Tag: News

Nature-depleted Scotland needs a new era of rewilding says landmark book

A sticking plaster approach to conservation is failing Scotland’s wildlife – and with species such as red squirrel, wild cat and capercaillie declining or on the edge of extinction, a new era of massive rewilding is needed, says a landmark new book from Trees for Life and SCOTLAND: The Big Picture.

Scotland has space and opportunity to take a fresh approach, with people working with nature, not against it, and allowing ecosystems to restore themselves on a large-scale, say the authors of Scotland: A Rewilding Journey, which is being launched in Inverness this evening.

“Right now, nature is in steep decline – but Scotland is perfectly placed to become a rewilding world-leader. Our wild places can flourish if we allow nature to work in its own way on a big scale, with a helping hand in places. There would be huge benefits for people – from our health and wellbeing to creating sustainable jobs in rural areas,” said Steve Micklewright, Chief Executive of Trees for Life.

Illustrated by world-class images captured by top nature photographers over three years, and with essays from leading commentators, the book lays out an inspiring vision of how rewilding forests, peatlands, rivers, moorlands and the ocean could transform Scotland for the better.

Deforestation, deer and sheep grazing, burning moors for grouse hunting, exotic conifers and denuded seas have left Scotland as one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries, its landscapes supporting fewer people than previously as a result. Climate change now poses a major threat.

Returns or rebounds of species like beavers, sea eagles and pine martens happen slowly. Birds of prey like hen harriers are persecuted. Wolf, crane, wild boar, elk and lynx were all made extinct long ago.

“For decades we’ve been trying to save nature piecemeal – a rare bird or insect here, a fragment of woodland there. But climate change and biodiversity loss now present critical threats to our survival, and saving bits and pieces of nature isn’t enough. As a wealthy country with plenty of space, we can do so much better,” said the book’s co-author Peter Cairns, Director of SCOTLAND: The Big Picture.

Despite superb nature reserves, amazing patches of Caledonian pinewood and new Marine Protected Areas, nature is now hugely fragmented and diminished across Scotland. Its awe-inspiring landscapes are often ecological deserts, stripped of woodlands. Only 1.5 per cent of its land is national nature reserves, while a quarter is ecologically impoverished grouse moors or deer forests.

Scotland’s seas are in trouble too – with wild salmon stocks declining, heavy dredging raking the sea floor, and gannets feeding their chicks plastic waste.

The book’s publication aims to be a watershed moment in the rapidly growing movement for rewilding, and a catalyst for change by shifting attitudes and perceptions, and sparking debate and discussion.

Momentum for rewilding has been highlighted by widespread calls for the return of the lynx, reintroduction of beavers, and initiatives such as Cairngorms Connect – a land manager partnership that is enhancing habitats across a vast stretch of Cairngorms National Park.

There has also been huge public support for Scotland: A Rewilding Journey’s publication. The book was funded by a successful crowdfunding appeal run by Trees for Life, and is supported by an alliance of organisations including Reforesting Scotland, Rewilding Britain, Rewilding Europe, The Borders Forest Trust, The European Nature Trust, and Woodland Trust Scotland.

Bringing back trees would be a good start for major rewilding. Only four per cent of Scotland is native woodland. Rewilded woodlands like Glen Affric could be enjoyed across the country by expanding pinewoods into a grand nationwide network. This would help red squirrels, crested tits and capercaillie, which can’t cross large areas of open ground and are now imprisoned in isolated islands of woodland.

The book aims to encourage conversations and cooperation between different audiences and groups. Rewilding can co-exist well with farming, forestry and recreational activities. It encourages conservationists and landowners to work together with mutual respect. Cooperation between deer managers and conservationists could help resolve over-grazing in the Highlands – which prevents woodlands from regenerating – with sporting traditions enjoyed in more natural settings.

Soaring deer numbers could also be managed by allowing the return of apex predators such as wolf and lynx, when the time is right and when public opinion is prepared to welcome them back. Restoring large areas of wild places could provide employment, especially in the Highlands and Islands. Otters, deer, puffins and sea eagles all support a growing nature tourism economy.

Nature’s benefits also include beavers preventing flooding, trees providing food, and peatlands soaking up carbon dioxide. Studies show how nature boosts people’s health and is good for children.

Scotland: A Rewilding Journey (£25 from www.scotlandbigpicture.com)is published by SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, a non-profit social enterprise that includes leading nature photographers and filmmakers, and promotes the benefits of a wilder Scotland through stunning visual media.

Cover image: © Scotlandbigpicture.com

Bumper breeding season for rare waders

It was uplifting to learn that Black-tailed Godwits, the elegant wading birds at the heart of the outstanding Project Godwit initiative, have enjoyed a bumper breeding season in Southern England. Below you will find a news release from the organisations involved in the PG scheme for you to peruse at your leisure – surely we all welcome a dash of good news in our age of perpetual, environmental negativity. 

Despite spring flooding and a summer heatwave, this years’ flock of black-tailed godwits has enjoyed a bumper year thanks to a dedicated team of conservationists working as part of Project Godwit. A scheme which combines the expertise of teams from both the RSPB and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT).

When black-tailed godwits returned to the Fens to nest in March weather conditions were less than ideal: in fact, spring flooding covered most of the land the birds normally use at the RSPB Nene Washes nature reserve in Cambridgeshire. Desperate to begin their breeding season some of the birds resorted to laying their eggs in a field near to their traditional nesting grounds but conservationists found that some of the eggs quickly became stuck in the wet mud. Fortunately, Project Godwit already had plans to remove a number of eggs to raise chicks in special bird rearing facilities, boosting the birds’ chance of survival. So, working with the farmer who owned the field, the team collected 32 precious eggs from the farmland (in addition to 23 from the nature reserve as planned) and incubated them at WWT Welney Wetland Centre.

Project Manager Hannah Ward writes:

“When we rescued the eggs from the fields we were very worried that the chicks might not survive due to the muddy conditions of some of the eggs so it was quite a nerve-wracking wait to see if any of them would hatch. Meanwhile, our team on the nature reserve worked hard to make sure that when the water receded, there were areas where more godwits could nest in safety away from the flood.”

An amazing 38 leggy little chicks were released at Welney and the Nene Washes once they were ready to fend for themselves. Soon joining wild flocks which included 18 wild-hatched chicks and nine of the black-tailed godwits which were released as youngsters in 2017.

Nicola Hiscock, Senior Aviculturist from WWT says

“We’re thrilled with the progress the birds have made this year. In fact, two of the godwit chicks raised at Welney last year had families of their own which is a really good sign that the method we’re using, headstarting the young birds to give them the best chance in the wild, is working.”

The team were also delighted to find godwits breeding at the RSPB Pilot Project site next to the Ouse Washes, a site they’ve only bred at once before, in 2012.

Some of the birds involved in the scheme were fitted with geolocators allowing researchers to learn more about where the birds travel to in the winter. Research like this means that UK-based conservation teams can work with their equivalent organisations in other countries to ensure the birds have safe places to fly through or spend the colder months. This year ten new geolocators were fitted and two were collected from birds tagged in 2017. One of these showed that a female godwit went all the way to West Africa and back, stopping off in Spain, Portugal and Norfolk on her way before returning back to the Fens to breed.

As the godwits begin to depart for the winter, Project Godwit are calling on birdwatchers to send in sightings of the released birds, which all have a unique combination of colour leg rings. It’s easy to do this on the Project Godwit website: projectgodwit.org.uk and will help the team build up a picture of the important areas the birds need.

One of the major funding sources for Project Godwit is the EU LIFE Nature Programme. As we prepare to leave the EU, Project Godwit partners look forward to seeing how the UK Government will replace this vital source of funding for future conservation projects.

Cover image: Earith at RSPB Ouse Washes, the first headstarted bird to successfully breed.  © Jonathan Taylor RSPB.

Call for public support towards a wilder Scotland

Golden eagles, beavers, ospreys and pine martens will take centre stage in a landmark new conservation book aiming to inspire a change in attitudes and a move towards a wilder Scotland.

Scotland: A Rewilding Journey will lay out a vision of how rewilding could transform Scotland and benefit its people and wildlife.  It is being supported by a crowdfunding appeal launched by conservation charity Trees for Life.

The book, to be published this autumn, is written and edited by some of Scotland’s most prominent conservationists – including John Lister-Kaye and Duncan Halley – with stunning images from many of the country’s top nature photographers, who have spent three years capturing the beauty and drama of Scotland’s wild landscapes and wildlife.

Steve Micklewright, Trees for Life’s Chief Executive, writes:

“Despite its raw beauty, the Scottish landscape is today an ecological shadow of its former self. It wasn’t so long ago that vibrant, wild forest stretched across much of Scotland, with beavers and cranes at home in extensive wetlands, salmon and trout filling rivers, and lynx and wild boar roaming in woodlands.

“Yet now our large carnivores are extinct, our woodlands reduced to small fragments, and a degraded landscape supporting little life stretches across millions of acres. But it doesn’t have to be this way. This book will be a major rallying call for rewilding – helping to make Scotland a place where nature works, wildlife flourishes and people prosper.”

Trees for Life is the main sponsor of the book, which is also being supported by Reforesting Scotland, Rewilding Britain, The Borders Forest Trust, and Woodland Trust Scotland.

The book will be published by SCOTLAND: The Big Picture (www.scotlandbigpicture.com), a non-profit social enterprise that includes many leading nature photographers and film-makers, and which promotes the benefits of a wilder Scotland for people and wildlife through stunning visual media.

Trees for Life’s crowdfunding campaign runs from 25 June-23 July 2018, and offers people the opportunity to support publication of the book and its urgent conservation message by helping to raise £20,000. A range of rewards for supporters include a stay in a wilderness cabin, wildlife photography workshops, fine art posters and signed editions of the publication.

Photographer and Director of SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, Peter Cairns – who is editing the book with Susan Wright – writes:

“Scotland: A Rewilding Journey will lay out a powerful vision for a future Scotland, where eagles soar, red squirrels forage and beavers engineer new wetlands.

“It is being published at a tipping point in the history of Scotland’s landscapes, with a growing understanding of the benefits of a wilder environment for people and nature. We want the book to ignite fresh conversations and forge new relationships with the people who shape Scotland’s landscapes – including key landowners, policy makers and rural interest groups.”

Adding: “Worldwide, short-term economics are wrecking nature – sometimes irreversibly. Our climate is changing, species are being lost forever, and vital natural resources such as clean air and water are under threat. Everyone who supports Scotland: A Rewilding Journey will be helping to make the case for a new approach, in which Scotland is a world leader in environmental repair and restoration.”

Trees for Life works to restore Scotland’s ancient Caledonian Forest and its unique wildlife. For over 25 years, the award-winning charity has been pioneering ecological restoration or rewilding. Its long-term vision is to restore natural forests to a vast area of the Scottish Highlands, including its 10,000-acre Dundreggan Estate in Glenmoriston. See www.treesforlife.org.uk.

To support the crowdfunding campaign, visit crowdfunder.co.uk/rewilding.

Red Squirrel © scotlandbigpicture.com

Cover image: Eurasian Beaver © scotlandbigpicture.com

Pondering those godawful ‘pigeon spikes’

Modern society is growing increasingly disconnected from the natural world. That, unfortunately, is a fact. And it will come as no surprise to learn that many, particularly (but not limited to) those living in urban areas, have come to view wildlife as a hindrance in daily life or, worse still, a mere obstacle to be killed, removed or deterred at leisure. The use of terms such as pest and vermin growing in use throughout modern times as we begrudge everything from gulls and foxes to rats, rabbits and, in more exceptional cases, raptors, deer and otters for getting in the way of our cushty daily lives, our hobbies and our livelihoods.

Now, coming from an urban background and recently studying an MSc in Wildlife Management, I know wildlife can sometimes cause problems. In some cases, rather substantial ones. Pigeons and rabbits can have a significant impact on food production, certain bird species can pose a threat to human life near airports, rodents spread disease in our homes and foxes, in some locations, menace livestock farmers. This, the ever-present conflict between man and beast, is a sorry side-effect of modern life: an unavoidable symptom of our continued alteration of the landscape. And, like it or not, a measured response is sometimes required. I do not dispute this.

While I believe that, within reason, people should be allowed to take action to protect what is there’s, I also believe that such a response should be proportionate (and reasonable). And wholeheartedly believe that, wherever possible, we, as the dominant species on this green (yet greying) earth, should exercise a live and let live mentality wherever possible.  Something which is clearly not the case with the recent placement of pigeon spikes around an affluent district of Bristol.

For those that have not yet heard, the spikes to which I refer have been erected around Bartlett Court flats in Clifton, Bristol in an effort to deter pigeons from the trees outside some, particularly lavish homes. The management company responsible for their placement citing the damage caused by pigeon droppings to cars as the catalyst for action. Yes, you read that correctly, whereas most people would simply wash away the faeces, these people have opted instead to prevent birds from occupying the area in the first place. Citing a lack of washing facilities as justification for their actions.

A pilfered image of the offending spikes…

Now, pigeon droppings (or those of any other bird) on cars are something I am sure most people reading this blog will have had to deal with. They are an inconvenience, nothing more; an ever so slight nuisance that, except looking a tad untidy, does little to disrupt daily life. They do not threaten life or livelihood and, by all accounts, represent a problem easily solved with a little soap and water. Thus the addition of spikes to the trees around Clifton appears to be nothing short of overkill. The decision to degrade yet another piece of urban habitat taken based not on any tangible threat, but on the unsightly nature bird shit. Plain and simple.

If birds are not allowed in the trees, where else can they go? We already do our best to deter them from man-made contraptions, rightfully in some cases, not so much in others. Shouldn’t urban wildlife be allowed to occupy the select few areas of our towns and cities we have not yet altered beyond recognition? The trees and valuable green spaces spared the developers blades. Some, evidently, would say no, whereas reasonable individuals would say yes. It really is only fair – allowing birds to persist where they still can seems only moral.

Perhaps the uproar over these particular spikes has overdone it somewhat. Pigeons, after all, are not at immediate threat of extinction (far from it, in fact) and the addition of the ugly metal prongs to trees in Bristol is unlikely to have any significant impact upon our wildlife. Still, to me, it serves only as a startling indicator of societies growing disconnect from the world around us. A brazen reminder of the uphill battle faced by conservationists as we try to win the hearts and minds of the wider public. A battle growing more difficult by the day based on this kind of blind, unthinking ignorance.

I think Jennifer Garret highlighted the issue perfectly…