two
Local Climbers, mostly from Pembrokeshire Climbing Club have returned to Huntsman's Leap and completed the clean up.
Robin Neath took the initiative after our last effort (reported below) and enlisted the help of a local firm who loaned a crane. The job was completed over the weekend 17th & 18th December.
While it is beyond doubt that the clean up could not have been accomplished without the crane. It non the less took local climbers to take direct action to make it happen.
The crane was able to lift the big bits but everything else had to be loaded by hand into a bucket or bags.
The National Park sent a ranger to help and the CCW warden came along and got stuck in. The Army provided storage facilities for the 20 odd bags of polystyrene we bagged by hand. Thanks to all who helped.