In the heart of Penrose is Loe Pool, with a fabled history including King Arthur’s Excalibur and local legends of giants moving sand to create the bar which isolates this, the largest natural freshwater lake in Cornwall, from the sea.
More recently, mining and agricultural activities in the Cober catchment during the last few centuries have led the Pool into a state of enhanced nutrient enrichment known as eutrophication. As a result of this, its impact on the ecology of the Pool, and the expansive algal blooms seen during the 1980s and 1990s, the Loe Pool Forum (LPF) was set up in 1996 to bring together all the different organisations with an interest in the health of Loe Pool.
The great work of the partnership has already seen some positive results over the years. One of the many aspects of the Forum’s work that have made an impact over the years are the practical days, on the ground, carried out by amazing groups of volunteers.
National Trust volunteers creating leaky dams in the willow carr on the River Cober
Whilst other groups, like the Wildlife Trust’s Wild Cober volunteers, focus upstream, as Rangers for the National Trust at Penrose our team of volunteers tackle the tasks on the land directly next to the Pool. In the past a mix of small projects like leaky dams and willow coppicing, which have improved habitats and water quality, and larger projects like the strapwort reintroduction project (http://www.wwct.org.uk/conservation-research/south-west-uk/slapton/strapwort), aiming to establish this critically endangered plant at the Pool for the first time in a century, have all had a positive impact on the area.
Along the Cober, bank erosion and invasive species are also big issues with many days summer dedicated to removing Himalayan balsam from the willow carr and around the Pool.