7. Wild Futures

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7. Wild Futures

• Lecture outline
• Re-wilding
• Re-introductions of native species
• Workshop Developing a wilderness inventory for
  Britain

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"Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness
boils down, in the last analysis, to aquestion
of intellectual humility. The shallow-minded
modern who has lost hisfootage in the land
assumes that he has already discovered what is
important...."Aldo Leopold, A Sand County
Almanac
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1. Re-wilding

• Emerging wild land policy in the UK
• background of historical, environmental, social,
  political and economic drivers
• Benchmark projects
• The Carrifran Wildwood Project
• Trees for Life
• Wild Ennerdale
• Hafod y Llan
• Wicken Fen
• Multiple benefits and environmental resilience

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Question

• What is re-wilding?

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Multiple viewpoints as to what is wild
• History of attrition
• from prehistory to present
• recent revival in interest in wild nature
• Emerging policy
• Scotland (SNH, NTS, JMT)
• England (English Nature, Wildlife Trusts)
• Wales (Coed Eryri, CCW)
• Opportunities for (re)wilding
• economic climate
• policy climate
• public interest

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Two basic approaches
• "letting go
• if a landscape is left unmanaged for a long
  enough period, nature will take over and produce
  its own entirely natural landscape
• may not necessarily be the same landscape that
  existed before human settlement, but it will be
  natural
• "wild by design
• we may need to actively 'design' wild landscapes
  by assisting the regeneration of native species
  to recreate a more natural looking landscape
• limited economic activity in the form of low
  intensity grazing and recreation is still
  possible and indeed desirable
• E.g. Council for National Parks (1998)

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Developing new wild lands where opportunities
  arise
• Edwards Review (1991)
• CNP Wild By Design (1998)
• Aspects of re-wilding
• promotion of wilderness qualities
• enhancing and recreating semi-natural habitats
• promotion of ecological process in near-natural
  areas

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Edwards Review (1991)
• a number of experimental schemes on a limited
  scale should be set up in National Parks where
  farming is withdrawn entirely and the natural
  succession of vegetation is allowed to take its
  course (Recommendation 6.3, Edwards, 1991)

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Wild By Design

• Semi-natural areas, which appear natural but are
  in fact influenced by management for agriculture
  or forestry.
• Near-natural areas, where the land is totally
  divorced from agricultural or forestry use in
  which natural processes are encouraged to
  maintain the diversity of habitats, and
  vegetation is free to vary naturally with
  variations in the physical environment. (After
  CNP, 1998, p.3)

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Promotion of the wilderness qualities
• while maintaining productive use which may best
  be applied to semi-natural areas
• in accordance with the aims of the UK
  Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) to conserve and
  enhance biological diversity

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Enhancing and recreating semi-natural habitats
  and recreating others
• For example
• reducing grazing pressure to allow vegetation to
  develop more naturally
• enhancing and restoring natural features such as
  river restoration schemes
• restructuring specific landscape elements such as
  conifer plantations to give a more natural outline

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Promotion of areas where ecological processes can
  be paramount
• especially in near-natural areas where relatively
  large areas of land can be left without
  management for long periods of time

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Question

• What is the current basis for re-wilding in
  Britain?

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Environmental resilience
• how does (re)wilding fit with this approach/view?
• drivers for change
• social, environmental, economic
• factors influencing environmental degradation and
  landscape response
• robust nature vs delicate balance
• landscape and public perceptions

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Environmental drivers
• climate change and ecological response
• shifting patterns of migration and range
• N-S movements and altitudinal shifts
• changing geographies of nature
• humanistic barriers to adaptability
• lack of space/continuity between wild areas
• pollution (critical loads) and environmental
  stress

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Policy drivers
• CAP reform and changes in agricultural subsidies
  paid to farmers
• over-production/over-grazing
• environmental stewardship
• agri-environment schemes (fitting in)
• habitat Directive
• Natura 2000
• Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs)
• Water Framework Directive

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Economic drivers
• CAP reform and the single farm payment
• agricultural disasters
• FMD
• BSE
• falling prices and the power of the big
  supermarkets
• increasing proportion of rural economy based on
  tourism and recreation

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Social drivers
• rise in outdoor recreation and leisure time
• greater mobility and disposable income
• rural migration
• in migration of retirees and commuters
• out migration of farm workers, etc.

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Wilder Futures?
• Where do we go from here?
• change is inevitable work with it
• inclusive debate and decision-making
• plan, respond and initiate
• Possible scenarios?
• status quo
• abandonment
• rewilding
• diversification
• urbanisation

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• Various strategic projects
• LUPGs New Wildwoods Project
• RSPBs Futurescapes
• The Wildland Network
• new umbrella organisation
• objectives
• To promote the recognition and appreciation of
  wild land
• To protect and conserve the qualities of wildness
  
• To promote the establishment of complete
  ecosystems on a large scale, through research,
  advice, encouragement and education
• http//www.wildland-network.org.uk/

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1. Re-wilding (contd)

• The next steps?
• Wild by Design highlights the challengethe
  commitment to leave minimal intervention areas on
  a much larger scale (landscapes of thousands of
  hectares) and over much longer periods (hundreds
  of years) (CNP, 1998)
• integrating re-wilding with farming
• Wilderness and Plenty Fraser Darling
• packaging and marketing
• selling idea to public and politicians
• developing a workable and realistic strategy

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2. Re-introductions of native species

• Nature management in UK?
• maintaining habitats and species
• remnants of former farming/forestry systems
• management using past practice
• i.e. nature gardening
• Alternative systems?
• less human intervention
• role of large herbivores and predators?

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2. Re-introductions of native species (contd)

• Herbivores as a management tool?
• NOT a unit of production (e.g. farm animals)
• Vector of ecological maintenance
• shaggy gardeners or woolly mowers
• prevent tree regeneration on heaths
• Maintain short grass sward on chalk down

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Question

• What are the key issues when considering use of
  large herbivores as a tool in re-wilding projects?

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2. Re-introductions of native species (contd)

• What are appropriate populations?
• carrying capacity?
• relationship between animal numbers and pattern
  and structure of vegetation?
• species type?
• grazers vs browsers vs foragers
• preferred fodder
• niche habitats (e.g. beaver in riparian zone)
• predation and demographics?
• The herbivore guild

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Question

• What is an appropriate herbivore guild for
  Britain?

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Question

• What about carnivores?

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2. Re-introductions of native species (contd)

• US Wildlands Project
• Cores, Corridors and Carnivores
• large mammalian carnivores seen as essential to
  wildland
• bear
• wolf
• lynx
• re-introductions in mainland Europe
• bear and lynx (France, Spain, Switzerland,
  Austria, Itlay and Poland)
• wolf (Norway, Germany, Poland and wider Alps)

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2. Re-introductions of native species (contd)

• Lynx as a possible starting point
• adaptable
• variation in prey
• range of suitable habitats (mountain scrub to
  dense forest)
• cold adapted
• mountains of Scotland, northern England, Wales
• sufficient prey and habitat

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Question

• What about wolf and bear?

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Reading

• Council for National Parks (1998) Wild by Design
  in the National Parks of England and Wales a
  guide to the issues. CNP, London.
• Edwards, R. (1991) Fit for the Future. Report of
  the National Parks Review Panel. Countryside
  Commission, Cheltenham, CCP 334.
• Fenton, J. (1996) Wild land or wildereness is
  there a difference? ECOS 17(2), 12-18.
• The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
  (2001) Futurescapes the large scale habitat
  restoration for wildlife and people. RSPB, Sandy.
• Taylor, P. (2005) Beyond Conservation. Chapters
  6, 7 and 8.
• Vera, F.W.M. (2000) Grazing ecology and forest
  history. CABI Publishing, Waltingford.

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Workshop

• Developing a wildland inventory for Britain

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Task
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Next week...

• 8. Case studies 1 Wild Britain
• The Cairngorms
• Plynlimon
• The North Pennines
• Workshop guest lecture Toby Aykroyd on Wild
  Britain