Wildlife—does CaRT know what it is doing?

MANY of you will no doubt have read the article that Canal & River Trust is dredging the Pocklington Canal to further its wildlife, but does it really know what it is doing?

It boasts of 15 varieties of dragonfly being present, but does it not realise that a dragonfly spends years under water as a nymph (pictured) in  the canal until it eventually metamorphosis as a winged dragonfly?

Killing the living nymphs

So by dredging the silt from the bottom of Pocklington Canal—'helping to reverse this decline and in turn see an increase in other wildlife such as dragonflies'—and dumping it on the land it is killing all the living nymphs of countless dragonflies.

The larva/nymph of the larger dragonfly can exist for up to five years, in the canal or clinging to weeds—that CaRT in its ignorance is also removing—and even that of the smaller dragonfly can live up to three years in the water until it eventually surfaces to emerge from its skin as a dragonfly, that then mates, produces eggs, that sink to start the cycle all over again, as of course does the damselfly.

But alas, with Canal & River Trust barging in and dredging their habitat many of the future dragonflies it boasts about will be killed as they are dumped on dry land.

Do they know what they are doing?  Obviously not.