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It depends on your point of view, but much
of the langauge of conservation professionals and their adherents jars
very greatly with those who want to see wild nature have a greater
influence in our landscapes. Here are a few gems that will be added to as
more wince-making and patronising examples crop up.
WOODLAND & SCRUB MANAGEMENT
“All this sudden management
activity may look savage to the untutored eye, but there is a lot of
neglect to remedy”
Conservation in Grass Wood, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
notice board
“For some woodland features of
interest, natural change could be as damaging as direct human
intervention. If a site is important for butterflies associated with open
space, 'natural change' that leads to the glades scrubbing up will put the
butterfly feature in unfavourable condition”
Woodlands, Ecosystem Dynamics, Common Standards
Monitoring Introduction to the Guidance Manual, JNCC 2004
“The lack of
management within our woodlands has led to rapid declines in specialist
woodland wildlife, like the rare and beautiful Pearl-bordered Fritillary”
Dr Kate Dent, Tytherley Woods Project Officer, Butterfly
Conservation's South East Woodlands Project
“The area of scrub/tree cover
should be stable or not increasing as a whole (to be determined using
aerial photographs or from the baseline map). Otherwise it is considered a
negative indicator”
Vegetation composition - indicators of negative trends,
Common Standards Monitoring Guidance for Lowland Heathland (2004) JNCC
"A FLOCK of shaggy eco-warriors has
been let loose on a Derbyshire moor - to munch its way through unwanted
vegetation"
Sheep turned loose to
keep the weeds down,
Sarah Dunn reporting on
the FC Press release below, Sheffield Star 19 December 2007
“The majority of the
District’s woodland is made up of oak, hornbeam, ash, birch, hazel, field
maple, cherry and holly. Some of these have been traditionally managed as
coppice with standards to provide wood for the local area. Such management
ceased early last century and many woods have since deteriorated directly
through a lack of intervention”
Woodlands and Wooded Commons, Tree strategy and policy
for St Albans District Council 2004
"Simple woodland management
can make use of this precious resource and let wildlife thrive. Woods
needn't be all dark and oppressive. We need light and we need butterflies"
Dan Hoare, Butterfly
Conservation, in "Woodland coppicing project aims to give at-risk
butterflies space to thrive" Times, 14 May 2008
"In the dune 'slacks' (the
damper hollows) rabbits perform a useful function in keeping the creeping
willow well grazed. thuis allows many rarer plants to establish"
Lindisfarne National Nature
Reserve leaflet, English Nature 2004
NEW
"Most of what is special, rare and
unique in the wild life of this island (and indeed much of lowland europe)
is the product of thousands of years of agricultural activity"
Jon Hudson (and legions of other conservation
professionals)
“Environmental
indicators will not tell us whether we are sustaining the cultural
processes that shape the landscape.
We need indicators to assess the
cultural as well as ecological health of the uplands”
Upland Landscapes: ICOMOS-UK Perspective, Susan Denyer
(2006) Secretary ICOMOS-UK
“As the
North West
Farm Tourism Initiative
indicate, farms are custodians of the natural heritage and environment;
the raw material that attracts visitors to the countryside”
Wild Ennerdale: Tourism opportunities for farming and rural
communities, A report to North West Farm Tourism Initiative, Cumbria Rural
Enterprise Agency, Penrith, December 2006
“PCNPA believes that continuity of
management by expert graziers passing on accrued knowledge from generation
to generation lies at the heart of maintaining the landscape and nature
conservation quality of the common. Additionally, the graziers' knowledge
and way of life are an important part of the national park's linguistic
and cultural heritage”
Proposed bracken control on Carn Ingli, Mike Howe, News
and Views, Friends of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park (2007) 17, 14-16
“Farming and
forestry of some kind are dominant land uses in most [National Park] areas
in the UK, and have helped to shape much of the landscape which is now so
valued nationally and by visitors. This is most notably the case in upland
areas, whose scenic beauty is partly the creation of centuries of
livestock rearing, as well as management for shooting and other country
sports”
Protected Landscapes, Benefits Beyond Boundaries,
Council for National Parks 2003
"First, it is important to examine the relationship between agriculture
and the environment in the UK (and Northern Europe) where more than 75% of
the land surface is farmed and where almost all of our valued wildlife
habitats are anthropogenic and plagioclimactic.
The major threats to these are neglect and nutrients. The
intimate relationship between the way land is managed and the resulting
spectrum of wild plants and animals will be illustrated, for pastoral
systems, by work from the CEH Dorset lab on the reintroduction of the
Large Blue butterfly (Maculinea arion) and the restoration of
species-rich chalk grassland at Twyford Down in Hampshire."
Biodiversity, Biotechnology & Agriculture,
Professor
Alan Gray, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Dorset - and see St Catherine's
Hill
“The sheep are very effective at
combating undesirable vegetation and will speed the transition to
fully-fledged heathland. It would take an army of foresters to do the same
job, combating tree and weed growth and trampling bracken…… We want the
sheep to suppress the kinds of plant we don’t want, but to encourage
heathland vegetation like heather and grass. It’s a delicate balancing
act, relying on the age-old skills of traditional sustainable farming”
Sheep enjoy a free lunch to boost rare heathland,
Forestry Commission News Release No: 10244, December 2007
"Most of our ‘natural’ heritage is, in fact, semi-natural in the sense that
it is made up of collections of native plant and animal species which,
over thousands of years, have adapted to man’s farming activities,
including grazing. These communities are now reliant on man’s continuing
management of their habitats if they are to survive. Activities such as
grazing and mowing are crucial to maintaining the quality of certain types
of habitat"
How has grazing
changed the countryside?,
Amazing Grazing, The Grazing, Landscape and Food project (formerly known
as the Undergrazing project) East of England, Natural England
"Much has been
written about the cultural significance of heathland. Although natural in
appearance and
possessing a 'wilderness quality', heathland is an ancient landscape that
has been influenced by human
activity over thousands of years. It is believed that in some parts of the
country, Surrey included, heathland
was already extensive by the Bronze Age as natural woodlands on acidic
soils were cleared by felling, burning
and grazing
History of Heathland in Surrey, What is
heathland, Surrey
Heathland Project
"Surrey's Last Wilderness
is a five -year programme of heathland restoration run by the Surrey
Heathland Project"
Heathland Project - Surrey's
last wilderness,
Surrey Heathland Project.
How many times have you heard a cultural
landscape in Britain described as the "last wilderness"!
"Six Highland Cattle calves
are the newest members of RSPB Pulborough Brooks nature reserve’s
management team!....... The cuddly calves bring the resident herd of
Highland Cattle at the reserve up to 19, and over the coming months they
will all be grazing areas of the north brooks floodplain, and visitors to
Pulborough Brooks will be able to see the herd, including the calves, from
the nature trail………'For centuries, much of the Arun Valley would have been
cattle-grazed flood meadows, and we have successfully recreated these
traditional conditions here at Pulborough to benefit wildlife.'"
Pulborough Brooks welcomes new
recruits, RSPB Press Release 14 April 2008
"These
fields are being grazed by hardy traditional herds of cattle. They feed on
the rough grasses and rushes that other livestock do not eat. This helps
to keep open areas of ground where rare plants and flowers can grow"
Limestone Country - poster at entry to Ingleborough NNR
NEW
WILDING/REWILDING
“Environmentally, there is an
ideological conflict between a strand of environmentalism - called
re-wilding - which believes, wrongly, that the ‘wilderness’ is best left
to be ‘wild’"
Why rewilding is wrong, The Social and Environmental
Crisis in the British Uplands, Alistair McConnachie, Sovereignty
“The idea that
habitats should be returned to a wild state often seems linked to people’s
feeling that semi-natural habitats are somehow deficient, because they are
partly manmade. But our treasured wild places in Britain are in fact
ancient cultural landscapes, not wild in the sense of natural or
untouched”
Nature without nurture, Hodder and Bullock, Planet
Earth, Natural Environment Research Council Winter 2005
“The potential
social consequences of a policy to create wild land also require
consideration, as it may be regarded by some as land abandonment”
Wild Ennerdale: Tourism opportunities for farming and rural
communities, A report to North West Farm Tourism Initiative, Cumbria Rural
Enterprise Agency, Penrith, December 2006
“Replacing management targets for
species and habitats with a vague notion of ‘natural process’ conservation
cannot be the solution, for many reasons. For one, ‘natural process’ is
sadly something of a misnomer: nature reserves will be affected by
pollution, exotic species, falling groundwater levels, and will lose key
species, to name just a few ‘unnatural’ problems”
Nature without nurture, Hodder and Bullock in Planet
Earth Winter 2005, Natural Environment Research Council - and the standard
cop out of most conservation professionals
“Rewilding
itself can be overplayed, in the UK there will always be fences, health
and safety concerns, and grazing management decisions”
Matt Shardlow,director of Buglife
“Nor, sadly, is there a
guarantee that re-wilding could provide the conditions needed to help
wildlife adapt to climate change……….The absence of large herbivores in our
environment (other than as livestock) means that the landscape we create
by re-wilding is unlikely to resemble the conditions in which much of our
wildlife evolved. This means that we cannot be certain that such an
approach would actually aid the survival of species in the countryside”
Climate Change: wildlife and adaptation - 20 tough
questions, 20 rough answers, RSPB Sept 2007
FISHERIES AND MARINE PROTECTION
“Another
conceptualisation of the ecosystem approach amongst some interviewees was
revealed by their arguments that fishing stocks and grounds is necessary
to avoid them ‘stagnating’ and becoming infested by ‘vermin’ like starfish
and anemones”
Fishing industry and related perspectives on the issues raised by no-take
marine protected area proposals – article by P.J.S. Jones in Marine Policy
“Fishermen are
like the farmers of the sea in that they turn the ground over, thin the
stocks and help maintain productivity”
ibid.
“Areas impacted by
scallop dredgers simply support different communities and are modified
rather than damaged. We accept semi-natural, ie modified, terrestrial
habitats such as meadows, so why not accept the value of modified marine
habitats?”
ibid.
“Many fishing
industry representatives feel a sense of proprietorship, if not ownership,
over the seas they fish and are very resistant to the extension to the
marine environment of the ‘terrestrial’ protected areas approach and
related biodiversity conservation objectives”
ibid.
Since fisherman think they are the farmers of the sea (see above) then
they already carry out a terrestrial protected area approach!
CHALK/LIMESTONE
St
Catherine's Hill
"St Catherine's
is a site of special scientific interest because it is chalk grassland
created and maintained by sheep grazing on it”
Mark Langford, Reserves Officer, Hampshire and Isle of
Wight Wildlife Trust, in Owners take the lead in dog walking protest, this
is Hampshire 2006
"In order to
maintain a species-rich sward and its associated insects and other
invertebrates, calcareous grassland requires active management. Without
management it rapidly becomes dominated by stands of rank grasses, such as
Tor-grass. These grasses, together with the build up of dead plant matter,
suppress less vigorous species and lower the diversity of the site.
Eventually, the site will scrub over. Traditionally, management is
achieved by grazing.”
A statement of English Nature’s views about the
management of St. Catherine’s Hill SSSI
“Analysis of
management data from sites where P. coridon was monitored over the 1990s
indicated that successful management for the butterfly was dependent upon
an integrated approach to stock grazing, scrub clearance and Rabbit
control. Proactive management change was a feature at sites where the P.
coridon population increased. At the sites investigated, the single most
important factor influencing management success was the extent to which
grazing levels (of stock and rabbits) were controlled and fine-tuned”
The changing status of the Chalkhill Blue butterfly
Polyommatus coridon in the UK and the impacts of conservation policy,
designation, land-use and management, Brereton, Warren & Stewart,
Biological Conservation
"The third phase
is the manipulation of management techniques to drive the development of
the plant and animal communities towards the desired grassland types. The
most commonly used methods on chalk grassland are mowing or grazing, with
grazing generally considered to give the most desirable grassland
Twyford Down project, Dase Studies, Flora locale
"Join Reserves
Officer Mark Langford at St Catherine’s Hill Wildlife Reserve, as the
Wildlife Trust flock of Shetland Sheep are allowed to free-range graze
this 120 acre chalk grassland Site of Special Scientific Interest. Staff
will be on hand to talk about the valuable work that the sheep do on the
reserve”
Born to be Wild (Winchester), Event Details (2006)
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
Portsdown Hill
”Recently, English Nature together with
Defra RDS and Portsmouth City Council have carefully invested time and
money to set about reversing the habitat decline and establish a stable
positive management regime. In the last few months, English Nature and the
City Council jointly purchased an AEBI scrub clearer which is now making a
big dent in the scrub cover”
Scrub clearance on Portsdown Hill SSSI, Local News, Hampshire and Isle of
Wight team, English Nature, April 2004
HEATHLAND
Ashdown
Forest
“Chainsaws clearing trees in winter
and tractors mowing bracken in summer: this stops them shading rare plants
and keeps the heathand healthy”
What will I hear? Ashdown Forest, High Weald AONB
“Mr Marrable said that the only
overall outcome is that the Forest’s heathlands are in ‘favourable
condition’; this will have to be achieved whether or not there is an HLS
agreement in place. ‘Favourable condition’ is not negotiable”
Minutes of the Conservation committee meeting of the
Board of Conservators of Ashdown Forest, September 2006
"The Ashdown Forest has very little
ancient woodland. Secondary woodland has very little bio-diversity value"
Public Consultation Process, Danehill and Chelwood Gate
Workshop No 6 held Tuesday 19 June 2007 at the Danehill Memorial Hll,
Danehill
"I am an ornithologist. Secondary
woodland is bad news for birds, however heathland is rich in rare bird
life"
Public Consultation Process, Danehill and Chelwood Gate
Workshop No 6 held Tuesday 19 June 2007 at the Danehill Memorial Hll,
Danehill
“Q.Why fell oaks and not Scots Pine
as Scots Pine are not indigenous to the area? A. Scots Pine are heathland
trees”
Transcript of Ashdown Forest Workshop – Public
Consultation Process held on 8 May 2007 at All Saints Church Centre
Crowborough
"Q. Why fell oak
and beech and not Scots pine? A. All may invade heathland but the last is
the least ‘threatening’: its leaf fall does not substantially change the
soil and its control is far easier since, once cut, it does not regrow”
Frequently Asked Questions –derived from Stakeholder
Engagement meetings 2007
Blacka Moor
"The trees and shrubs
have the potential to alter the soils by cycling nutrients from deeper
down, and making them unsuitable for heathland, so restoration would then
be difficult, if not impossible"
Blacka Moor Grazing Impact
Assessment, Penny Anderson Associates, 2006
“The
main concern is that the soil is changing from a nutrient-poor acid soil
(ideal for heathers and bilberry) to a nutrient rich soil (ideal for
woodland and bracken) and cattle grazing is a proven method for reducing
the build up of nutrients and enhancing diversity of plant and animal
species”
Annabelle Kennedy, Reserves Manager Blacka Moor, Sheffield Wildlife Trust,
in a letter to the Reserve Advisory Group, 12 February 2007
"It is widely
recognised that grazing is a proven cost-effective and efficient method of
controlling invasive plant species, when applied alongside other
techniques”
Jean Glasscock, Sheffield City Council ecologist 2007
“To restore to
favourable condition the dry dwarf shrub heath/short acid grassland
mosaic: The extent of moorland vegetation and its associated specific
floral and faunal interests will be maintained through extensive stock
grazing by sheep or cattle. The maintenance of adequate grazing may
require the provision of infrastructure such as fencing or water supplies”
Objectives for SSSI interest features, Blackamoor Heath,
English Nature
"The habitat
structure was not considered to be suitable for lapwing, curlew or golden
plover, but could be suitable for ring ouzel, merlin and twite (although
none have been recorded in the surveys described above)…..It is against
this background that the programme to introduce cattle grazing as an
essential part of the recovery plan has been researched and developed by
the SWT"
Blacka Moor Grazing
Impact Assessment, Penny Anderson Associates, 2006
“The decision to graze cattle has
been made with the support of Natural England (formerly English Nature),
Peak District National Park Authority, Sheffield City Council, the Rural
Development Service, Campaign for the Protection of Rural England /Friends
of the Peak District and SWT's Nature Reserves Steering Group and
Trustees”
But not with the support of local people! - Annabelle
Kennedy, Reserves Manager Blacka Moor, Sheffield Wildlife Trust, in a
letter to the Reserve Advisory Group, 12 February 2007
Harpenden Common
"Harpenden Common is no longer grazed and trees and scrub have encroached
over former meadows and heath with a detrimental impact on the natural
wildlife"
They couldn’t see the trees for the wood,
Countryside Management Service Spring newsletter 2008
Loxley & Wadlsey Commons
"Encourage some of the non-veteran
oaks to develop veteran characteristics. Techniques include pollarding,
breaking branches and making holes to initiate rot"
The Future of Wadsley and Loxley Commons, Management
Action Plan 2004, Wadsley and Loxley Commons Advisory Group
"I have been walking the Commons
for forty years and have seen the encroachment of the birch trees over
that time. There were no trees on what were the playing fields years ago.
GET THEM OFF they are nothing but weeds and aren't even native to this
country"
Ellesmere 2-08, Help save Loxley & Wadsley Common,
Sheffield Forum
"As the notices placed on the
commons describe, the areas felled in the past few seasons are now at the
point where they can be sprayed and/or burned prior to reseeding or
recolonisation. Thereby the plan in those areas enters a more
'creative/constructive' phase"
Extract from a briefing paper on management of Loxley &
Wadsley Common, sanman, 2-08, Help save Loxley & Wadsley Common, Sheffield
Forum
"The council, the Rangers and the
commoners need to balance the needs of the wildlife, the people who use
the common and and the council tax payer. Some comments on this thread
have been totally ignorant of the role of countryside management"
Wendyb1966, 2-08, Help save Loxley & Wadsley Common,
Sheffield Forum
"The only way to restore the heather
and the views is to fell the birch trees. If felling is not carried out,
the normal alternative is to have the area grazed by a herd of cattle.
While the work is being carried out, it is unavoidable that the Common
will look untidy"
Hannah Isherwood, Hon Secretary, Wadsley & Loxley
Commoners – on a poster on the commons
Surrey Heathland Project
"A major part of heathland
management is removing young trees (often referred to as 'scrub') to
prevent the heathland being lost to developing poor quality woodland.
In Surrey, the main problem
tree species are Scots pine and birch, sometimes also oak and sallow. A
major part of heathland management is preventing these trees from taking
over. Pines, when cut close to the ground do not survive but other species
'coppice', sending up several new shoots. In order to kill this scrub, it
is usually necessary to treat the cut stump or the regrowth with a
herbicide such as 'Roundup'. Where there is grazing, this might control
the regrowth and kill the stump without the need for chemical.
When invading trees have
taken over heathland, this 'secondary woodland '(so called to distinguish
it from 'ancient woodland' which has a much longer history and is much
richer in wildlife) can be restored to heather"
Tree and scrub clearance,
heather cutting, turf stripping and grazing, Heathland management, Surrey
Heathland Project
WOOD PASTURE
Odiham Common
“Over time, the
Common will become less accessible to local residents. The woodland will
fill up with dense holly and other shrubs making it more difficult to walk
through……….We believe that without grazing management holly bushes and
dense shrubs will form an impenetrable barrier in the woods....We
consider that the re-instatement of grazing management at Odiham Common
would increase the ease of accessibility”
Setback to plan for Odiham Common,
Local
News, Hampshire and Isle of Wight team
press release. English Nature July 2003
COASTAL SLOPES
NEW
Pembrokeshire Coast National
Park
"In
the 1980s it was recognised that the coastal belt was beginning to be
dominated by scrub species such as gorse, bracken and bramble. These
species have changed the landscape from a patchwork of habitats to a
monotonous expanse with reduced biodiversity"
How is this habitat threatened? Coastal
slopes,
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
"Much of the cliff land has therefore been fenced off from the richer
inland pastures, leaving it effectively abandoned"
Conserving the Coastal Slopes 1999-2002,
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, 2003
"Dramatic results have been seen on even the most neglected and rank
grasslands. Ponies are valuable for winter grazing as they will eat less
palatable grasses left from the previous season"
Conserving the Coastal Slopes 1999-2002,
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, 2003
“Those plant communities not requiring management are mostly restricted to
a very narrow band along the most seaward slopes and to areas where most
types of stock are least likely to venture. Thus most sites require
grazing; the majority of the area of the majority of sites has been found
to require management”
Does the site need grazing? On the flowchart
in Conserving the Coastal Slopes 1999-2002, Pembrokeshire Coast National
Park, 2003
"Ideal management was identified as being summer-grazing with heavier
animals to tackle the rank vegetation, combined with winterburning of the
gorse to create a more balanced habitat mosaic and better access around
the site"
Trefrane Farm, Newgale. Case Study in
Conserving the Coastal Slopes 1999-2002, Pembrokeshire Coast National
Park, 2003
"We have been involved with the coastal slopes scheme for several years
now, and in that time much of our cliff land, which had been abandoned
over 10 years previously, has once again become an integral part of our
farming system"
The Morgan Family, Hill Farm, Manorbier, in
Conserving the Coastal Slopes 1999-2002, Pembrokeshire Coast National
Park, 2003
"Biological monitoring of the effects of grazing is essential to ensure
that management is delivering and on track. This can range from simply
taking photographs to complex vegetational studies, depending on time
constraints, survey/monitoring skills of staff and the importance of the
species/habitats on the site. There is much debate on the best way to do
this!"
Monitoring. On the flowchart in Conserving
the Coastal Slopes 1999-2002, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, 2003
url:www.self-willed-land.org.uk/skcollob.htm
www.self-willed-land.org.uk
mark.fisher@self-willed-land.org.uk
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