Improving Habitats and Stag Beetles

While I know that some of my readers (Well I have two cats and a human that reads this) don't like me posting on political issues, they would rather I just posted on wildlife and Environment topics, but Zimbabwe is an environmental issue. To put the situation in context, my ex wife went to Zimbabwe on a School trip, in my school the best we got was a visit to the Natural History Museum, the year of their first anniversary of their independence. What she brought back was the very real feeling of hope the people had. Additionally, the country really did think that it could help feed Africa. While we now know that hope was dashed and the bread basket for the region is now facing the worst harvest for sixty years, the environmental impact of this will seriously effect the ecosystems in the region. Desperate hungry people will kill the wildlife to eat, and if crops are poor, more wild land is taken to try to grow crops.

Therefore, the environmental impact of injustice and human rights start to become obvious, so I feel justified in posting on that topic.

Anyway, back to the wildlife. On Monday, I went to visit a private wood for the owners. It all started a couple of weeks ago when I had a telephone call form someone I did not know. The call was memorable as the gentleman that called did not even know my name, and I thought it was rather fishy. Was it someone trying to sell me something? Or was it someone trying to garner my personal details? In the end I told my caller that he had to tell me the purpose of his call or I was going to hang up. It turned out that someone else had given him my number as they were looking for some help with declining wildlife in their wood.

I don't know how or why, but I seem to have earned a reputation.

What had sparked their concern was that when they had bought the wood some ten years back, they had quite a good population of birds, insects and wildlife in general. But they had noticed a decline in the birds last year and even fewer this year.

So they had contacted various people to see where they could get help from and it turns out that a former landlady had given them my number. They, the owners, had bought the wood to provide free wood fuel for the folks in the syndicate. But also they loved having the wood as a place to walk their dogs and to have gatherings, parties and barbecues.

Anyway, I had to travel to Durham to meet the to guys who were going to show me their woods. Their forest looked fine as we approached but as we walked into the woods, it struck me that there was no dead wood at all. Also, the normal under brush was missing.

What they have been doing is collecting all the fallen and dead wood for fire wood and by not leaving any for the insects, they were removing the food for the birds. Also they have been spraying brushwood killer to get rid of much of the brambles and such like, again this has removed much of the natural habitat the wildlife needs. Brambles are important as they provide cover and food for a lot of wildlife. It turned out that there had been strong disagreements about much of what they had been doing, so much of what I suggested was what they had already realised they needed to do.

What they also needed was guidance on how to harvest the wood so they were not cutting down all the trees. So I suggested coppicing some of the trees, I even ended up marking the trees for them, and it looks as though I will be going back to show them how to coppice in the autumn.
It is a shame that they hadn't sought better advice when they first bought the wood, as they do have a lovely setting. By buying their local wood they have ensured that the wood will stay. Also by utilising the wood in a sustainable way for their fire wood, the fifteen acres provides fire wood for more than twenty households, so while it was never intended to be a green project, this is what it has become.

Further, while I did not see any this time, they did have Lesser Stag Beetles their when they first obtained the wood, and if they haven't destroyed all the dead wood they could return. Its an insect that I would love to see. I have permission to return too at any time, so I left them with instructions that they have to improve the habitat so that I can come back to get pictures of the wildlife.

General Musings

Finally on Saturday morning the Computer interface bit and the Video Software I had ordered arrived. As I had paid extra for fast postage and signed for delivery, I was not impressed that it came via normal second class post. That's an issue I will take up with the supplier.

However, over a cup of tea I read the destructions and after a quick check for email and backing up my computer, I set about installing the hardware and the software. That part was very simple, and I connected up the camera and started to load up my footage. While not a fast process everything seemed to be working fine.

As I need to learn how to use the software, I took my time and while I though I was doing everything correctly, I kept on getting a message telling me that my film would be lost when I tried to shut down after thinking I had completed uploading the footage to the computer. I just could not understand it, and for most of Saturday I kept on trying to discover where I was going wrong. I knew the footage was being recorded on the hard drive as I could see my gigabytes being eaten away.

On Sunday I had to go on a site visit to a conservation area where my input and ideas had been requested. Because of the difficulties I was having I decided to leave my cameras behind. I hope I can return as there are some wonderful areas that will soon be carpeted with bluebells in this wood. The rest of the visit was very straight forward. Its a chap that I know that has bought seventy five acres of scrubby woodland, and he was looking for conformation that his ideas will regenerate the wood, the habitats and the wildlife. Most of the work will not be done until next winter. Delays meant that until the first of March he didn't own it. This actually means he has the best part of a year to discover what is living in the wood, and adjust his plans accordingly.
It was the discovery of some very rare flowers and amphibians on the land that delayed his purchase. However, as he wants to keep the land as a wildlife haven anyway, it seems all is well there.

So feeling buoyant I returned home to try and unravel the mystery that is my video stuff. So I decided I would start again from scratch and removed the software and reloaded it. I then re-transferred the video films to the computer. This time it appeared to work. So I was able to transfer my filming to DVDs ready to edit them latter. I still don't know what was going wrong before, but that's often the way with computers.

It will take time for me to learn how to edit the films, but apart from trying to watch badgers, monitoring migrations, filming otters or not, doing my washing cooking and cleaning, well I have to find something to fill my time.

Changed Plans and A Long Walk

One of the large coppice stools

While I knew that I had a couple of important errands to run yesterday, I was planning to have a quite day especially as I have a load of washing to do. One of the problems with living a truly “Green” lifestyle and being so involved with practical conservation is that my clothes do get mucky. Therefore I needed some time to get my washing done. I don’t have a washing machine so it’s all done by hand. Rather old fashioned but effective. However, I got a call from the Ranger as the Forestry Commission Crew had been in that morning and had coppiced the large trees down where the Friends’ are building the Grass Snake hotels. As I seem to have become by default the task leader on this project, I needed to check to see if there was anything else that the FoCW needed done while the crew were still around.

Therefore, I had to adjust my plans and go and visit the site. As building these Grass Snake Hotels, Hibernacula, is a big project and we are relying upon volunteers, we need to keep a sensible balance in providing work that is interesting yet achievable. Had we left the large timber there to be coppiced by inexperienced volunteers, far less could have been done as the site lacks the space for twenty plus people to be working and several tonnes of timber getting felled. Also as the volunteers are inexperienced, by making the work interesting with results that they can see occurring, they are more likely to want to continue volunteering and doing their bit for the environment.

Well when I got to the site, the Forestry Commission crew have done a fantastic job. They have left the smaller more manageable trees there, for the conservation volunteers to deal with, but have opened up the area so that we can work on the Hibernacula. None of the wood will be wasted as it will be required for the construction of the grass snake hotels, and what is not used will be corded so that insects and other small animal can use it. None of the trees have been killed, as the coppice stools will regenerate. The site was chosen as the trees there need to be coppiced anyway, and because of that fact the location is perfect for the Hibernacula. It all goes to become a virtuous circle of enhancing habitat.

As my regular reader will know, previously while carrying out a survey of potential bat roost sites, I had shredded my old boots, so on Monday I went out and bought a new pair. I was glad that I had as the site where the Friends of Chopwell Wood are to build the Grass Snake Hotel is not easily accessible. Access is via a steep bank and you need good stout footwear to get on or off the site. Because the tread on my old boots was so worn on the last occasion that I had been to the location I had to slip down on my butt to gain access. This time it was a piece of cake.

The steep valley near the river

As I had needed to alter my plans I decided I would take some time out and relax by taking a nice walk and see what was happening in the wood. With autumn showing its self in the wood, it was possible that I could get some great pictures. I personally love this time of year because of the colours and the way that the wildlife is feverously preparing for winter.