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Britain’s oldest national conservation body advocates law to fight bracken
menace
Open
Spaces Society, 31 October 2005
The
Government’s Commons Bill is currently in the House of Lords. The Bill
will set up statutory commons associations to promote good management
amongst commoners and others with an interest in the land. Commononers
have rights to graze animals, and may dig peat or collect wood.
The
Open Spaces Society is advocating a change in the law to require
commoners to deal with the increasing encroachment of bracken on open
country. They are supporting amendments to the Bill to be proposed by
Lord Greaves in November to require the new commoners’ associations to
have a duty to manage bracken, and to remove a specified hectarage of
bracken each year.
Kate
Ashbrook, the Open Spaces Society’s general secretary, says:
“Bracken is a huge problem, especially in the uplands. It spreads
rapidly and its rhizomes churn up the soil.”
“Bracken is a threat to animal and human welfare. It harbours ticks
which carry diseases such as Louping-ill and Lyme disease. It can ruin
people’s enjoyment of the land during the summer months, because you
can’t walk through tall bracken or see where you are putting your feet.
It reduces the biodiversity of the land, because few species thrive in
areas covered in bracken.”
The
Society recognize that there is no simple answer to bracken control, but
they point to a number of areas in the Dartmoor National Park where
bruising or crushing is giving some level of control.
Taken from
www.oss.org.uk
WN
member Mark
Fisher notes that tree planting in semi-upland areas is being trialed as
a means of bracken control in Yorkshire and Lancashire. The Duke of
Devonshire’s Bolton Abbey estate fences off bracken infested areas and
plants up mixed woodland, aided by grants from Landfill Tax. The Forest
of Burnley bruise bracken in mid-summer to debilitate it and follow-up
with tree planting in late Autumn.
Beavers introduced into 100 acre willow wood and lake reserve
Times, 27, 28 October 2005 and Press
Statement from DEFRA and the Lower Mill Estate, 28 October 2005
Six European beavers were introduced to
their new home on the 550 acre Lower Mill Estate
of millionaire publisher Jeremy Paxton,
who is also a property developer and
conservationist. The estate near Lower Cerney, Gloucestershire, is a
joint housing and nature reserve within the Cotswold Water Park, the
biggest man-made wetlands in Britain.
Paxton has spent about £1million on the
project, importing the beavers captured in Bulgaria and holding them in
quarantine since last spring. It is hoped that the beavers will act as a
tool in the management of the willow wood around the lake.
Some newspaper reports speculated that Mr
Paxton would be restoring beaver to the British countryside after a gap
of 500 years by their eventual lease into the wild from his fenced
reserve. This brought forward further press coverage the following day
that quoted a DEFRA spokesperson as saying that they had not authorised
the release of the beaver, which would be an offence under the Wildlife
and Countryside Act, and that there were concerns that the animals may
be able to break out from their enclosure.
This brought forward the joint press
statement that clarified the situation. It says:
“There has been considerable
misunderstanding in the media about the licensing issues in relation to
the beaver project.
DEFRA and the estate have had further
sensible and constructive discussions on this important initiative.
DEFRA's previous statements sought to draw
attention to the legal provisions concerning releases to the wild. They
were not intended to suggest that a particular offence was being
committed by Mr Paxton or the Lower Mill Estate.
DEFRA and the Lower Mill Estate will
continue working closely on this.”
www.timesonline.co.uk and
www.defra.gov.uk
£1 million to
flow into River Avon restoration
English
Nature, 25 October 2005
Working
with partners from the Environment Agency, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust,
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and Wessex Water, English
Nature has secured a £1 million programme of river restoration for the
River Avon SAC from the European Commission's LIFE-Nature programme.
The
project will demonstrate ecological restoration at six sites throughout
the river system, covering 10km in total. It will also link management
of the lower reaches of the river with the Avon Valley Special
Protection Area (SPA) in Hampshire and Dorset. The LIFE Project was
developed as a result of a Conservation Strategy for the River Avon SAC
published in 2003.
The River
Avon Special Area of Conservation (SAC) in Wiltshire and Hampshire was
designated in April 2005 for the following rare or vulnerable species
and habitat: the river habitat as characterised by flowing water
vegetation including water crowfoot, and populations of Atlantic salmon,
bullhead, brook and sea lamprey; and the river and particular adjoining
areas as habitat for populations of Desmoulin's whorl snail.
A wide
range of human activities affect the River Avon, both historic and
current, some of which are damaging its conservation status. Amongst the
most damaging activities have been engineering works carried out from
the 1940s to 1980s, which enlarged and straightened river channels to
improve land drainage (mainly for agricultural intensification),
destroying habitats and leaving channels too wide and deep for the
natural river flows. Vegetation has been damaged and caused naturally
clean river gravels to silt up, reducing breeding and feeding habitat
for internationally important species such as Atlantic salmon, as well
as other plants, insects and fish.
Damaged
channels can be restored,through sensitive narrowing or replacement of
river gravels. Over the last few years a number of creative projects
have restored sections of channel; although most have been directed at
improving conditions for fish, they have had considerable benefits for
wildlife. The LIFE Project will build on the success of these works but
will specifically target wildlife.
The
Project will be formally launched on 28 November 2005 in the Wilton
area.
www.english-nature.org.uk
DTI
approves Kent wind farm
Dept. Trade and Industry, 18 October 2005
Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks has given the
green light to Npower Renewables’ Little Cheyne Court wind farm, on
Walland Marsh in Kent. A public inquiry into the wind farm concluded
that the project is consistent with government policies on energy and
the environment. Once built, its 26 turbines will generate enough
electricity to power 32,000 homes.
Speaking at the British Wind Energy
Association conference in Cardiff, the Minister also announced the
publication of new research into investor attitudes to renewables, and
restated the Government’s support for the sector. He said:
“The investor study we’re publishing today shows continuing confidence
in the renewables sector and in the Government’s commitment to it. I
want to leave the industry in no doubt today that this commitment is
real and for the long term.”
The development is proposed within 10 metres
of a SSSI, and will be alongside the 150 acre Cheyne Court Nature
Reserve, which is part of the 340 acre Romney Marsh Nature Reserve.
English Nature, RSPB, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, Sussex Wildlife Trust,
Kent Wildlife Trust have all registered their opposition to the
proposal.
The Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) has
criticised the scheme on the basis that the costs, ecological and
financial, of the Romney Marsh wind farm are vastly out of proportion to
its benefits. They point to the experience of European neighbours, where
large-scale onshore wind power has been tried and found to be poor value
for money in the fight against climate change, and argues against the
current policy of unjustifiably expensive and indiscriminate subsidy for
wind power development.
Extracted from:
www.dti.gov.uk/news/newsarticle181005a.html and
www.ref.org.uk
Dr Steve Carver, WN mapping Group
co-ordinator, believes the Romney Marsh decision highlights the need
the develop criteria for safeguarding lowlands that have potential to be
part of landscape scale wildland initiatives. He says:
“The opportunities for larger areas for re-wilding do exist in the UK
but we may have to accept that the mosaic of wild and non-wild is more
complex and tightly interwoven in our lowland areas than it might be in
our upland areas where establishing size and remoteness values through
GIS mapping have proved more feasible."
"The consequence of this is that industry
such as windfarms, transport, farming and housing will be visible from
our lowland/coastal wildlands, but the habitats and corridors/gateways
that they will provide are their key value. The GIS mapping of wildland
in the lowlands will require a different scale of application and a
decision on what are the most appropriate/most important values to
apply.”
The WN is currently developing a policy on
wildland and the positioning of onshore windfarms.
Call for the wild lynx
to make a comeback
Ripon
News, Knaresborough Today, 7 October 2005 and Times, 11th
October, 2005
Radio-carbon dating of bones by Dr
David Hetherington, an
ecologist at
Aberdeen University, indicates that the lynx didn’t die out
when the climate
became cooler and wetter
about 4,000 years ago,
but probably as a result of deforestation and hunting to extinction some
2500 years later in
the early Saxon period.
Bones
found in the late
19th century in Moughton Fell Fissure Cave, near Settle, Yorkshire, show
that the animal had lived between AD80 and AD320. Remains from nearby
Kinsey Cave dated similarly between AD425 and AD600, and a third set of
bones, found in Sutherland, Scotland, are from a lynx that died about
AD300.
Robert
White, senior conservation archaeologist with the Yorkshire Dales
National Park Authority (who funded the carbon dating) said “The results
also provide more evidence to suggest that the landscape was rather more
wooded than was previously thought because the lynx like woodland to
hunt in”.
Dr
Hetherington, at Aberdeen University, thinks that Britain should
consider reintroducing the Eurasian lynx. Under the European Union’s
Habitats Directive, member states have to consider reintroducing species
that were killed off by the actions of humans. The lynx has been
reestablished in a number of European countries, including Germany,
Switzerland and Austria.
These
findings support the possible reintroduction of the animal in Scotland,
where Paul Lister has announced plans for the controlled release of a
number of species on his 23,000-acre Alladale estate in the Highlands,
which he hopes to turn into a game reserve. Mr Lister said: “It’s not a
reintroduction as such that we’re advocating, but a release of certain
of these species in a controlled environment”.
Peter
Taylor, WN member, has advocated the reintroduction of lynx in
his book Beyond Conservation: A Wildland Strategy (Earthscan, 2005).
Peter believes that the solitary nature of lynx, combined with there
being sufficient habitat and prey, argues strongly for the
reintroduction of lynx in Scotland. He says “There is no doubt that lynx
was a key element of the British fauna throughout the formative period
of the larger European fauna. It is an adaptable animal, showing great
variation in size and prey preferences, and ranging from rocks and
scrubland to dense forest.
An
article about the results of the carbon dating has been published on the
website of the Quaternary Research Association at
www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/jqs
Extracted from
http://www.knaresboroughtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=18&ArticleID=1214999
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1819746,00.html
Puma on the loose in Fife
Fife Constabulary, October 2005
A paw print believed to be that of a big cat has been
uncovered by Fife Police. A cast of the 10 cm by 9cm print , discovered
in Balbirnie Woods, Markinch, has been checked by experts and is
thought to have been left by a large cat-like creature. It is now being
handed to a zoologist to try to determine the species.
It follows a recent hunt
in the woods in search of the elusive animal by Fife Constabulary
officers together with staff from the SSPCA and other agencies. The ten
strong team were hoping to find conclusive evidence of the existence and
whereabouts of a cat after an increasing number of sightings of a black
puma-like animal by local people in the Markinch and North Glenrothes
area.
In 1976 the introduction
of the Dangerous Wild Animals Act meant that people were banned from
keeping big cats. It is thought that those who couldn't find homes for
their pets released them into the wild. While irresponsible, this wasn't
illegal until the introduction of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in
1981.
Fife Constabulary 's
Wildlife and Environmental Crime Officer, PC Mark Maylin said:
"Some animals will have
found a mate and managed to breed successfully, possibly between
existing known species which may account for the variations in size and
colour that are often reported. Given the amount of time that has
elapsed since the 1970's, any animals around today would be likely to be
second or even third generation.
"From the witness reports
I've seen the most likely species to be living in the Fife area would be
Lynx or Puma. These animals are naturally elusive and will usually
attempt to avoid encounters with humans."
Extracted
from www.fife.police.uk/News/current.php
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