The Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre and Onny Meadows was the first designated Dragonfly Hotspot in England. It is an initiative first set up by The British Dragonfly Society in 2014 with places in Scotland first being awarded this designation, Dragonfly Hotspot.
Dragonfly Hotspots are special places for dragonflies and damselflies.
There are three aims set out by the British Dragonfly Society, conservation, education and research.
Dragonfly Hotspots offer places for Dragonflies and Damselflies to live and thrive. There has to be access for everyone to be able to observe and watch dragonflies and damselflies. They should offer events where the general public can learn about dragonflies and damselflies through courses and events. Opportunities for volunteers can help with upkeep of the environment. And importantly the habitat should be kept in top condition.
The British Dragonfly Society offer the Hotspots advise on what needs doing to provide the best conditions for dragonflies and damselflies to live and thrive.
In the coming year of 2022 there will be a lot of work around the pond with the dipping platform.
A lot of reeds will be cleared out. This work was going to take place in September but has been brought forward to March. It is possible because the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre has received a grant towards the work.
This will involve the pond being dredged in some areas, not all the reeds will be removed as the Reed Warblers have to be accommodated to. The reeds, that are taken out, will be left on the side of the pond to let any wildlife in the dredged out reeds find their way back into the pond.
Some of the trees will be cleared from round the edges to make the pond more open and to stop large amounts of leaves from falling into the ponds. Some of this work has already been started with the help of volunteers.
This work will improve the conditions in the pond, so hopefully we will see more dragonflies and Damselflies in the future.
The image used in the header of this blog post is from Wikipedia and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
