Plant Conservation in the UK Overseas Territories

As part of the Convention of Biological Diversity 2010, the UK has a duty to halt the decline in the biodiversity or its wildlife. Included in this is the wildlife of the UK’s overseas territories, from Bermuda to the British Antarctic Territory. These territories account for the UK’s most important biodiversity, over 480 endemic plants. The fact that the world considers these territories as being part of the UK often slips people’s minds (even I wasn’t aware of it till this talk).

Conservation on these islands seems (on the most part) to be relatively simple with the only effective path being to work with the local people. It is their land, their wildlife, their benefit and it is often them that are the root of the threats.

The three major threats are from:

• Invasive Species – brought in by travellers or due to activities such as empty bilge water.
• Habitat Loss and Fragmentation – increased development is occurring from a rise in living condition and to accommodate larger populations and more tourists.
• Global Warming (more frequent and more intense storms) – Storm surges cause masses of damage and in the long term sea level rise will have large impacts.

One major undertaking necessary to the success of any conservation action is to have accurate identification. To that end Kew gardens are working with the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (UKOTCF) to digitalise the historical and recently collected specimens into an online herbarium and also provide help by teaching preservation techniques to people from these territories. Being able to accurately identify plant species will drastically increase the reliability of results following any investigations or monitoring.

A link to the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum

http://www.ukotcf.org/index.cfm#

Don’t Panic! Tim Hall’s Hitchhikers Guide to Urban Forestry is Here

I’ll be honest this is a subject I know very little about. I live less than an hour out of London but my town is surrounded by woodland. I hadn’t thought of it as urban forest but after Tim Hall’s talk I suppose it is, most of the sites are only a 5 minute drive from the town centre.

Rushmere Park in the Autumn

The discussions around urban forests are very interesting, to such an extent that my friends and I hit upon the very questions that would form the first half of the talk.

“What is the definition of urban? And just what counts as a forest?”

The classic idea of an ‘urban forest’. Is this what the future holds?

Because, as with any subject, the first thing you need to do is define it, however different organisations use it to cover various different terms. Tim gave a couple of examples of this variation: when at a conference in Stockholm (Sweden) they considered a forest an hour away to be urban because it still provided a service to the city.  Whereas when he worked in Scotland they defined a forest as urban if it was within one km of a population over two thousand. He went on to say that he would be using the term in a much broader sense to cover anything from garden and street trees to semi-natural woodland in close proximity to an urban environment.

An example of semi-natural woodland inside a city – Central Park, New York City

One of the main reasons I got into Zoology was because I was fascinated by the way ecosystem services can provide incentive to conserve ecosystems and species. The list of services from urban forests is unsurprisingly long.

So you’ve got the economic benefits:

• Property prices rise
• People spend more time and money in shopping centres with trees (I can attest to this from spending time in my local centre in Milton Keynes)
• Trees are cheaper for councils to maintain than grass
• Brings value to brown sites
• Moderates the local climate
• In the summer it shades
• Provides a windbreak
• In the winter the leaves drop off allowing light in

Street Trees in London

And then there are benefits for mental and physical health:

• Trees provide an aesthetic value to an area
• Noise reduction
• Provides a focus for the community to gather around
• People are more likely to exercise with the presence of street trees
• Trees strip pollutants from the air helping those with respiratory problems such as asthma
• Nature can help the recovery rates of hospital patients, with rooms looking out onto greenery patients were discharged earlier

 (Even a low quality imitation of nature can boost recovery of patients -.Doctors are attempting to see if a virtual walk in a forest can help speed up the healing of those in intensive care. Surprisingly it does appear to! I remembered reading this in new scientist last year and a quick search online proved me right – it was the 19^th June 1013 issue to be exact.)

My puppy (Monty) posing on a giants chair in Rushmere Park in Bedfordshire. Dotted around the park are sculptures from trees they have felled. There’s always someone interacting with them, so all in all a fantastic way to encourage interest.

However for a conservation biologist the benefit of increased biodiversity is enough to warrant preservation and propagation. This perfectly links in with my lectures in Wildlife Conservation. Some people object to the principle of Ecosystem Services but I’m of the practical opinion that they can be an extremely useful tool to convince others when conservation for conservations sake alone is not enough reason;  essentially a middle ground between the extremes of Soule (2013 in Conservation Biology) and Kareiva (2012 in Bioscience).

The aim of Tim Hall’s version of Urban Forestery – An Increase in Tree Canopy Cover

Red Squirrel Conservation

There are some words that I just have never managed to learn how to spell and ‘Squirrel’ is one of those words.

This seminar has to have been my all-time favourite. It was the perfect blend of humour, the conservation of a native animal and a ruggedly handsome Scotsman.  I have a feeling this blog is going to be a bit disjointed because there are so many aspects of this topic that hold a fascination for me.

Even when I was a kid I didn’t understand why all the grown-ups were happy to see Grey Squirrels if they were invasive but the Red Squirrels were native.

The idea of restoring our native fauna and flora is part of a very short list of things I could see myself dedicating my life towards.

 

 

 

 

The threat to the Red Squirrels goes beyond Grey Squirrels, but they are the major problem that is forcing this into a critical situation.

 

 

I find it surprising that even in these times, and this country, we still have to rely on anecdotal evidence to make the leap in conservation practices – Red Squirrels do badly in areas with Grey Squirrels but do well in their absence – Grey Squirrels do badly in areas with Pine Martens but Red Squirrels do well in their presence. What conclusions would you draw from that?

 

SEND IN THE PINE MARTENS!

Will we do that? Nope.  This is politics sticking its dirty nose where it doesn’t belong. I did find it really funny when we were told Prince Charles is very passionate about Red Squirrels but hates Pine Martens, and since Prince Charles is the patron of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, it basically means they can’t be involved in a Pine Marten reintroduction. Don’t be disheartened though because there is good news!  We can sneak them into a different area of Wales and hope they spread … with a little help 😉

http://rsst.org.uk/

http://www.scottishsquirrels.org.uk/regional/ssrs-argyll-trossachs/

http://www.europeansquirrelinitiative.org/threat.html

 

I can see a new fashion or trend emerging in the next few years – Grilled Grey Squirrel.  It would be amazing if this happened, with the public getting involved in these sorts of activities a feeling of community and unity would spread. People would be more open to other reintroductions, conservation projects would get the help they need to be successful and the culture of this country would alter.

 

Every conservation project requires constant work and management until either the species goes extinct or the project is given up. In short, they are never complete.

It’s so lovely to catch the Humans in their Natural Environment.

I now know how to spell Squirrel.

Stop It Kevin! – No I Must Dance!

The Reintroduction of European Beavers to Wales

If you ask me what my favourite organism is (aside from the sperm whale and a couple of funny sounding bacteria) I would have to say it was the European Beaver (Castor fiber).

In my first year of university I did a presentation about beavers and their reintroduction in Knapdale, Scotland. So going to Adrian Jones’ seminar I already knew the basic facts about their background, such as their diet, lifespan and family relationships. I also had some limited knowledge of their importance in British ecosystems (they are a keystone species and also ecosystem engineers).

However there was much about them that I was unaware of, due to not having the research skills I now possess, and also due to the available literature being for the public not scientists.

“OMG! What did I DO last night?!”

 

I learnt a lot of new things in the seminar, mostly on conservation management and expanding my knowledge on beaver ecology.

Previously I thought that the adverse effects, created by beavers, could only be endured but, as Bavaria demonstrates, there are measures that be taken to minimise or negate unfavourable effects. One such method is to proactively avoid problems, for example, chopping down trees that are most likely to pose a danger to existing infrastructure such as telegraph poles or bridges.

The Bavarian people are a lot less sensitive about beavers and the subject is not as emotionally charged as it is in Scotland and Wales. This is great for conservation management as energy (and, more importantly, money) does not have to be spent countering the stubborn opposition and all the misinformation out there. Unlike in Britain where people believe they eat fish and can destroy fish stocks, despite research showing nothing could be further from the truth – as Collen and Gibson showed in  2001. It also means that people are a lot more willing to help deal with the management side of the issue, by having local teams to trap beavers, cut down trees and put preventative measures in place.

“I’ve been expecting you Mr Bond.”

 

Another part of conservation I am intrigued about is the opinion of others outside of my field. What do the public think about the reintroduction in Scotland? Do they think the government is doing enough (or too much)? Or (like my dad) are they completely oblivious to the reintroduction attempts, planned or otherwise?

Beavers are well known to have a wide range of hobbies. Here is one such example as he hunts vampires in the wild.

 

 

All in all I think the future looks bright for the European beaver in Britain and I look forward to following their progress.

My Thoughts on David Bavin’s Lecture

Pine Marten (Martes martes)

I didn’t realise just how cute these little guys are or that they are natives to Britain.

 

    

I find it bizarre that they are not as broadcasted about as badgers, especially since they are, in my humble opinion, far more adorable. Why do the public not know more about them? As we’ve found with the badger cull, the public are willing to be extremely vocal but it’s up to us (the scientists) to make sure they get emotional about the truth and not misinformation or assumed facts.

Bearing in mind just how successful the beaver trial in Scotland is for socio-economic benefits (such as the tourism they generate), there is a real incentive for locals to support any reintroductions or ‘reinforcements’ that go on.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” – Nelson Mandela

Another interesting aspect for me is that of how interwoven conservation can be. For instance there is some conflict with that of Red Squirrel conservation. On one hand Pine Martens are carnivores and will eat Red Squirrels, but on the other they also eat Grey Squirrels. Because they didn’t evolve together they put the fear of god into the grey squirrels, ridding them of the competitive edge they had over the red squirrels.

This allows the Red Squirrels to claim back their habitat and improve the health of the forest. However many conservationists can’t get over the fact that the Pine Martens, indeed, eat some of the Red Squirrels.

There can also be a very strong accord among conservation too, as with the beaver reintroductions. When Pine Martens nest on the ground they are very vulnerable to predators; especially given their low ability to bounce back from population declines. They tend to nest higher up, preferring hollow trees.  As I learnt at a different lecture beavers, by eliminating competition, allow the creation of these much needed hollow trees near the river side.

(As you can see the species is very photogenic, one could almost imagine it was posing for the camera)

Considering just how beneficial they could potentially be, with so few negatives, why have none of our governments done something about reintroducing them?

How can Great Britain preach to other countries that they should live with the problems nature creates, such as Tigers and Lions, and yet we can’t live with badgers, pine martens or beavers?

THEY DON’T EVEN EAT PEOPLE!!!

My Thoughts on Phil Stephens Lecture

Phil Stephens from Durham University gave a very thought-provoking lecture about academic ecology and the use of large-scale studies; its common pitfalls, its advantages and its use in the future.

Academic ecology can offer a great deal towards conservation, foremost is population prediction. It asks the question:

“How will a population respond to a change in their environment?”

This is a question that really interests me, especially with respect to the impacts of climate change. My dissertation is on the topic of how climate change will affect the Arctic ecosystems and the current conservation methods used. Papers on population prediction are going to be a large part of my dissertation due to their importance in forecasting the crucial areas for conservation.

Gradually, flaws are appearing in large-scale studies and there is an increasing awareness to specialise research and models and to avoid generalising.

An interesting example (of the dangers of generalisation) I came across was that of polar bears (In the WWF magazine, The Circle, volume 3 of 2013). There are 19 populations spread across very varying ecosystems in the Arctic, because of this variety their dependence upon sea ice varies too.

Not only do the ecosystems vary but also the pressures upon the populations. With some populations the main pressure is that they are being hunted unsustainably but with others it is that they don’t have the right amount of time to hunt to gain enough fat for the winter hibernation.

It would be grossly remiss of any ecologist to compare the Alaskan populations (with good sea ice coverage for most of the year) with the Western Hudson Bay in Canada (several weeks fewer for hunting). However this is exactly what has to be done since it is so expensive to collect sufficient data on many of the populations, if it is possible to gather the data at all (due to infrastructure).

Phil’s lecture raised an interesting question with a complicated and incomplete answer. I am sure I will be spending the rest of my life attempting to perfect my own answer.

“Imagination i…

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” – Einstein