Eight excellent speakers which included scientists, conservationists and wildlife experts, as well as 150 attendees, created the ingredients for our excellent annual all-day Dartmoor Society Debate at Ashburton Arts Centre on Saturday 12th October.
The main objective of the day was to highlight the plight of endangered species of birds on Dartmoor. Sadly, breeds such as Curlew, Lapwing and Ring Ouzel are all on the brink of being lost altogether.
On balance, thankfully by encouraging a more widespread suitable environment, numbers of some breeds such as Snipe, Dunlin and Grasshopper Warblers were identified as gradually increasing.
Our Chair was Ali Kohler who is Director of Conservation and Communities at the DNPA and she did a sterling job of keeping all the speakers within their time frames as well as introducing both public question and answer sessions.
Everyone agreed it had been a fabulous day, packed full of information and one that had encouraged much dialogue and many thought provoking ideas as well as creating a perfect social occasion during lunchtime and breaks.
Edit December 2020: A more detailed summary of the day is available on our Debates & Lectures page along with a link to purchase a copy of the Devon Bird Report April 2020 containing the full papers.