Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => General Chat => Topic started by: sjh1 on May 30, 2013
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22706729 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22706729)
This guy George Monbiot has the right idea. At present our hills are not wild, they are sheep farms where vegetation is grazed to within an inch of its life. That, or forests of introduced conifers. Both equally man-made and both useless for wildlife.
Monbiot proposes subsidising farmers to remove sheep from some areas allowing the natural vegetation to regrow and natural processes to occur freely. In other words the hills would be truly wild again. At present farmers (in uplands and lowlands) are actually subsidised to clear natural scrubby vegetation!
Rewilding makes a lot of sense to me and I can see few sensible arguments against it. I understand the objections from farmers whose traditional way of life might change (although it would be a voluntary scheme surely?) but objections from conservation bodies annoy me. Why conservation groups want to preserve a biologically poor, unnatural, farmed landscape is beyond me. One of the latest Mourne management plans includes encouragement to tidy and clear encroaching scrub ... crazy.
This doesn't have to be on an enormous scale, a good start would be nature reserves or even sections of them. Why do the National Trust continue to graze their land at Slieve Donard for example? I know good overgrown and expanding hedgerows that are wilder (in the sense of natural processes and biodiversity levels) than most of the high Mournes. (Although these are increasingly being cleared too because of single farm payments that subsidise farmers based on field size!)
Linking the re-introduction of wolves with reducing grazing pressure is unnecessary though. Maybe a slim possibility in the Scottish highlands but elsewhere in the British Isles it's not feasible. Linking the issues just gives the powers that be a chance to claim rewilding is radical or daft when it would be so simple and effective. If the habitat did improve in NI we would probably see large avian predators like goshawk, golden eagle and/or white-tailed eagle recolonising our uplands naturally.
Rewilding has already happened in the Netherlands at Osstvaardersplassen and Holland is a more densely populated country than the UK. Oostvaardersplassen is an interesting site, see here, http://www.lhnet.org/assets/pdf/britishwildlifevera.pdf (http://www.lhnet.org/assets/pdf/britishwildlifevera.pdf)
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Article on the subject... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2013/may/22/britain-uplands-farming-subsidies (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2013/may/22/britain-uplands-farming-subsidies)
"The major funding that farmers receive is called the single farm payment, which is money given by European taxpayers to people who own land. These people receive a certain amount (usually around £200 or £300), for every hectare they own. To receive it, they must keep the land in what is called "Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition" (GAEC). It's a term straight out of 1984.
Among the compulsory standards in the GAEC rules is "avoiding the encroachment of unwanted vegetation on agricultural land". What this means is that if farmers want their money they must stop wild plants from returning. They don't have to produce anything: to keep animals or to grow crops there. They merely have to prevent more than a handful of trees or shrubs from surviving, which they can do by towing cutting gear over the land.
If they want to expand the area eligible for this subsidy, and therefore make more money, they must get their tractors out and start clearing vegetation. From my kayak in Cardigan Bay I have often watched a sight that Neolithic fishermen would have witnessed: towers of smoke rising from the hills as the farmers burn tracts of gorse and trees in order to claim more public money. The single farm payment is a perfectly designed scheme for maximum ecological destruction."
And NI specific ...
"The government of Northern Ireland has been fined £64m for (among other such offences) giving subsidy money to farms whose traditional hedgerows are too wide. The effect of these rules has been to promote the frenzied clearance of habitats. The system ensures that farmers seek out the remaining corners of land where wildlife still resides, and destroy them.
A farmer can graze his land to the roots, run his sheep in the woods, grub up the last lone trees, poison the rivers with sheep dip and still get his money. Some of the farms close to where I lived in mid-Wales do all of those things and never have their grants stopped. But one thing he is not allowed to do is what these rules call "land abandonment", and what I call rewilding. For no good reason, public money is used both to engineer the mass destruction of habitats through grazing and clearing, and to prevent any significant recovery."
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Any pictures you can share that show what a place wild with scrub may look like? I'll admit that I'm not too sure what is meant by scrub. Is it different to bracken or ferns? Are brambles a native to these parts and would you advocate letting it have a free reign? It does seen strange that there aren't some areas that are allowed to develop naturally.
In the photo below in the foreground you'll see that the land is all covered in ferns (?) with small tracks that cut through it. This was a picture I took in Shropshire and that particular area had a large area like that. You can see the contrast with the next hill over which is occupied by sheep. Do you think that is the only difference in the two fields which lie side by side, the fact that sheep are kept out of part of it?
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8293/7591490024_9961751159_z.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/76526252@N05/7591490024/)
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I've been following this project in southern Scotland: Carrifran Wildwood (http://www.carrifran.org.uk/)
I think in terms of rewilding, you are going to see a variety of dominant plant species over a number of decades. As the habitat regenerates the conditions will shift to favour different species right up to shrubs and trees eventually.
I'd certainly like to see some areas be allowed to run like this.
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Any pictures you can share that show what a place wild with scrub may look like? I'll admit that I'm not too sure what is meant by scrub. Is it different to bracken or ferns? Are brambles a native to these parts and would you advocate letting it have a free reign? It does seen strange that there aren't some areas that are allowed to develop naturally.
In the photo below in the foreground you'll see that the land is all covered in ferns (?) with small tracks that cut through it. This was a picture I took in Shropshire and that particular area had a large area like that. You can see the contrast with the next hill over which is occupied by sheep. Do you think that is the only difference in the two fields which lie side by side, the fact that sheep are kept out of part of it?
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8293/7591490024_9961751159_z.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/76526252@N05/7591490024/)
Scrub is low trees and bushes, in most cases it will eventually become woodland. Ferns (bracken, bramble and gorse) are sometimes the early stages of scrub; gorse and thorn bushes are especially useful because they are jeggy (scientific term there) allowing other plants and trees to grow in and around them and be safe from grazing animals.
Without knowing the areas in your pic I would suggest less intensive grazing allows the bracken to grow in the foreground.
In any area of our uplands take a look at places where sheep are fenced out, such as the margins of conifer plantations. The heather will be much taller and thicker and there will often be small saplings of rowan, birch and willow.
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I've been following this project in southern Scotland: Carrifran Wildwood (http://www.carrifran.org.uk/)
I think in terms of rewilding, you are going to see a variety of dominant plant species over a number of decades. As the habitat regenerates the conditions will shift to favour different species right up to shrubs and trees eventually.
I'd certainly like to see some areas be allowed to run like this.
Absolutely. Depending of course on soil conditions etc. I reckon there would be large areas in the Mournes for example that would never (re?)develop fully into woodland (too wet, too high up, soil too thin/rocky). But we would then have a mosaic of habitats ranging from open grassland/heathland (including the majority of the land that would still be grazed) through to thicker heathland, low scrub and mature woodland.
Conservation organisations could already be doing this on their land and in some limited cases possibly are. Farmers should be given the option to leave small areas ungrazed instead of paying them to clear any natural vegetation. It is not rocket science.
That Carrifran site looks class! I would love to see a project like this in NI but even small patches spread across our uplands could make a differences to biodiversity and we would at least have wee patches that were truly wild.
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Below is a link to photos showing the effects of the Single Farm Payment in lowland areas. This hedge had been left to grow wild for at least 15 years. It was about 30 feet wide! In 2008/9 there was a winter roost of 75+ Linnets (red-listed bird species) in it. It has now been cleared on both sides and is about 3 feet wide.
The same process is happening in the uplands. Any natural vegetation is being cleared and some conservation management plans actually encourage the process!
I can't upload the pics from my computer. File size way too big. Here's a link...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62138742@N08/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/62138742@N08/)
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i like this topic !!!!
Over population all over the world is the disease. Greed is another key factor, but thats just my opinion.
I would love a time machine to go back and walk through a real forest.
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i like this topic !!!!
Over population all over the world is the disease. Greed is another key factor, but thats just my opinion.
I would love a time machine to go back and walk through a real forest.
Overpopulation is a problem and in this case greed might be an even greater one ...
But in the British Isles we still have large areas in the uplands where there aren't any people. In this case there are two easy and very simple solutions,
1. Conservation organisations leaving some areas of their reserves to grow wild.
2. Subsidising farmers to leave some areas ungrazed and uncleared instead of paying them to remove natural vegetation as is currently the case.
I just hope government and NGO policy changes soon.
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Greed is a bad thing not only on the land, even in the seas. I would hate to be born 100 year from now.
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And a quick point on the current Mournes conservation management plan. I'll hoke it out at some stage and get the relevant quotes but it simultaneously encourages...
1. The clearance of "encroaching scrub" on the lower slopes of the Mournes (hope they don't find out about the saplings at Spinkwee River!)
2. "Conservation" grazing.
and
3. Leaving small areas in the high Mournes (such as islands in rivers) ungrazed to allow natural vegetation to return.
I suppose at least they have included point 3 but if I recall correctly it is a very minor point and not prominent. It is madness to simultaneously encourage the removal and promotion of natural vegetation! Conservation grazing can be important, in species-rich wildflower meadows for example, but to improve conditions for wildlife throughout the Mournes conservation organisations should be encouraging the removal of sheep not further grazing of any kind.
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I live in hope, but greed rules so i wont hold my breath :-\
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Perhaps if there are enough people with enough conviction about this, a non profit charity could be set up to buy such land and rewild it.
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Perhaps if there are enough people with enough conviction about this, a non profit charity could be set up to buy such land and rewild it.
I think that's basically what happened at that Carrifran site in the southern uplands of Scotland? I've ordered the book.
I'd definitely support a project like that. Imagine it in the Mournes! Even on a smaller scale it would be class.
On the wider scale a change in attitude and policy is needed from both conservation NGOs and government departments that subsidise farmers.
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http://www.monbiot.com/2013/05/29/surprised-by-joy/ (http://www.monbiot.com/2013/05/29/surprised-by-joy/)
Interesting interview on rewilding in link above. Think the following quote is hopeful,
"I would be surprised if by 2050 farm subsidies still exist. If they go, then a great deal of unproductive land which is farmed only with the help of public money becomes available for other uses. I would like one of those uses to be rewilding. But how the land will develop once it has begun is impossible closely to predict, which is one of the reasons why I find rewilding enthralling. It’s likely though that there will be a lot more vegetation, and much of it will evolve into woodland, creating habitats into which wolves, lynx, bison and other species could be released. I would not like to see a mass rewilding of productive land, which will become ever more important for feeding people."
Can't see the possibility of the large mammal re-introductions in an Ulster context ... but you never know ...
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I went for a walk from Tollymore to commedagh and back with John one point last year, it involved a walk along the spinkwee back into Tollymore at the end - and the ferns were in full growth at the stage. It was a nice hot day and it was absolutely enchanting.
The big tall ferns and the smell in the air, you'd have thought you were in the set of jurassic park rather than the mournes - it was really interesting!
I'd say a re-wilded mourne would be a fascinating thing
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Saw this story today, also of interest to this thread:
http://cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/a-60-year-experiment/ (http://cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/a-60-year-experiment/)
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A bit closer (just about) to home, I came across some details of a rewilding project in the Nephin Beg range (Mayo). An area the size of 11000 hectares has been designated as a rewilding project. Some details here:
http://www.ukhillwalking.com/news/item.php?id=67919 (http://www.ukhillwalking.com/news/item.php?id=67919)
http://www.coillte.ie/aboutcoillte/news/article/view/irelands-first-wilderness-project-launched/ (http://www.coillte.ie/aboutcoillte/news/article/view/irelands-first-wilderness-project-launched/)
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A bit closer (just about) to home, I came across some details of a rewilding project in the Nephin Beg range (Mayo). An area the size of 11000 hectares has been designated as a rewilding project. Some details here:
http://www.ukhillwalking.com/news/item.php?id=67919 (http://www.ukhillwalking.com/news/item.php?id=67919)
http://www.coillte.ie/aboutcoillte/news/article/view/irelands-first-wilderness-project-launched/ (http://www.coillte.ie/aboutcoillte/news/article/view/irelands-first-wilderness-project-launched/)
This looks very interesting! Would love to see something similar in NI. Will maybe visit the area at some stage. Still, would like to see further details of their 15 year plan, government bodies often talk a good game but translating it into action is the problem..
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More on "Wild Nephin". An interesting and encouraging project.
http://www.self-willed-land.org.uk/articles/wild_nephin_project.pdf (http://www.self-willed-land.org.uk/articles/wild_nephin_project.pdf)
"The long-term aim is to develop a matrix of wild habitats such as forest, bogland and other habitats that will have the potential to sustain their existence without further human intervention and provide homes for some of Ireland's rarest species."
Plans such as the development of naturalised forests through selective harvesting of conifers and clearance of invasive alien species (e.g. rhododendron) are good.
Only thing is, calling an area "wild" or "rewilded" and having glossy tourist-focused leaflets and launches, doesn't make the area wild. I see nothing in these plans about removing domestic grazing animals or reducing wild grazers to natural numbers! Also, is 15 years really long enough to transform a barren conifer plantation into naturalised broadleaf woodland? Maybe if they start the process native trees eventually take over but I'm not sure.
Nevertheless a good project and would be great to see similar in NI. In the Mournes it would be much simpler ... just remove the sheep from the high Mournes and patch up the wall so they can't get back in ... then watch as nature takes over!
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Yes, it does seem like a more managed 'rewilding' that won't quite be the full spirit of the idea in our generation, but will be interesting none-the-less... and good to see Enda getting in on it, and the mention of a wider 1,000,000 ha European objective... perhaps enough impetus to see a similar site up here.
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Monbiot on sheep (not literally)...
http://www.monbiot.com/2013/05/30/sheepwrecked/ (http://www.monbiot.com/2013/05/30/sheepwrecked/)
"Sheep have reduced most of our uplands to bowling greens with contours. Only the merest remnants of life persist. Spend two hours sitting in a bushy suburban garden and you are likely to see more birds and of a greater range of species than in walking five miles across almost any part of the British uplands. The land has been sheepwrecked."
... on the (simple) solution...
http://www.monbiot.com/2013/06/06/agricultural-hegemony/ (http://www.monbiot.com/2013/06/06/agricultural-hegemony/)
"Er, scrapping Rule 12 of the European Union’s Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition code. This rule forces farmers to clear the land of “unwanted vegetation” if they want to claim their subsidy payments. It’s a policy which has caused the pointless, taxpayer-funded destruction of habitats all over the EU.
In other words, I’m suggesting that farmers should have a choice over whether or not they want to clear their land. If they don’t want to clear it or keep sheep on it, they can still claim their payments. Terrified yet?"
and on current conservation dogma...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/27/my-manifesto-rewilding-world (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/27/my-manifesto-rewilding-world)
"Conservation sites must be maintained in what is called "favourable condition", which means the condition in which they were found when they were designated. More often than not this is a state of extreme depletion, the merest scraping of what was once a vibrant and dynamic ecosystem. The ecological disasters we call nature reserves are often kept in this depleted state through intense intervention: cutting and burning any trees that return; grazing by domestic animals at greater densities and for longer periods than would ever be found in nature. The conservation ethos is neatly summarised in the forester Ritchie Tassell's sarcastic question, "how did nature cope before we came along?""
Have to say it pains me to see so much sense written in The Guardian.
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Indeed SJH, and entirely absent of bizzaro handwringing over semantics.
Are you sure you found that in the graun ;-)
Monbiot is spot on here
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Indeed SJH, and entirely absent of bizzaro handwringing over semantics.
Are you sure you found that in the graun ;-)
Monbiot is spot on here
Right that's it, I'm starting a new thread on the crack/craic debate (... and I really haven't got the time for it).
Found these Monbiot articles online, he's got a lot of stuff on rewilding. I've got his book "Feral" but haven't read it yet.
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Perhaps you misunderstood me mate.
I was referring to the Graun's penchant for handwringing over a microcosm of semantics.
I recently read a full article about a mother who refused to let her daughter join the girl guides because she didn't like the wording of the motto.
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Hate to be a cynic on this topic but sadly human reality kills all concept of rewilding. Our population is still growing at a scary rate, requiring more food which in turn needs more land. Thus money rules and drives governments to offer better cash rewards to farmers who agriculturally strip mine the land, without such folk start to starve (and who wants to be the PM dealing with a G8 country dying of hunger).
Any small green space that can be built on is being tossed through loopholes of legislation to provide more and more homes, meaning all "wild" areas are just nature reserves. The problem with these is they are nothing more than a few ponds, meadows and wooded spots carved up with gravel pathways for the townsfolk to come and "look at". Therein lies the issue, the H&S crew have got so neurotic about the potential harm little Johnny could come to if he tripped on a stick all our wild areas are hands off, you can't camp out (that disturbs the 1/4 of acre of wildland made by man), you can't light fires (one mistake means it all goes in half an hour), you can't take anything away (there's bugger all there to begin with so every stick counts).
Often I find myself thinking a lottery win for me would mean emigration to the states just so I could see real wild country before either I die or it's all gone.
However I think it could be possible but only if a commited group of folks could pool their resources to purchase as large an area of land as possible, however it would need to be free of any right of ways etc etc otherwise you end up subject to the same crazy H&S rules as everywhere else. Personally I say someone free snake pliskin 8)
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Hate to be a cynic on this topic but sadly human reality kills all concept of rewilding. Our population is still growing at a scary rate, requiring more food which in turn needs more land. Thus money rules and drives governments to offer better cash rewards to farmers who agriculturally strip mine the land, without such folk start to starve (and who wants to be the PM dealing with a G8 country dying of hunger).
Any small green space that can be built on is being tossed through loopholes of legislation to provide more and more homes, meaning all "wild" areas are just nature reserves. The problem with these is they are nothing more than a few ponds, meadows and wooded spots carved up with gravel pathways for the townsfolk to come and "look at". Therein lies the issue, the H&S crew have got so neurotic about the potential harm little Johnny could come to if he tripped on a stick all our wild areas are hands off, you can't camp out (that disturbs the 1/4 of acre of wildland made by man), you can't light fires (one mistake means it all goes in half an hour), you can't take anything away (there's bugger all there to begin with so every stick counts).
Often I find myself thinking a lottery win for me would mean emigration to the states just so I could see real wild country before either I die or it's all gone.
However I think it could be possible but only if a commited group of folks could pool their resources to purchase as large an area of land as possible, however it would need to be free of any right of ways etc etc otherwise you end up subject to the same crazy H&S rules as everywhere else. Personally I say someone free snake pliskin 8)
Well said mate !!
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Perhaps you misunderstood me mate.
I was referring to the Graun's penchant for handwringing over a microcosm of semantics.
I recently read a full article about a mother who refused to let her daughter join the girl guides because she didn't like the wording of the motto.
Yes I did, apologies.
Regarding conservation organisations and plans the Mourne Mountains Landscape Partnership Plan is a prime example of confusion.
Page iv here http://www.mournelive.com/documentbank/uploads/MMLP%20LCAP%20Part%201.pdf (http://www.mournelive.com/documentbank/uploads/MMLP%20LCAP%20Part%201.pdf) has the overall vision which among other things dishearteningly suggests...
"Farmers and large landowners will be co-operating in using a range of techniques to clear scrub, keep invasive species at bay and maintain native plants in good condition as well as the iconic dry stone walls that criss-cross the area."
What it calls scrub (and in some cases invasive species) many would call natural vegetation. They specifically target things like bracken and gorse, both native species and gorse is an excellent habitat for nesting birds.
Some of the management techniques suggested for Annalong Wood (the cleared and burnt area) on page 118 (see here http://www.mournelive.com/documentbank/uploads/MMLP%20LCAP%20Part%202.pdf (http://www.mournelive.com/documentbank/uploads/MMLP%20LCAP%20Part%202.pdf)) are, "invasive clearance, grazing, cutting, seeding, prescribed burning". I was disappointed to see this Annalong Wood area is going to be managed at all. I was hoping to watch it regenerate naturally.
The report also suggests that the Mournes are both overgrazed and undergrazed. Overgrazed yes, but in terms of natural grazing levels to suggest anywhere in the Mournes is undergrazed is ludicrous.
Strangely after all the focus on clearance of natural vegetation there is this small section on page 122 (see here http://www.mournelive.com/documentbank/uploads/MMLP%20LCAP%20Part%202.pdf (http://www.mournelive.com/documentbank/uploads/MMLP%20LCAP%20Part%202.pdf))...
"Parallel to this (protection of 'Mournes' Juniper), native tree species found in the Mourne uplands will be grown from seed, providing saplings for local landowners to reintroduce into areas which are not grazed, such as gullies and river islands."
Why clear natural regenerating vegetation from one area to artificially plant it in another?! All the best to whoever has to find ungrazed gullies and even river islands in the Mournes too. Maybe they will fence a few off but I doubt it.
This is all in a conservation report which aims to protect biodiversity (wildlife). All it is doing is preserving an artificial farmed landscape that is largely useless for wildlife.
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Hate to be a cynic on this topic but sadly human reality kills all concept of rewilding. Our population is still growing at a scary rate, requiring more food which in turn needs more land. Thus money rules and drives governments to offer better cash rewards to farmers who agriculturally strip mine the land, without such folk start to starve (and who wants to be the PM dealing with a G8 country dying of hunger).
Although Monbiot's point is that the upland sheep-farms are not productive anyway. They provide very little food and are run at a loss. They're only sustainable through government grants. We could instead allow farmers to leave some of their land uncleared and ungrazed but still give them their grants. Monbiot doesn't suggest that productive lowland farms should be part of rewilding.
I agree with you on health and safety at nature reserves. Also all the neat paths and information panels. They are like parks or zoos.
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Interesting website here... http://www.rewildingeurope.com/ (http://www.rewildingeurope.com/)
It would be great to see a Rewilding UK organisation set up.
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Interesting website here... http://www.rewildingeurope.com/ (http://www.rewildingeurope.com/)
It would be great to see a Rewilding UK organisation set up.
All it takes is if some action and leadership. To develop a site from scratch without government help would be a formidable challenge but if the scale is right I' m sure its possible. The Wild Nephin project sets a impressive and rather large precedent. The idea is very new in Ireland and will need time to develop but I feel although the Nephin site is currently just a vast abandoned pine plantation the organisers seem committed to a very purist notion of rewilding. I don't see why a more modest sized are could be done in NI through the state or through volunteer groups like in Ennerdale. The upper Lough Erne or the Mournes would be fabulous locations for it. At the same time a EU wide reform of farming in marginal areas would make a huge difference.
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That sounds amazing !!!
Hope they make a real good go of it, is there any way to get involed and help ???
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I don't see why a more modest sized are could be done in NI through the state or through volunteer groups like in Ennerdale. The upper Lough Erne or the Mournes would be fabulous locations for it. At the same time a EU wide reform of farming in marginal areas would make a huge difference.
Absolutely agree! Even on a very small scale a reform of farming subsidies could make all the difference ... And we could have one bigger signature project in NI.
@Wolf_Larson I don't really know how to get involved or support these sort of projects but there may be something on the various websites. If I find any info I'll post it here.
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Cheers sjh1
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I have been intouch with the organiser of Wild Nephin so here are a few nuggets.
Ecological speaking the wilderness creation has three parts; restore some of the damaged bog and riparian areas, plant strategic stands of willow, birch and rowan and re-engineer the present pine stands.
Sheep grazing was mentioned earlier and according to the organiser sheep could be an issue as they do have graving right nearby but they are trying to reduce their numbers and they certainly recognise shouldn’t really be there.
There has been some volunteer work there already with Mountain Meitheal building a lean-to. They wish to establish their own volunteer programme on various of the ecological projects like tree planting but it is early days so they are not set up yet.
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Thanks for the info Fegal ;)
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I you want to see what grows when we leave it alone, try the loop walk on Horn Head (NW Donegal). The first part is through a nature reserve - it's a carpet of wild flowers this time of year, and there are lots of meadow pipits and skylarks nesting. At the end, you cross onto grazing land, which is stripped bare by the wooly lawnmowers.
Glenveagh nearby is home to one of the last wild forests in Ireland. They are managing it, by cutting back the rhodedendron, but it's still pretty good. The surrounding hills aren't grazed much, and the heather is much healthier for it. Great place to walk too, as long as you can read a map - no paths!
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I have been intouch with the organiser of Wild Nephin so here are a few nuggets.
Ecological speaking the wilderness creation has three parts; restore some of the damaged bog and riparian areas, plant strategic stands of willow, birch and rowan and re-engineer the present pine stands.
Sheep grazing was mentioned earlier and according to the organiser sheep could be an issue as they do have graving right nearby but they are trying to reduce their numbers and they certainly recognise shouldn’t really be there.
There has been some volunteer work there already with Mountain Meitheal building a lean-to. They wish to establish their own volunteer programme on various of the ecological projects like tree planting but it is early days so they are not set up yet.
Actually sounds very promising! :) Hope they can reduce the sheep numbers. Will have to get down there at some stage.
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Another great article from George Monbiot. Good to see the RSPB allowing a dissenting voice.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2013/07/15/going-wild-a-guest-blog-from-george-monbiot.aspx (http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2013/07/15/going-wild-a-guest-blog-from-george-monbiot.aspx)
"In my view most of our conservation areas aren’t nature reserves at all. They are museums of former farming practices, weeded and tended to prevent the wilds from encroaching."
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Excellent link there and so many paragraphs of simple pure truth in all of his words. Part of it that stuck out for me was the reference to ancient UK wildlands, how it all used to be a soggy rainforest environment etc. I wonder if part of the daft cut and burn methods are done to deliberately stop this due to the average attitudes towards weather. All too often you see or hear someone being downright pathetic as it's chilly or wet, they only want to walk on nice dry forest tracks surrounded by nice dry trees. Thus a true natural area for our climate would result in reduced tourism ergo less money, a bit tragic that a conservation group should actually put profit before ecology though if it is the case.
Of course I could argue this is also partly an issue about the overuse of anti cold/wet kit but thats a totally different thing.
Slightly off topic but I wonder if anyone else has noticed something that was pointed out to me a few weeks back. This would be the constant obsessive cutting of all green spots within towns & cities. Councils it seems have become completely ocd regarding stuff like grass, once look you notice they are always cutting it soon as the grass gets beyond a couple of inches. This seems to happen most frequently in parks, this seems completely daft as it opposes everything about nature.
I recently took a few pictures on a morning dog walk at my local park where the mowers were out, the entire area had nothing more than 3-4 inches of grass and the odd bit of clover and daisy dotted about. Yet they were cutting away, the very next day was a fair/festival in the park and I have to wonder just how bad it is when someone behind a desk doesn't think folk could possibly get a few dirt and grass stains. In a year when bee numbers are thrown about the news too it seems counter productive to remove anything that doesn't conform to a suburban lawn wiping out all bugs and thus removing all food for birds etc. My own local park has only grey squirrels & pigeons as far as any living thing above mouse size.
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Rich H., yea councils relentlessly mowing grassy areas is a symptom of the wider problem. Think some people like things to be neat and tidy and see grass growth as abandonment.
A few parks around NI do have wildflower meadows now though which is a step forward. Wildlife-wise large areas of mown amenity grassland are useless.
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Yup, Ormeau Park, and some of the grass areas at the bottom of my street (near the Lagan Meadows) have areas where the grass is allowed to grow. I saw a post from someone on twitter that somewhere in holywood was the same they had planted lots of wildflowers.
Part of the A55 outer ring near Belvoir also has wildflowers planted in the divide, they are smashing in early summer.
Good to see. My landlord wouldn't like me to let the driveway re-wild, but I do leave the pretty weeds when I'm tidying up ;D
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;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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More from Monbiot...
Full article ... http://www.monbiot.com/2013/10/18/thinking-like-a-forest/ (http://www.monbiot.com/2013/10/18/thinking-like-a-forest/)
Extracts below...
"... But wildlife in the uplands, amazingly, is faring worse than it is in the crowded, intensively farmed lowlands. The State of Nature report, published in May, revealed that while 60% of wildlife species in Britain as a whole are in decline, in the uplands the rate is 65%(18).
The primary reason is that almost all the trees and scrub – on which the majority of species depend – have been removed, mostly by sheep farming. On the Continent, the uplands are now largely forested, while the lowlands are largely bare. That is what you would expect. Upland soils tend to be much poorer than lowland soils, so farming is less productive there: generally many times less productive. But in Britain, while the lowlands are largely bare, the uplands are even barer. The places that should be our wildlife reservoirs are wildlife deserts.
... There would be no hill farming in Britain or anywhere in Europe were it not for subsidies.
... The policies you would expect conservation groups to prioritise would be those that optimised the protection of wildlife. Instead, they have more or less optimised its destruction.
I cannot emphasise this strongly enough: the entire basis of upland conservation, as pursued on most of the upland reserves owned or managed by the Wildlife Trusts, the RSPB, the National Trust, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage and other bodies is based on a misconception: that in keeping them open and largely devoid of trees, they are best protecting wildlife. This belief, which is largely unexamined by the groups that propound it, is diametrically wrong. It explains why many upland reserves are about as biodiverse and ecologically inspiring as the average car park."
In an NI context it's the subsidied sheep-farming and the policies of NIEA and conservation NGOs which keep our uplands bare. For example the Mournes Management Plan that I've mentioned before (available online) supports non-natural grazing, scrub clearance and cutting and burning of vegetation as ways to maintain wildlife habitats. Large areas of the Mournes could be natural woodland and scrub full of wildlife, instead they are barren and deserted. Even the fenced area of Annalong Wood which I hoped might be able to regenerate naturally is now to be cleared and grazed to maintain heathland vegetation. A look at NIEA's website on ASSIs shows how strongly they advocate managing sites by grazing and clearing vegetation. It's madness.
Sadly if conservation in GB is 60 years behind Europe, in NI we're probably 60 years behind GB. We can't get a National Park for the Mournes even when in a global context British national parks are classed as Category V: ranchlands and similarly altered eco-systems.
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To throw extra into all this I noticed today on the BBC website an article about emerald beetles from Russia that are a new threat to trees in the UK, this hot on the heels of the ash die back fiasco. Something that did occur to me was that while yes these are non native creatures that will always prove troublesome to an ecosystem. Part of the issue is also our lack of any real quantity of wildlife anymore, if our lands were better homes for wildlife then issues like invading bugs would be slowed up by the natural large numbers of birds etc that will happily predate the new comers.
So not only are we wantonly vandalising the habitat and driving all our natives out of homes, we then open the boarders for any manner of invasive species to come and finish off whatever is left with no defences in place.
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Yeah, invasive species a real problem. Waterways are ruined with Himalayan Balsam, although actually it seems quite good for butterflies and bees.
Heard a bit of a depressing programme on Radio 4 the other week. Apparently if ash trees survive the die-back some invasive mite/insect or other is due to kill them off anyway; possibly this Emerald beetle.
Environmental news is often negative, but I view rewilding as a positive idea and easily achievable if mindsets would change. It would be a simple thing for conservation organisations to reduce grazing and clearing at at least some of their reserves. Government could stop paying subsidies for keeping unprofitable sheep on the uplands. There is no reason except tradition to farm habitat-destroying sheep on the hills. Farmers could instead get subsidies for allowing the land to rewild (essentially for doing nothing!).
... In fact in a rewilded landscape upland farmers could even be subsidised to remove harmful non-native species and prevent their spread. And/or to maintain paths and access routes for visitors. And/or to cull native grazers like deer that no longer have natural predators ...
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I love to read this info, great work all !
Many regards wolf
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Kind of related, the Woodland Trust have a campaign to raise money for a reforesting scheme in the Faughan Valley, Co. Londonderry.
We’ve planted 55,000 native trees at the neighbouring three Woodland Trust woods. The proposed planting of a further 40,000 would, collectively, represent the largest native woodland creation project in Northern Ireland.
More details here (http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/news-media/northern-ireland/Pages/support-land-faughan-valley.aspx#.UmhOUvmTiSo)
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Kind of related, the Woodland Trust have a campaign to raise money for a reforesting scheme in the Faughan Valley, Co. Londonderry.
We’ve planted 55,000 native trees at the neighbouring three Woodland Trust woods. The proposed planting of a further 40,000 would, collectively, represent the largest native woodland creation project in Northern Ireland.
More details here (http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/news-media/northern-ireland/Pages/support-land-faughan-valley.aspx#.UmhOUvmTiSo)
Thanks for this, sounds good. Have donated.
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Is there any way to help planting the trees ?
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Is there any way to help planting the trees ?
Click on the link in whoRya's post above. Can donate to the fund.
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I mean hands on ;-)
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Ah right, don't know about that specific project.
Some general stuff on tree planting here...
http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/planting-woodland/Pages/default.aspx#.Um1IGvmpWSo (http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/planting-woodland/Pages/default.aspx#.Um1IGvmpWSo)