Saturday 30 July 2016

Warwick in Bloom

Earlier in the year I wrote to the local papers to publicly thank the District Council for planting a wildflower strip at St Nicholas Park. At the time there was some local resistance as it was claimed that it looked unsightly, this of course was the preparation phase and now I can report on how it looks in full bloom.




The council have planted a range of plants include Ox-eye Daisy, Cornflower and Corn Marigold. Today the strip was a buzz with bees and flies. I had hoped for more butterflies - I only saw a Large Skipper and a Meadow Brown but it was early in the day and there was a wind. 

Some of the species seen included:

Eristalis arbustorum

Harlequin Ladybird

Red-Tailed Bumblebee

Stenodema calcarata 

Honey Bee (Worker)





Friday 22 July 2016

Letter to the Environment Secretary

As suggested in a previous post I have e-mailed our new Environment Secretary - Andrea Leadsom,
I would urge everyone to consider emailing her to champion the environment.

Here is what I sent:

Dear Mrs Leadsom,
Congratulations on your new cabinet post and for performing so well during the EU Referendum campaign. Having had a week or two to settle into your new role I felt it was time to ask you to consider the direction of DEFRA especially in the light of Brexit.
You have a real opportunity to have a positive impact on nature conservation in the UK, more so perhaps than any previous minister for this portfolio. The exit from the EU will need us to firmly take the reins of our own environmental policy and it is about time Britain became a world leader in this regard. I ask you to seriously consider the following points:
1. Retention of Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Impact Assessment. The UK has had good Town and Country Planning legislation since 1949 and there is no reason for this to relaxed.

2. Abandon CAP and replace it with a system that marries nature conservation techniques with sustainable production. A stewardship scheme that rewards landowners for protecting wildlife whilst still allowing them to make a living.

3. Continue to lead the way in Climate Change policy and drive technology to combat it this is a way in which the environment and industry can both profit.

4. Maintain species protection with the Wildlife and Countryside Act and protect species under the Hunting with Dogs legislation.

5. Honour the designations and species protection outlined in Natura 2000 including SPA and SAC sites.

6. Maintain and strengthen existing UK designations such as SSSI's and plan wildlife sites on a landscape level as well as the local - expanding the living landscape efforts of the Wildlife Trusts. Link site protection with local interests and facilitate people’s ability to connect with nature.

7. Maintain existing Marine Protection Areas and expand them to partner with maintaining Fishing stocks for a buoyant and sustainable fishing fleet.

8. Take a sensible look at Re-wilding as a means of restoring ecological balance. A prime example is of how Pine Marten recovery has helped curtail Grey Squirrels and aid Red Squirrels or how Beavers act as ecosystem engineers.

9. Readdress the idea of using vaccination to control TB in the Cattle population. The science goes against the current Badger cull policy and yet it is still in place.

10. Continue to focus on Local Biodiversity Action Planning but emphasise real world application rather than just reporting and public relations/education campaigns.

 I know that much of what I write may seem revolutionary to some but I really do feel it is time DEFRA took the lead and that you could be just the minister to do this.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope some of it strikes a chord and  can be implemented into policy.

Regards

Sunday 17 July 2016

Our new environment secretary

With the change in leadership of the country following the Referendum we now have a new minister for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Ignoring that fact that I fundamentally disagree with the lumping together of the environment with food and rural affairs I thought I ought to take a moment to reflect on this new appointment.

We have had poor luck in this appointment in the past, the last two ministers  (Liz Truss and Owen Patterson) have presided over a department that maintained the status quo and it is hard to find any positive things they did for the environment, we all remember the introduction of the badger cull and the proposal to sell off the forests, the list goes on.


It lies with Andrea Leadsom to break this mold and shows us a minister who actually wants to improve the environment and not just watch it from the sidelines whilst drawing a pay check.
So who exactly is this Brexiteer conservative leader candidate.

She is a relatively new MP having only joined parliament in 2010. This inexperience is not something I hold against her. She was previously an Energy Minister which at least has some relation to environmental matters.

I decided to try and pick apart her voting record to look for pointers:

Voted in favour of a Green Investment Bank twice  
Voted against reducing carbon emissions to 20% of 1990 levels
Voted to reform the energy market to reduce carbon dioxide emissions twice
Voted not to exempt electricity generation plants using carbon storage from carbon emission limits
Voted against setting a target range for the amount of carbon dioxide per unit price of electricity generation
Voted to apply the climate change levy to electricity generated from renewable sources twice
Voted against charging 1st year vehicle tax based on emissions
Voted against a decarbonisation target
Voted not to reduce permitted carbon dioxide rates in new homes
Voted in favour of selling public forests in 2011
Voted for high taxes on planes 
Voted in favour of the Badger Cull twice
Voted against explicit need for environmental permits for fracking
Voted for a more extensive set of conditions to be put in place prior to fracking
Voted for more restrictions on fracking in National Parks and AONB's

This is quite a confusing list on the face of it, there seems to be significant good and bad votes here. This could mean that Andrea is open to constructive advice and that she at least considers matters before voting rather than sitting solidly behind an opinion and refusing to change her position. This could work both ways.

What does this mean for the environment..? To be honest I m not sure, Andrea however needs to be given the benefit of the doubt for now. The biggest thing I want Andrea to accept is the need to weigh scientific advice more highly than previous ministers have and to leave the economy to the business and treasury, her role is to safeguard the environment and the rural community.

I will be writing to Andrea this week to urge her to consider some matters, mostly those I have raised in previous blogs such as Brexit -what now for nature conservation?

I would like everyone that reads this blog to write to her and to get your friends to do likewise, lets make the department more environmentally aware again.

Tuesday 12 July 2016

Wild Kingdom - A Book Review

It has been a while since I have written a book review and so I thought I would take a moment to write a little about this excellent book.

‘Wild Kingdom – Bringing back Britain’s Wildlife’ by Stephen Moss is a delightful read by a well regarded naturalist an author.
Stephen aside from his books is his work as the original producer of Springwatch. His first book was published in 1995 and was called ‘Birds and Weather’ and charted how birds were affected by climate change.

His latest book ‘Wild Kingdom’ is a whistle stop tour of habitats in the UK. He outlines how the wildlife in Britain has changed and what could be done to help improve matters.
Such a book could become depressing as disappearing species and habitat loss take their toll but Stephen manages to explain these losses in the context in which they occurred and offered sensible ways forward.

His prose are concise and yet lyrical, helping to conjure up the poetry of some of the species and the evoke landscapes and habitats of yesteryear. As a naturalist myself there was still much to learn from his book and it helped coalesce some of the ideas that are starting to drive my ecological theory of the direction Britain needs to move in to protect wildlife.

Each chapter explores a habitat in turn and describes the plights of different species in the face of the modern world. This includes species that have successfully adapted to our hectic lives and have found ways to flourish.

If I have one complaint it is that the book is not long enough. That is not to say that it is a short book, but that it is perhaps its easy readability that makes this book feel shorter than it is.

I highly recommend this highly accessible, thought provoking and informative book to anyone interested in the countryside and British wildlife.

As with all books these days it is available from Amazon other book retailers are available.

Sunday 10 July 2016

Professor Yaffle

Today was a somewhat mixed day. The wind was up and there were showers across the morning meaning that there was much about down my patch. I did spot some juvenile Great Tits and several Comma butterflies were seen taking to the wing. Instead I got my most interesting sight on the way home in the sheep fields next to Woodloes Lane - a Green Woodpecker.



Green Woodpeckers are surprisingly large birds. They happen to love this field. The sheep keep the grass short and there a plenty of yellow meadow ant nests for them to feast on. I managed to get some nice shots before it was frightened away by some Woodpigeons.


Professor Yaffle from the childrens programme Bagpuss was based on the Green Woodpecker. Yaffle is an old name for the woodpecker based on its laughing call.


The individual I saw was a juvenile. One of this years young. You can tell this by its colouration. There are more more patches of grey on the bird as if someone hasn't quite finished colouring it in yet.





Sunday 3 July 2016

Brexit - What now for nature conservation?

Unless you have been under a rock the EU referendum result has been one of the most important national votes in a lifetime and will have a major impact on the world as we know it living in Britain.
There are multiple policy areas that need consideration and the environment and nature conservation whilst not necessarily high on everyone's agenda is vital.

The vote has been held and we are on our way out, whether it be full exit or just a Norway-like retention of the European Economic Area (EEA) lying in the future one clear fact is that nature conservation needs to be considered.

There is considerable doom surrounding the result of the referendum but I try to remain optimistic. Perhaps now is an opportunity to build a nature conservation policy to be a flagship of the world.

Many organisations including large NGO's like the RSPB and Wildlife Trusts alongside think tanks and policy review boards have already began to address this issue. What will the environment be like post Brexit. In some cases things may look slightly worse, definitely in the short term but so much of it unfortunately hangs on the fate of our economy. Money conquers all even where wildlife is concerned.

So what do the experts of see? The UK and EU group at Kings College London have produced a Expert Review report  to examine some of the impacts and options. This hefty tome is a dense and thorough report and well worth a read in and of itself. I will distill some of its findings here before making some suggestions of my own.

Environmental Policy
The EU had a preventative approach to environmental policy and forced the UK to adopt many directives that have in no doubt aided the conservation movement. The following table taken from the report shows how the various laws would be affected if we entered into an EEA agreement. As you can see most of the important policy areas will be covered unfortunately the Birds and Habitats Directives are vital to nature conservation and will not be applicable regardless of the routes forward we take.
Climate Policy
The UK was a leader within the Union on emissions reductions and so it would make sense that this would not change in an independent Britain.

Energy Policy
Energy policy is closely linked to Climate policy. EU policy still allowed the development of individual policies in home nations which has led to the UK  being one of the few to develop shale as as an energy resource, however the UK led the way in market liberalisation of renewable energy in Europe.

Agricultural Policy
The biggest part of European agricultural policy is the Common Agricultural Policy which was more of an economic measure than an environmental one. In fact since its inception it has had an overall negative environmental impact, increasing water and air pollution and accelerating the decline of farmland birds. The inevitable economic troubles as a result of Brexit could increase intensification and thereby worsen the situation.

Fisheries Policy
Fishing is a key area of environmental policy in the UK and the Common Fisheries Policy has improved the UK's sustainability and Brexit will necessitate renegotiation of fishing rights.

So what do  I think we need and bear in mind that this may well be 'pie in the sky'

1. Retention of Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Impact Assessment. The UK has had good Town and Country Planning legislation since 1949 and there is no reason for this to relaxed.

2. Abandon CAP and replace it with a system that marries nature conservation techniques with sustainable production. A stewardship scheme that rewards landowners for protecting wildlife whilst still allowing them to make a living.

3. Continue to lead the way in Climate Change policy and drive technology to combat it.

4. Maintain species protection with the Wildlife and Countryside Act

5. Honor the designations and species protection outlined in Natura 2000 including SPA and SAC sites.

6. Maintain and strengthen existing UK designations such as SSSI's and plan wildlife sites on a landscape level as well as the local - expanding the living landscape efforts of the Wildlife Trusts. Link site protection with local interests and people to connect people with nature.

7. Maintain existing Marine Protection Areas and expand them to partner with maintaining Fishing stocks for a buoyant and sustainable fishing fleet.

8. Take a sensible look at Re-wilding as a means of restoring ecological balance. A prime example is of how Pine Marten recovery has helped curtail Grey Squirrels and aid Red Squirrels or how Beavers act as ecosystem engineers.

9. Readdress the idea of using vaccination to control TB in the Cattle population.

Instead of Brexit being a disaster I see this as an opportunity. The various members of the NGO's such as the RSPB have huge memberships and currently the various political parties are in such throes of indecision that they will need all the support they can get to gain or retain power. The vote was just as much as challenge to the government and the political elite as it was to the EU and now is a chance for us to hold them to account.

This will not be easy. Money has always out fought conservation and it will be hard to persuade the city that the environment is an important asset.

Prepare for battle my friends for now we have the chance to remake environmental policy or see it destroyed in front of us.