Author: Lizzie O'Grady

FoSC Volunteer John Rhodes organises the hugely successful ‘Scruffs’ Dog show and now for the last 2 years, the Doggy Splash Day.

Splash Day is held at the end of the season before the pond is cleared for the winter months. Its sole aim is to raise funding for the Childrens Paddling Pool to reopen in the summer months since no other public funding is available.  Over 200 dogs paid to come and splash in the pool and the weather was fine dry and warm. There was much excitement with dogs finding their inner Baywatch poses and being head over heels in love with their city beach. We hope this will be a regular fixture on the Calendar – and of course our furry friends insist we do it all over again next year.

Doggy Splash Day was a great success and raised £1379. 77 from selling cakes, jams, raffle, tombola and entrance money.

People were so generous that there are still items to sell which were donated to the tombola which did not get included. Over November and December John will be selling these at a Bric-a Brac / Bring and Buy stall in the grounds of the Rookery Cafe every morning from 9-12.

John has created Calendars and Christmas cards of the two events to sell on the stall as well. As always John is a shining example of how our volunteers are key to the Commons success at ensuring the community is well served by our beautiful space.  We do need help though so these events will carry on. John would very much welcome any help to sell in the mornings so John can focus on pushing the target from the potential of collecting £1500 towards the £2000 mark.

The 2017 Scruffs Dog show was a record breaker with 185 dogs. The show was opened by the Mayor of Lambeth (Marcia Cameron) Who stayed to present some of the Rosettes. Esteemed Judges were the CEO from PAT DOGs Deborah Dow, Harry Kinnard from Battersea Dogs & Cats home [where many of the commons regular four legged friends originate from], and three judges from the local vets. [photos to follow soon]

There are still some souvenir programmes for sale at £2.00.

John wants to send a massive “thank you” to all the volunteers on the two days as without them the shows could not go on.

Whilst enjoying our beautiful Autumn out on the common, you cant help but notice that many of the Oaks are very misshapen. There is a reason for this and the answer can be found in an article written in our Common Knowledge Newsletter of December 2009 by Peter Newmark. 

Perhaps you have noticed that for the past two years there have been many horribly deformed acorns on the Common’s oak trees – or, to be more specific, the pendunculate oaks. At first, generally in August, greenish protuberances appear on the acorns. They then turn reddish and eventually become brown and woody, by which time they have taken over the whole acorn. The deformation is known as a knopper gall. But what causes the gall?

The answer is a minute gall wasp that lays its eggs in the acorn. When the grubs hatch from the eggs they secrete chemicals that cause the gall to grow. The gall encloses the grub providing food and protection. Eventually the grubs pupate into adult wasps.

Strangely, all these adults are females. They make their way to turkey oak trees, which co-exist in our woodlands with the more frequent pendunculate oaks. In the spring, the females lay their eggs on the catkins of the turkey oaks. Both males and females hatch from these eggs. After mating, the females lay their eggs in the pendunculate oaks’ acorns, and the cycle begins again.

Knopper galls were first found in the UK in the 1960s and became widespread in the 1980s. In some years they are found on almost every acorn, while in other years they are hardly evident. At first there was concern that the result would be decreased fertility of the oak trees, but this seems not to be the case.

How do the squirrels and jays that store very large numbers of acorns for the winter cope with the knopper gall? They avoid acorns with the galls. So in bad years – like this one – most of their acorns come from turkey oaks and other species that do not suffer from galls. As a result there will be more turkey oaks, because the spread of oak trees is largely the result of growth from acorns that have been buried and forgotten. With more turkey oaks there are more possibilities for the gall wasp to successfully continue its life cycle. So, like it or not, knopper galls are here to stay.

To receive current editions of the Common Knowledge Newsletter – become a member today. For as little as £6 per year and you will be helping support the FoSC’s volunteer work

More than ever, we need your help.

As the Common becomes more popular as a place to rest & play, more work is needed to keep it safe. We cannot do it alone.

As an example – the woods & upper common grasslands need help. These areas support a huge amount of flora & fauna and need continued care. As we are not able to cover it with funding, the Streatham Common Cooperative [SCCOOP] have been organising volunteer days. This happens on a weekly basis, mainly on Tuesday & Thursdays but the odd Saturday too. See what you can offer us. spare hands never go to waste. Its good fun and a great way of meeting people, in addition to directly helping your community.

For further information on how to help on the nature front – contact mered.jones@sccoop.org.uk at SCCOOP

Mered has been instrumental in raising funding from other areas outside of the public purse…The Bags of Help initiative from Tescos, recently awarded SCcoop [Streatham Common Cooperative – Woodland Wildlife & Water Project] an award of £1,000.00 which will be paid upon satisfactory completion of due diligence. Every penny counts as they say!

You can read more about Bags of Help here

If getting your hands dirty isn’t your thing – there are many other ways to support FoSC.

We are always looking for people with bright ideas to help with events, organising and stewarding, and also looking at how we can find funding to sustain the Common into the future. Is there an idea that needs looking at? Are you able to create a plan that can add value to the Common and the community? We need you!!

Contact us here at chair @ streathamcommon.org