Futures Forum: Stop the extinction crisis!
We could take drastic steps:
Futures Forum: Making space for wildlife > offsetting, rewilding or making half the planet a nature reserve
But meanwhile, we can do our bit:
Futures Forum: How to entice more creatures into your own garden
Because we must:
Futures Forum: Going on a "bioblitz" to record what wildlife remains >>> “It’s catastrophic and that’s what we’ve forgotten – our generation is presiding over an ecological apocalypse and we’ve somehow or other normalised it.”
And things are happening on the Somerset Levels:
Common crane - Rewilding Britain
Rewilding - Why Rebooting Ecosystems is Good for You - THE STAND
As reported in the i newspaper:
As one in 10 British species face extinction, these are the people truly taking back control of the country
Godney Marsh, Somerset. Photo: Alasdair Cameron
Jamie Merrill
Friday July 13th 2018
In a sleepy corner of the Somerset Levels, a quiet revolution is taking place. For generations, the fields around the village of Godney have been dedicated to high-intensity farming.
But in 2015, Alasdair Cameron and his wife Yasmeen Ismail, who had never previously owned or worked land, decided to buy a small set of fields at Godney Marshes and let nature back in.
Already, the results of this pop-up rewilding project have been astonishing. The land is becoming a rich tangle of grasslands, scrub and trees. Species such as marsh harriers, egrets, winter snipe and hares have returned. And the soil, battered from decades of fertiliser overuse, is starting to recover.
Cameron and his wife, both 37, are in the vanguard of a wave of environmentalists who are embracing the principles of “rewilding” – stepping back and allowing natural processes to take place.
But unlike earlier rewilding efforts, which created both controversy and protests from farmers by reintroducing apex predators such as wolves and lynxes, their efforts are unlikely to provoke inflammatory division.
Conflict and controversy
Instead, the couple have taken matters into their own hands, doing what they can, where they can, to give more space to nature. “In an ideal world, we’d have more publicly managed wilderness, including large areas of our uplands, but we face a crisis in wildlife and this is what I can do now,” Cameron told i.
The success of Godney Marshes comes after rewilding took a battering in the national press. Since the author George Monbiot kick-started the rewilding debate with his book Feral in 2013 (the charity Rewilding Britain was founded in 2015), there has been little but controversy and conflict.
‘We are trying to stop the environment from bleeding, and every sticking plaster counts.’
Most recently, last month Twitter’s favourite shepherd, author and Cumbrian sheep farmer James Rebanks blamed “cretinous attacks” from rewilding advocates for forcing his resignation from a Government panel looking at the future of England National Parks. Scientists have warned that wild boar released in Scotland could carry the potentially lethal CC398 strain of the MRSA superbug, while farmers have lashed out at tentative plans to reintroduce wolves in the Scottish Highlands.
Elsewhere, the Lynx UK Trust has faced fierce opposition to plans to reintroduce the native cat in Northumberland. And, just an hour’s drive from Godney Marsh, beavers released into the River Otter in Devon roam freely only as part of a five-year trial to assess their impact on the environment. There have been calls from some land owners for a cull.
‘Rewilding is a dirty word’
As part of a 10-day BioBlitz project that begins on 14 July, Packham will be reporting on the rapidly decreasing populations of some of the UK’s wildlife by visiting 10 sites across Britain, including a small-scale rewilding project on the side of the M3 motorway in Hampshire.
He is full of praise for schemes such as Godney Marshes, and says he is delighted that so many small schemes across the country have taken inspiration from the rewilding movement and haven’t been put off by its critics.
“Rewilding has been made a dirty word by a sneaky, insidious fraternity of people who are afraid of change, but it is an exciting tool in the conservation toolkit. That’s why I take my hat off to these people, who are basically rewilding whatever they can.”
‘A pragmatic approach’
That’s a view shared by Alastair Driver, a special adviser to the charity Rewilding Britain, which is campaigning to set up a string of far-larger 25,000-acre rewilding sites in mid-Wales, the Peak District and the Kielder Forest in Northumberland.
“The true meaning of rewilding is about restoring a whole ecosystem, not just a field, meadow or wood,” he says. “But if we have smaller schemes dotted around the country, it’s more likely to inspire people to support rewilding on a grander scale.”
It’s talk of grand-scale projects that has scared some in the countryside – but Driver doesn’t think the rewilding movement was wrong to talk of large tracts of land returning to nature or reintroducing predators such as the wolf.
“People got stuck in, they had conversations and views were aired. Now we are establishing a more pragmatic approach, which brings people with us. That’s not to say that in 100 years’ time we won’t have rewilded so much of central Scotland that we are ready for the wolf to be reintroduced. What we want first, though, is a healthy, functioning ecosystem that sees natural processes restored.”
Back in Somerset, Cameron is “fully aware” that wolves and bears will “probably never return to the Somerset Levels”. His project was never about reintroducing apex predators, he says.
“It’s more about a philosophy of allowing nature to take its course. People get hung up on wolves, but really rewilding is about making space in our countryside for wildlife to come back. What I’m doing is a small part of that, and hopefully pushing the debate forward.”
More from iweekend
How 30 random acts of wildness will help you – and the natural world
Save what we have before ‘rewilding’ with wolves, says Sir David Attenborough
George Monbiot on ‘rewilding’ the countryside and the end of sheep
Rewilding: The Brits truly taking back country control to save UK wildllife
.
.
.
Jamie Merrill
Friday July 13th 2018
In a sleepy corner of the Somerset Levels, a quiet revolution is taking place. For generations, the fields around the village of Godney have been dedicated to high-intensity farming.
But in 2015, Alasdair Cameron and his wife Yasmeen Ismail, who had never previously owned or worked land, decided to buy a small set of fields at Godney Marshes and let nature back in.
Already, the results of this pop-up rewilding project have been astonishing. The land is becoming a rich tangle of grasslands, scrub and trees. Species such as marsh harriers, egrets, winter snipe and hares have returned. And the soil, battered from decades of fertiliser overuse, is starting to recover.
Cameron and his wife, both 37, are in the vanguard of a wave of environmentalists who are embracing the principles of “rewilding” – stepping back and allowing natural processes to take place.
But unlike earlier rewilding efforts, which created both controversy and protests from farmers by reintroducing apex predators such as wolves and lynxes, their efforts are unlikely to provoke inflammatory division.
Conflict and controversy
Instead, the couple have taken matters into their own hands, doing what they can, where they can, to give more space to nature. “In an ideal world, we’d have more publicly managed wilderness, including large areas of our uplands, but we face a crisis in wildlife and this is what I can do now,” Cameron told i.
The success of Godney Marshes comes after rewilding took a battering in the national press. Since the author George Monbiot kick-started the rewilding debate with his book Feral in 2013 (the charity Rewilding Britain was founded in 2015), there has been little but controversy and conflict.
‘We are trying to stop the environment from bleeding, and every sticking plaster counts.’
Most recently, last month Twitter’s favourite shepherd, author and Cumbrian sheep farmer James Rebanks blamed “cretinous attacks” from rewilding advocates for forcing his resignation from a Government panel looking at the future of England National Parks. Scientists have warned that wild boar released in Scotland could carry the potentially lethal CC398 strain of the MRSA superbug, while farmers have lashed out at tentative plans to reintroduce wolves in the Scottish Highlands.
Elsewhere, the Lynx UK Trust has faced fierce opposition to plans to reintroduce the native cat in Northumberland. And, just an hour’s drive from Godney Marsh, beavers released into the River Otter in Devon roam freely only as part of a five-year trial to assess their impact on the environment. There have been calls from some land owners for a cull.
A meadow brown butterfly in Godney Marsh, Somerset. Photo: Sandy Watt
A desert of ryegrass
Things have become so bad that staff at the National Trust are reportedly reluctant to mention the “R” word.
There is no such conflict at Godney Marshes. Cameron and his wife made the decision to invest in 20 acres of Somerset farmland when they relocated to Bristol from London. “We know we are facing a crisis in our wildlife,” he says. “One of the most important things we can do is create more space for nature. If you leave something alone, something will move in.”
The statistics behind that crisis are stark. One in 10 of all British wildlife speciesfaces possible extinction, more than a quarter of all British birds are at risk, up to three-quarters of all flying insects have disappeared since 1945, and we have lost swathes of our ancient woodlands.
Toads, water voles, mountain hares and rabbits are all in step decline, and the latest RSPB “State of Nature” report described Britain as being “among the most nature-depleted countries in the world”.
Other rewilding projects
Knepp Castle
Less than 20 miles from Gatwick Airport in the heart of the Sussex Weald, Charlie Burrell has turned a 3,500-acre intensive arable and dairy farm into a wild haven for purple emperor butterflies and nightingales. It started in 2001, when he and his wife put away their ploughs and let nature take over, aiming to let the land recover from decades of fertiliser overuse.
The results have been beyond their wildest imaginings, and Knepp Castle has become an emblem of what small-scale rewilding projects are able to achieve. The return of dense, thorny scrub – in the place of farmland – has seen nightingale numbers climb from none in 2002 to 32 in 2012, making the Knepp estate one of the densest areas in the whole of the UK for the critically endangered songbird.
A desert of ryegrass
Things have become so bad that staff at the National Trust are reportedly reluctant to mention the “R” word.
There is no such conflict at Godney Marshes. Cameron and his wife made the decision to invest in 20 acres of Somerset farmland when they relocated to Bristol from London. “We know we are facing a crisis in our wildlife,” he says. “One of the most important things we can do is create more space for nature. If you leave something alone, something will move in.”
The statistics behind that crisis are stark. One in 10 of all British wildlife speciesfaces possible extinction, more than a quarter of all British birds are at risk, up to three-quarters of all flying insects have disappeared since 1945, and we have lost swathes of our ancient woodlands.
Toads, water voles, mountain hares and rabbits are all in step decline, and the latest RSPB “State of Nature” report described Britain as being “among the most nature-depleted countries in the world”.
Other rewilding projects
Knepp Castle
Less than 20 miles from Gatwick Airport in the heart of the Sussex Weald, Charlie Burrell has turned a 3,500-acre intensive arable and dairy farm into a wild haven for purple emperor butterflies and nightingales. It started in 2001, when he and his wife put away their ploughs and let nature take over, aiming to let the land recover from decades of fertiliser overuse.
The results have been beyond their wildest imaginings, and Knepp Castle has become an emblem of what small-scale rewilding projects are able to achieve. The return of dense, thorny scrub – in the place of farmland – has seen nightingale numbers climb from none in 2002 to 32 in 2012, making the Knepp estate one of the densest areas in the whole of the UK for the critically endangered songbird.
Cliddesden Meadow. Photo: Cliddesden Community Conservation Group
Cliddesden Meadow
Around 70 people own shares in Cliddesden Meadow, a stone’s throw from Basingstoke in Hampshire. The site sits alongside the busy M3, but since a local conservation group took it over in 2012, it has become a haven for wild flowers and insects.
Unlike “purist” rewilding advocates, Cliddesden Community Conservation Group, which is seeking to conserve nature in the local parish, manages the land to some degree and has sowed the fields with wildflower seeds collected from local areas in 2015. Now there are around 120 species of wildflower, supporting dozens of species of butterfly.
Cliddesden Meadow
Around 70 people own shares in Cliddesden Meadow, a stone’s throw from Basingstoke in Hampshire. The site sits alongside the busy M3, but since a local conservation group took it over in 2012, it has become a haven for wild flowers and insects.
Unlike “purist” rewilding advocates, Cliddesden Community Conservation Group, which is seeking to conserve nature in the local parish, manages the land to some degree and has sowed the fields with wildflower seeds collected from local areas in 2015. Now there are around 120 species of wildflower, supporting dozens of species of butterfly.
Cambrian Wildwood, Wales. Photo: CambriaWildwood.org
Cambrian Wildwood
This groundbreaking project near Bwlch Corog near Machynlleth in Powys is using wild-horse descendants of the now-extinct European tarpan to graze on grasses that prevent species such as heath from growing on Welsh moorland. The charity hopes eventually to extend native woodland from 10 to 100 acres on the site, as well as using the horses to help the return of peat bogs and heath moorland. By consuming unwanted grasses and trampling on bracken, the horses will create opportunities for trees to germinate, set seed and grow.
Conservationists now warn that rural Britain is little more than a desert of ryegrass and wheat pecked over by crows.
The efforts of campaigners such as Cameron have been lauded by Springwatch presenter Chris Packham, who praise them for taking “matters into their own hands”.
“This is exactly what we need,” he told i. “Unfortunately, we have anesthetised ourselves to the statistics. We talk about figures but they almost don’t mean anything any more. That’s why individual- and community-led projects are so important to show what can be done.”
Cambrian Wildwood
This groundbreaking project near Bwlch Corog near Machynlleth in Powys is using wild-horse descendants of the now-extinct European tarpan to graze on grasses that prevent species such as heath from growing on Welsh moorland. The charity hopes eventually to extend native woodland from 10 to 100 acres on the site, as well as using the horses to help the return of peat bogs and heath moorland. By consuming unwanted grasses and trampling on bracken, the horses will create opportunities for trees to germinate, set seed and grow.
Conservationists now warn that rural Britain is little more than a desert of ryegrass and wheat pecked over by crows.
The efforts of campaigners such as Cameron have been lauded by Springwatch presenter Chris Packham, who praise them for taking “matters into their own hands”.
“This is exactly what we need,” he told i. “Unfortunately, we have anesthetised ourselves to the statistics. We talk about figures but they almost don’t mean anything any more. That’s why individual- and community-led projects are so important to show what can be done.”
‘Rewilding is a dirty word’
As part of a 10-day BioBlitz project that begins on 14 July, Packham will be reporting on the rapidly decreasing populations of some of the UK’s wildlife by visiting 10 sites across Britain, including a small-scale rewilding project on the side of the M3 motorway in Hampshire.
He is full of praise for schemes such as Godney Marshes, and says he is delighted that so many small schemes across the country have taken inspiration from the rewilding movement and haven’t been put off by its critics.
“Rewilding has been made a dirty word by a sneaky, insidious fraternity of people who are afraid of change, but it is an exciting tool in the conservation toolkit. That’s why I take my hat off to these people, who are basically rewilding whatever they can.”
Godney Marsh, Somerset. Photo: Alasdair Cameron
Packham is calling for co-ordinated national action from government and NGOs, but says small, community-led projects are key to convincing politicians of the need for action.
“At the moment we are trying to slow a huge juggernaut of environmental destruction. We are trying to stop the environment from bleeding to death, and every little sticking plaster counts.”
Plasters can only do so much, of course, and there is no hiding the fact that sites such as Godney Marshes are a small-scale response to a massive problem.
“These are disparate schemes and while they are making a brilliant difference and are psychologically important, they are not stemming the decline in our wildlife,” says Packham.
Packham is calling for co-ordinated national action from government and NGOs, but says small, community-led projects are key to convincing politicians of the need for action.
“At the moment we are trying to slow a huge juggernaut of environmental destruction. We are trying to stop the environment from bleeding to death, and every little sticking plaster counts.”
Plasters can only do so much, of course, and there is no hiding the fact that sites such as Godney Marshes are a small-scale response to a massive problem.
“These are disparate schemes and while they are making a brilliant difference and are psychologically important, they are not stemming the decline in our wildlife,” says Packham.
‘A pragmatic approach’
That’s a view shared by Alastair Driver, a special adviser to the charity Rewilding Britain, which is campaigning to set up a string of far-larger 25,000-acre rewilding sites in mid-Wales, the Peak District and the Kielder Forest in Northumberland.
“The true meaning of rewilding is about restoring a whole ecosystem, not just a field, meadow or wood,” he says. “But if we have smaller schemes dotted around the country, it’s more likely to inspire people to support rewilding on a grander scale.”
It’s talk of grand-scale projects that has scared some in the countryside – but Driver doesn’t think the rewilding movement was wrong to talk of large tracts of land returning to nature or reintroducing predators such as the wolf.
“People got stuck in, they had conversations and views were aired. Now we are establishing a more pragmatic approach, which brings people with us. That’s not to say that in 100 years’ time we won’t have rewilded so much of central Scotland that we are ready for the wolf to be reintroduced. What we want first, though, is a healthy, functioning ecosystem that sees natural processes restored.”
Back in Somerset, Cameron is “fully aware” that wolves and bears will “probably never return to the Somerset Levels”. His project was never about reintroducing apex predators, he says.
“It’s more about a philosophy of allowing nature to take its course. People get hung up on wolves, but really rewilding is about making space in our countryside for wildlife to come back. What I’m doing is a small part of that, and hopefully pushing the debate forward.”
More from iweekend
How 30 random acts of wildness will help you – and the natural world
Save what we have before ‘rewilding’ with wolves, says Sir David Attenborough
George Monbiot on ‘rewilding’ the countryside and the end of sheep
Rewilding: The Brits truly taking back country control to save UK wildllife
.
.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment