Understanding Conservation

Conservation is a complex subject area, as often the question is, what is it we are conserving? As the landscape in the UK is all the result of human intervention, we are often conserving something that is a human construct anyway. Therefore a better question should be what is the purpose or effect of this conservation work. Only by understanding what the desired end result should be, does the purpose of the work undertaken in the name of conservation, start to make sense.

Far too often people assume that doing nothing and leaving an area of land alone and letting whatever are the strongest plants grow, is all you need to do. However, because we have been impacting upon the land for so many centuries, we can’t just leave an area of land to just go wild.

In previous generations, and we only need to go back three or four generations, it was the land management for agriculture that provided the UK with its rich, varied and colourful tapestry that is the British countryside. With the advent of industrial farming in the last sixty years, there was a dramatic effect upon the landscape. Traditional farming had helped support the diversity of habitats and hence the wildlife that lived within these diverse landscapes. With these changes to land use, the impact upon the populations of many species was devastating. I can sit and read books about the countryside written in or from the firsts half of the twentieth century and see just how much we have lost.

Therefore the challenge for conservation is to carry out work that provides the correct condition for many endangered species to live. However, this does present a difficulty as often this can and does mean destroying another form of habitat.

This dilemma was perfectly illustrated in the Conservation task that this mouse was involved in on Tuesday. Along side one of the burns (a stream) in the area, is a ride of thickly growing trees. These are mainly pioneer species like Silver Birch, Rowan (Mountain Ash), Elder and the dreaded sycamore. But there were also plenty of Oak, small leaved Lime and Ash as well. The ride was being opened up so that butterflies would benefit from the open glades that will be created alongside what will become a bridal way. Dealing with the sycamore is not a problem, it is prolific and invasive, it shades out other trees and if allowed to would take over. The Silver Birch while a beautiful tree, is one of the pioneer species that establishes its self very quickly, but would eventually die off naturally as more longer-lived mature trees of oak took over. But here they are trying to take advantage of the open glades and needed to be reduced in number. The Elder, while it to would eventually die off if this were full woodland, needed to be removed totally. They will return but in their present numbers they would have prevented the insects, butterflies and moths from re-establishing themselves. And while it will cause a small impact upon food for small birds in the short term, in the long term the greater the moth and butterfly populations the more food there will be for the birds, especially at breeding time.

The difficulty starts to occur when dealing with the Rowan and the Ash. They are useful trees as well as being beautiful, but while there were many young trees there, they mainly were growing in the areas of the glades. That meant they had to be removed. It is never an easy decision to cut down a tree, but it was only happening because of the long-term goal of creating areas where insects, moths and butterflies could live and breed.

The wood from these trees was deliberately left so that insects like beetles could bore into the cords, as well as providing hibernation sites for all manner of animals.

What made the work so poignant though was the fact that while working I received a call about growing trees and replanting work that will be happening in my normal stamping ground of Chopwell Wood. The difficulty is getting people to understand that sometimes to preserve a habitat sometimes we have to destroy what’s already there.

Dealing with damage and creating something special

While I am a strong believer in allowing open access to the countryside, I also realise that there are some people who don’t care about the environment and come into the natural environment set on causing damage. The photograph of this damaged tree is just one example of the damage that irresponsible people do.

Today, the Mouse and the Chair had to complete the cementing in of the rocks in the Coal Tubs. This was becoming urgent as already the mindless ones were trying to destroy the work already done. Some of the content of the tubs, not concreted in, had been removed and the rocks used as projectiles to attempt to damage the tubs and the work already done.

It would be all to easy to become despondent, but with a pragmatic attitude, we worked to complete the task and ensure that there is little that can be damaged. I personally have never understood the drive or motivation to destroy. I suppose that because it’s easier to destroy something than to create, it must provide the brainless some form of creative outlet.

With that task completed we only need to get our willing band of volunteers to join us to paint the tubs now. You are welcome to join us.

That done, the Chair and myself were not finished as we also had the job of dealing with the wildflower meadow.

As the British landscape is an artificial one, created by thousands of years of human intervention, the traditional wildflower meadow is a habitat that requires careful management. In the past, meadows would have been clearings created when trees were felled to provide hay and herbage for animals and livestock. Because there was no active inputs into the soil from manure, as would happen in a pasture meadow, and the grass and herbage are removed, the soil remains poor and denuded of nutrients. This makes the land poor for growing crops, but a perfect environment for the wild flowers, as the grasses are not able to take over.

Thus with the changes that have occurred in agricultural practice over the last fifty to sixty years, many of the traditional wildflowers have become scarce. By recreating a wildflower meadow, we ensure that the flowers exist as well as the insects and the reptiles and amphibians that feed on the insects. While the biodiversity is much grater than just that, it gives you an example of why these areas are so important.

But, as people no longer keep the odd pig, or a house cow, or even a goat or two, traditional meadows are no longer a part of the agricultural necessity. Thus managing them becomes more labour intensive. Thus the work falls to us volunteers to do the work.

Fortunately, the Friends’ have some good contacts and supporters and we got the woman who has the Alpacas in to cut the hay. But the real work is raking up and removing the hay. That is what the Mouse and the Chair did today.

The benefits to the wildlife were obvious right from the start as there were several common frogs Rana temporaria in the area and as the herbage was raked up they were hopping away to find cover. Also as the ground was cleared a large number of vole and mouse holes were revealed too.

While all of this was hard work, the benefits to the natural environment were obvious and while it is harder to create something worthwhile, that effort is justified.

Climate Change and Bird Populations

While the effect of a warming climate will have many predictable consequences, it is the impacts that the majority of the population don’t think about that are in fact the more serious ones.

In some migrating birds choosing not to winter in the UK, many people will assume that this is just a minor matter. Interesting to note but what will be the impact upon my life, they will say. Well, the impacts could be greater than people assume.

Because of the importance of the UK as wintering grounds our agriculture practices have been modified to accommodate these influxes of birds. This is not just about the crops that are grown but the husbandry of farm animals. When you have large populations of birds migrating to the UK there has to be a food source for them, geese and ducks will help clear large areas of grass, thus reducing the cost of farming these lands. Also some of the birds will feed on grubs and insects that present over winter, keeping that population in check. Who knows what the effect on human and animal health this change will bring.

Further there is the impact upon tourism in the areas where these birds flock; there are many small communities that are reliant upon the tourist pound that the bird’s presence brings.

Then there are the problems for the communities where the birds are now choosing to over winter. Will the birds be competing for valuable or scarce resources? Are they competing with man for these? If the answer to any of these is yes the populations of these many species of birds will be at serious risk.

Climate change is already creating a serious problem for the summer breading populations of sea birds. The warming of the seas is reducing the populations of sand eel’s that so rely on to feed and raise their young. This means that populations of internationally important species are in decline. But its not just the effect upon the birds that this should be causing concern, what about the rest of the food chain and the fish that humans eat? In the North Sea fish stocks are already looking as if they are in terminal decline.

There will be some people who will think that this doesn’t really matter, there are other more important issues to worry about, but the reality is this is the most important issue of the day. Unless we act now, we not only risk causing the mass extinction of animal populations, but our own extinction as well.