BSG Fixed Term Working Group on Upland Sediment Budgets

Annual Report Year 2 (2001)

As might be expected, the Upland Sediment Budgets Working Group has had a difficult year owing to the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease.  Since the submission of the last report in September 2000, the group has only been able to hold one meeting.

A two-day meeting took place at the Blencathra Field Studies Centre, near Keswick, in November, attracting about 30 participants.  Good relations with the Field Centre enabled Jeff Warburton to obtain a remarkably discounted price for dinner, bed and breakfast to the considerable appreciation of the participants.  We used some of the funding available to the Group to completely subsidise the participation of postgraduate students at the event.  The meeting comprised a paper session on Saturday afternoon followed by a field trip on Sunday.  The papers covered a range of topics from upland water quality through to peat erosion and upland forest management.  Discussion following dinner identified a number of themes of interest to the members of the group and a progression towards a more formal convening of papers at the next meeting.  Convivial discussion about upland erosion continued late into the night in the Field Centre bar.  Conditions on Sunday were cold and wet but undeterred the group set out on an excellent field visit to the Northern Fells, led by Jeff Warburton and assisted by Richard Johnson.  The group made their way from Fellside to Iron Crag, examining the sediment supplies from glacial and solifluction materials and the impact of hydraulic mining.  Many were genuinely surprised to encounter a substantial gauging construction and network of measurements high up on the slopes beneath Iron Crag where Jeff and Richard have been constructing a sediment budget for a mountain torrent system and associated debris flow.  The meeting dispersed from Fellside around 4 pm, damp but enthusiastic. 

The discussions at the field meeting had generated considerable enthusiasm and momentum to be taken forth to a one-day meeting ahead of the BSG Spring Field Meeting in Aberystwyth in April 2001.  Regrettably, the outbreak of FMD resulted in the cancellation of the Field Meeting.  Attempts for a follow up meeting in the Loch Lomond area were not possible because of continuing uncertainty about access.  As a consequence the planned activities of the group for 2001 have not been possible due to circumstances beyond our control.  I have already written to the BSG Chair to alert her of the situation and request that this second year is considered void and that the Group could continue for two further years. We feel that the Working Group had begun to generate some useful ideas and collaborative opportunities. The hiatus in activities will cause some loss of momentum but we feel that a continuation of the programme beginning with the rescheduled Spring Field Meeting would enable real progress to be made.  Costs incurred from the November meeting were covered by funding for the first year of the Working Group.  There would be no financial implications for BSG in allowing an extension of the Working Group to September 2003.

David Higgitt

University of Durham