Portland - a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a candidate for a European Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and now a World Heritage site. So what does this mean? Is climbing on Portland under threat from these conservation designations? BMC Access Officer and resident geologist Clare Bond investigates.

Why worry?
In 1999 the Government announced that the Dorset and East Devon Coast would be one of 25 cultural and natural sites on the UK’s list for nomination for World Heritage status. The UK and its Overseas Territories already had 18 sites on the World Heritage List. Of these only two were natural sites within the UK, St Kilda and the Giant’s Causeway, but in December 2001 the Dorset and East Devon Coast became the third. But with climbing banned on St Kilda (albeit under review with a management change on the cards) and this new World Heritage Site containing some of Dorset’s prime climbing sites, should climbers be embracing this new found status?

Why's it special anyway?
The Dorset and East Devon Coast is world renowned for its earth science. The coast provides almost continual and accessible rock exposure, which documents 185 million years of Earth History. The coast is famous for its Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks and in particular the fossils contained within them. The sequence of rocks covers almost the entire Mesozoic Era, rocks deposited between 251-66 million years ago. The 95-mile stretch of coastline was already protected by 13 geological SSSI and now World Heritage status adds value to these conservation designations.

Portland itself is made from rock laid down during the Jurassic between 205 -135 million years ago, and is the type locality (place where it was first described) for a rock sequence known as the Portlandian Stage. The cliffs contain sedimentary layering, fossils and rock types of international importance which have been studied since the Victorian times. Fossils of ammonites (shellfish) are found within the Portlandian Stage and provide a unique record of the evolution of a particular group of ammonites. These shellfish were large, often reaching diameters of up to 1m. The fossils of Jurassic land living dinosaurs found in America and Tanzania may be better known than those of the Portlandian, but the Portlandian sequence of Dorset contains the World’s best examples of marine reptiles of this age.

The modern day
However as most of you will know Portland is not only home to ancient crocodiles but also to some of the UK’s sunniest sports climbs, limestone cliff flora, nesting sea bird colonies and the Peregrine Falcon. The Portland Rock Forum - not a meeting of the great and good of geology - but a liaison meeting between local climbers, the BMC, and conservation bodies has been meeting on and off for several years. The Portland Rock Forum agrees bird-nesting restrictions and deals with any conservation or access issues that arise related to climbing on Portland’s sea cliffs.

However, with a period of time when there was no Portland Ranger and local climbing activist, BMC access rep and climbing shop owner Neal Heanes, had literally shut up shop and gone on holiday, there was what can be best described as a lack of communication. This unfortunately seemed to coincide with changes in the nesting patterns of Portland’s resident Peregrines and incitement in the local press about climbers scaring seagulls into Weymouth!

Thankfully Neal returned, unfortunately not re-opening his shop, and Dorset County Council appointed a new warden, Liza Cole. Liza brought to the job lots of experience of working with climbers having been the warden on Lundy for many years and before that the ranger at South Stack, Anglesey. After several phone calls and conversations with Liza and the Police Wildlife Liaison Officer the Portland Rock Forum was re-born and met on a very sunny day in May at the Portland Bird Observatory. It was an amicable meeting given the issues on the agenda, one of those positive up-beat access and conservation meetings that I enjoy attending – believe me they are not always so amicable! Quite often these meetings are purely a means of starting a line of communication, sharing understanding of the issues and coming up with management solutions. A small group then go away and work on implementing the solutions. Unfortunately Richard Edmonds, the Earth Science Manager for the World Heritage Site could not attend the meeting, but sent the following statement to Liza Cole -"I do not have any concerns that climbing would cause significant damage to the World Heritage Site".

A promising view for management of other World Heritage Sites and I suspect an acknowledgement that the site is more likely to be threatened by fossil collection rather than climbers - who generally prefer their rock intact! Having got concerns over the new World Heritage status out of the way, the meeting focused on damage to limestone cliff vegetation and probably the most emotive item on the agenda, disturbance of the Peregrine Falcons. Portland has three agreed sanctuary zones (see map right) where climbing does not take place. It was agreed that there had been no climbing incursions into these zones, nor were there likely to be. The main areas of concern were the zones of seasonal nesting restrictions, particularly those at Wallsend where there was still some confusion as to the location of the Peregrines nest this year. It was agreed that the ‘bolt clamps’ had not worked and should be replaced by a series of measures to get the correct information out to climbers in as many mediums as possible, since all the bodies agreed that climbing generally only took place in restricted areas out of ignorance rather than by deliberate action.

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