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Headlines from week beginning 1 October 2018 |
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A round up of the top countryside, conservation, wildlife and forestry stories as chosen by the CJS Team.
Wildflowers could be key in reversing swallow declines
– Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
Image: Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust Extensive fieldwork undertaken by Dr Niamh McHugh of the Game &
Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) shows that barn swallows, commonly
known as swallows in the UK, were more likely to forage along arable
field margins sown with wildflowers. Almost all existing research on the link between agri-environment
scheme (AES) measures, such as wildflower margins, and birds focuses on
seed-eating species which tend to forage on the ground, which made Dr
McHugh even more keen to fill this knowledge gap. Written by Dr McHugh and her farmland ecology team at the GWCT, the
paper titled Use of field margins managed under an agri-environment
scheme by foraging Barn Swallows was published in Bird Study. The paper
also considers where margins should be sown to improve their
effectiveness for swallows and suggests that placing them alongside
hedgerows and verges increases the positive impact shown elsewhere. Access the paper: McHugh, N. M., Bown,
B. L. & Clark, J. E. (2018)
Use of field margins managed under an agri-environment scheme by
foraging Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica. Bird Study DOI:
10.1080/00063657.2018.1506736
Seeing star potential with ‘Big Dipper’ campaign
– Northumberland National Park Authority Northumberland National Park Authority is supporting a nationwide
campaign aimed at raising the public awareness of light pollution in a
bid to conserve our region’s starry dark skies.
The ‘Big Dipper’ campaign, which officially launches this month, is
the brainchild of the Dark Sky Alliance, a national group made up of
conservationists, astronomers and tourist operators, including a number
of National Parks, who all have an interest in protecting our night
skies from excess light pollution. Many outside lights, especially LED floodlights and security lights,
can be too bright and are installed in such a way that much of the light
is directed up into the night sky, contributing to the orangey-white sky
glow above our towns and cities, which spreads out into the countryside. The move is backed by Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, who said:
“It’s important that efforts are sustained to cut light pollution
further so we can all marvel at the night sky wherever we may live. This
campaign deserves wide support.” Northumberland National Park has been hailed as “one of the best
places in England” to enjoy the beauty of the night sky.
Agriculture Bill vital to nature's recovery –
Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust The recovery of wildlife in the UK depends on an Agriculture Bill
that enables farmers to create and restore natural habitats.
The Wildlife Trusts, including Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife
Trust, believe that now is the time for agricultural policy to lead
nature’s recovery. HM Government published its Agriculture Bill last
month and, as the Bill progresses through Parliament, The Wildlife
Trusts will be highlighting:
Ellie Brodie, Senior Policy Manager of The Wildlife Trusts said: “We
support the Agriculture Bill’s intention to change how taxpayers’ money
will be spent towards environmental ‘public goods’. Spending on these is
vital if we are to restore uplands to hold water and prevent flooding in
towns, create new wildflower meadows for pollinators and improve the
fortunes of farmland wildlife like barn owls and brown hares. However,
we need an ambitious Bill to arrest decades of wildlife decline and
allow natural ecosystems to recover.”
£1million fund brings Scotland’s communities closer to nature
– Scottish Natural Heritage
Image: SNH The 11 projects will help communities take an active role in managing
their local green spaces and benefit from the improvements in health
that come from connecting with the natural world. Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, Mairi
Gougeon, today (Tuesday 2 October) visited the ‘Recovery Though Green
Infrastructure’ project, ran by the Cyrenians at the Royal Edinburgh
Hospital - the main hospital for mental health treatment in the Lothian
area. The project is to receive £48k to provide patients and volunteers
with more therapeutic opportunities to grow and cook their own food. Ms Gougeon said: “Through Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish
Government is proud to support the delivery of the Green Infrastructure
Fund, which helps communities to utilise Scotland’s natural environment
for a huge range of health and social benefits.
Be kind to hornets - Devon Wildlife Trust Devon Wildlife Trust is hoping to bring the plight of the humble
hornet to the public’s attention. Devon Wildlife Trust is worried that a spate of recent news stories
about the threats to native nature by the invasive Asian hornet (Vespa
velutina) is resulting in the persecution of our home-grown hornets. Asian hornets are devastating to honey bees, with the invasive
insects raiding and destroying colonies. There is now growing fear among
the UK’s beekeepers who are worried that the presence of Asian hornets
threatens the future of the honey bee. Confirmed reports of Asian hornet nests in North Devon in 2017 and in
Cornwall in September have fuelled these concerns. However, the charity Devon Wildlife Trust believes that fears over
the arrival of the Asian hornet is now leading to the misguided
persecution of another separate species, the native European hornet (vespa
crabro). The Trust’s Steve Hussey said: “We’ve had several people telling us
via social media that they think they have an Asian hornet nest on their
property and asking can they destroy it? Other people have told us that
they have already gone ahead and destroyed nests, suspecting them of
belonging to Asian hornets. Unfortunately, where we’ve been able to do
further investigation all the cases have proved to be European hornets
and not the invasive species.”
More
big companies commit to addressing environmental impacts
- University of Oxford
The perhaps surprising observation, comes as part of a new study
conducted by researchers in Oxford’s Department of Zoology, in
collaboration with the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology
(DICE) at the University of Kent, which assessed the top 100 of the 2016
Fortune 500 Global companies' (the Fortune 100) sustainability reports,
for the first time, including, Sainsbury’s, Walmart and Apple. Image credit: OU The findings published in Conservation
Biology, sit as a direct contrast to UN experts previous description
of big business as ‘soulless corporations and a cancer on society,’ and
suggest that the private sector is taking note of the public’s growing
concerns around corporate responsibility for environmental issues, like
plastics, marine pollution and deforestation. The study is the first of its kind, and offers a global snapshot of
some of the biggest corporations around the world, across multiple
sectors of large businesses, that publicly disclose their impacts and
dependencies on biodiversity. Understanding these varying levels of
commitment will allow the team and others in the field to better work
with these businesses to shape their biodiversity goals, help them be
more effective in managing their impacts, and ultimately better protect
the environment. Of the top Fortune 100 companies, 86 have publicly available
sustainability reports. A review of this data revealed that almost half
(49) of the Fortune 100 companies mentioned biodiversity in their
reports and 31 made clear biodiversity commitments and an additional 12
made clear fishing or forestry commitments. However, only five of these
companies made biodiversity commitments that could be considered
specific, measurable and time-bound. This is unlike the much greater
adoption of science-based climate commitments made by companies
committing to reduce carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement
within the next decade, emphasising that biodiversity loss remains a
less pressing issue to the private sector compared to climate change.
Turning the tide on marine plastics -
Scottish Government More support for innovative projects aimed at tackling marine plastic
pollution has been announced by Environment Secretary Roseanna
Cunningham. A total of £1 million – double the initial commitment of £500,000 set
out in the Programme for Government – is now available to support
solutions in marine plastics capture, collection and recovery. This includes funding from Marine Scotland to trial demonstration
technologies in Scotland, aimed at addressing the issue of litter sinks
and the removal of plastics from our seas. Announcing the funding at the Scottish Resources Conference, Ms
Cunningham said: “By making £1 million available to support innovative
projects aimed at tackling marine plastic pollution, we are doubling our
previous pledge - further demonstrating our absolute commitment to
tackle the scourge of marine plastic pollution. We want to attract and
invest in innovative projects which prevent plastics entering the marine
environment or propose operational solutions to capture, collect,
recover and reprocess marine plastic waste. I believe that investment of
this nature has the potential to benefit our environment, economy and
our coastlines which suffer from the unintended consequences of modern
day lifestyle choices.”
Warmer springs can actually reduce overall plant growth, study finds
- University of Leeds An extensive study on the effects of warmer springs on plant growth
in northern regions shows substantially reduced plant productivity in
later months.
The results call into question the validity of current climate models
that include plant productivity when assessing the amount of carbon
captured by vegetation and what remains in the atmosphere. Using 30 years of satellite images, an international team led by the
University of Leeds examined 41 million km2 of land in northern regions.
They found that the early onset in plant productivity caused by warmer
springs does not continue into the summer and autumn months. Previously, it was believed the earlier start to the growing season
due to increasing global temperatures extended the growing season for
vegetation allowing it to gain more biomass during its lifecycle and
therefore causing a boost in the photosynthesis process and therefore an
increase in the amount of carbon captured and stored. Now, the team has found the adverse effects caused by a warmer
spring, particularly those linked to depleted water supply,
substantially reduced any benefit from longer warm seasons. In many
areas plant biomass decreased in the summer and autumn months,
significantly limiting carbon capture.
Fourth release of water voles a great success
- Northumberland Wildlife Trust
Volunteers releasing water voles into Kielder,
photo Joe Christie This year alone, 405 water voles have been released into the Kielder
area, taking the total released from June 2017 to 965. The released voles have been bred in captivity from individuals
captured in the Pennines and North Yorkshire in 2017 and over the border
in Scotland in 2016. This release, the fourth since the project started, was supported by
Northumbrian Water’s ‘Branch Out’ Fund and staff from Kielder Water &
Forest Park who were able to see and handle the water voles in their
holding pens prior to release. Gary Storey, General Manager of Kielder Waterside who released his
first water vole said: “This was a great experience to get involved with
and our staff thoroughly enjoyed seeing this rare animal up close,
personally it is the first time I’ve seen a water vole and the fact
visitors to the area have the opportunity to look for these wonderful
creatures is fantastic.
New Government data backs CPRE Green Belt figures
- CPRE New statistics from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local
Government show the largest increase in the amount of Green Belt land
released for housing to date An analysis of the new Government data released today (4 October) by
the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) shows that since 2012
almost 10,000 hectares of Green Belt land have been released from
‘protected’ Green Belt boundaries by local councils. Ten councils have
together released more than 5,000 hectares in the past year alone. CPRE claim that a combination of unrealistic housing targets set by
the Government, capacity of the housebuilding industry and slow build
out rates on land already granted planning permission has created a
perfect storm that has resulted in this consistent erosion of the Green
Belt. Green Belt land is some of the most profitable for developers to
build on due to it being ‘shovel ready’, surrounded by countryside and
within commuting distance to major towns and cities – making its release
for development extremely desirable for housebuilders. This leaves
councils to foot the bill for resulting infrastructure requirements,
such as schools, shops and roads. CPRE is calling on the Government to follow through on its commitment
to protect the Green Belt and develop clear guidance for local
authorities on housing requirements to protect designated land. Read the Green Belt Statistics from Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.
Relocating snakes not as helpful to their conservation as previously
thought - University of Kent A pioneering study by the University on the effects of relocating
adders due to development has found that males will disperse from their
release site – with one even going so far as to return to his original
home.
All native reptiles are protected by law, which means that animals
found to be present on sites scheduled for development are often moved
to alternative habitats. Reptiles are frequently the targets of these
translocations but there is little information on their fate or how
their behaviour compares to individual animals that are left where they
are. For the study, researchers Darryn Nash and Professor Richard
Griffiths from Kent’s Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology,
tracked adders (Vipera berus) translocated from a development site in
Essex (UK) in 2014. Some of the snakes were fitted with external radio tags and tracked
for a period of 10 days during the spring and summer. The movements of
the translocated adders were compared to those of ‘resident’ snakes
already present at the release site. Translocated males exhibited significantly greater average daily
movements than the resident ones. Furthermore, all translocated males
undertook long-distance, unidirectional movements away from the release
site. One of the males even returned to the site from which it had been
moved, a distance of over half a kilometer which involved crossing large
areas of unsuitable short grassland habitat. This could have exposed the
snake to predators.
Ranging behaviour of adders (Vipera berus) translocated from a
development site by Darryn J. Nash & Richard A. Griffiths, Durrell
Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and
Conservation, is published in the Herpetological Journal. (open access) Scientific Publications Jakes, A. F., Jones, P. F., Paige, L. C., Seidler, R. G. & Huijser,
M. P. (2018)
A fence runs through it: A call for greater attention to the influence
of fences on wildlife and ecosystems. Biological Conservation. DOI:
10.1016/j.biocon.2018.09.026
Gattuso J-P, et al (2018)
Ocean Solutions to Address Climate Change and Its Effects on Marine
Ecosystems. Front. Mar. Sci. 5:337. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2018.00337
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CJS is not responsible for content of external sites. Details believed correct but given without prejudice. Disclaimer: the views expressed in these news pages do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of CJS. |
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Adding wildflowers to arable field margins could provide a larder of
insects for Europe’s declining barn swallow population, a new study has
found.
Image:
Northumberland National Park Authority
Image:
Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust
From creating homes for frogs to discovering hidden gardens in our
cities, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is awarding almost £1m to
projects set
to bring local communities closer to nature. 
Some of the world’s biggest private sector companies are committing
to address their environmental impacts and factoring biodiversity into
their sustainability reports, according to new Oxford University
research.
(image:
University of Leeds)
A
further 245 voles have been released into streams flowing into the north
shore of Kielder Reservoir, Deadwater Burn near the Kielder campsite and
Kielder Burn by the ‘Restoring Ratty’ water vole reintroduction project. 
Adder
being tracked (image: University of Kent)
