UKC

Climbers please note: the little pieces of black and yellow tape tied around various small saplings are designed to identify, and hopefully protect, rare species.

I'm bringing it up because I've talked to at least three groups of climbers at the quarry to whom that wasn't obvious - some apparently take it for an old, marked-off accident scene, which has been carelessly cleared up. An understandable mistake, perhaps - it does look rather scruffy, almost like litter. Perhaps some tags are called for - something neater, less of an eyesore - and one or two explanatory notices displayed.

In reply to bpmclimb:

Agreed about some explanatory notices  - I'd probably have assumed they'd been marked for removal!

In reply to Simon Caldwell:
I thought it was an old murder scene

In reply to bpmclimb:

Yeh I wondered what they were as well. Had no idea.

In reply to bpmclimb:
Presumably these are Whitebeam micro species. They are found nowhere else in the world. The Wye Valley has serendipitously provided a bit of an evolutionary outdoor lab. Let’s try to help those studying it.

In reply to bpmclimb:

Hi Brian

Thanks very much for highlighting this - it was actually news to me (I've not been down there for a little while) though I knew Natural Resources Wales were intending to put some form of signage on site, and I have offered to help and to make it a joint BMC/NRW sign. I'm sure you're right about the intention behind the tags and I will pop down on Monday to have a look and get in touch with NRW about clarifying things. In the meantime, just to re-iterate what you and Pasbury have said - Wyndcliff Quarry is an SSSI with rare whitebeam trees, so please do not cut any trees or saplings here, and take particular care with any tagged trees.

Thanks very much

Rick
(BMC Wye Valley Access Rep)