Red River Rescuers celebrate 10 years of conservation in the Red River Local Nature Reserve

On Sunday 10^th July ecologists and interested individuals joined the Red River Rescuers to celebrate their 10^th anniversary on a special Dragonfly Day, in which members of the conservation group were able to see the fruits of their labour – various species of dragonfly and other wetland wildlife conserved in the Red River Local Nature Reserve as a result of the habitat management carried out over winter months.

The day started at Great Wheal Seton, a former tin streaming works of the c.1870s which is now home to number of scarce and rare species of insects reliant on the marginal freshwater pools occupying the abandoned settling tanks and tailings dams (https://redriverrescuers.weebly.com/gt-wheal-seton-species.html).

Great Wheal Seton is one the easier sites that the Rescuers manage – here activity includes removing willow & gorse to keep those species in check before the pools, which are rare habitat, become overgrown.

Among one of the special species seen at this site is the Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly, an insect whose fate tells the story of change in the Red River valley, as group leader Steve Jones explained. The small dark damselfly with a pale blue coloured tip to the abdomen was at one stage on the brink of extinction in the UK. From the 1960’s to 1990’s Cornwall was recognised as a stronghold, with the insect able to make use of the many shallow, slity, open pools leftover in the landscapes of former tin and china clay works. As organic mater has slowly increased in the sediments, however, vegetation has begun to recolonise and the pools have reduced, becoming dry and overgrown with sedge, willow and gorse amongst others.

The team recording species in the pools at Great Wheal Seton

Now Great Wheal is the only site in the Red River Local Nature Reserve with recent recordings of the Scarce Blue-tailed, indicating the loss of one of the habitat types making up the internationally unique mosaic that Cornwall’s post-industrial landscapes are famous for. Steve continued, “In 2021 the British Dragonfly Society reported that five species of dragonfly and damselfly are currently declining in the UK – Four of those five are found along the Red River and it is therefore vital that appropriate habitat management takes place to ensure these few remaining sites survive.”

After lunch the party moved to Bell Lake Marsh, some three miles downstream, the largest site managed by the volunteers and one which, despite a set-back in conservation works over the covid lockdown, could potentially be managed back into a condition to support the Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly once more. Here the wetland is once again perched above the channelised Red River, and again held in disused tin-streaming settling tanks, demonstrating the bygone landscape of a near continuous array of independent secondary tin works through the river corridor.

The Rescuers have worked at Bell Lake Marsh since initiation in 2012, having restored the more open cover and reinstating pools and channels, creating a rich mosaic of intermingled habitats across the site. With their valuable contribution the site will continue to be protected and used as an example in the techniques needed to maintain and restore habitats for some of our most threatened species.

Mating Keeled Skimmer, Bell Lake Marsh

To find out more about the ecology of the Red River Local Nature Reserve and if you are interested in joining the Red River Rescuers for their next season of conservation works, please visit: https://redriverrescuers.weebly.com/about-us.html

Many thanks to Steve Jones, Jo Poland and all the Red River Rescuers for a great first 10 years, and many more to come. Well done!