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Headlines from week beginning 27 November 2017 |
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A round up of the top countryside, conservation, wildlife and forestry stories as chosen by the CJS Team.
Moorland management: New group to focus on sustainability of
driven-grouse moors - Scottish Government Membership of an independent group to ensure grouse moor management
practices are sustainable and legally compliant has been confirmed. The new group will be led by Professor Alan Werrity, who previously
chaired a Scottish Natural Heritage review into sustainable moorland
management. It includes scientists, moorland managers, regulatory
experts and advisers from SNH, Scottish Wildlife Trust, the Game and
Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Scottish Environmental Protection
Agency. The group has been set up in response to SNH research that found
almost a third of golden eagles being tracked by satellite died in
suspicious circumstances and that the majority of cases were where land
is intensively managed for driven grouse shooting. The group will look at the environmental impact of grouse moor
management practices such as muirburn, the use of medicated grit and
mountain hare culls and advise on the option of licensing grouse
shooting businesses. Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: Reactions from Scottish Land & Estates, RSPB
Scotland & Scottish Raptor Study Group, and Scottish Wildlife Trust
Scottish Land & Estates statement on grouse moor management review
Scottish Land & Estates has issued the following statement regarding
the Scottish Government’s announcement on the grouse moor management
review. David Johnstone, chairman of Scottish Land & Estates, said: “The
announcement of the membership of the expert group to look at grouse
moor management is a significant step forward in establishing a base of
independent research to inform the future of the sector. The moorland
management community will engage constructively with the group
throughout the review and we will be writing to them in the near future
to outline the key areas in which we intend to make evidence-based
submissions to the review."
RSPB and SRSG welcome announcement of grouse moor enquiry
- RSPB Scotland The remit of the panel includes consideration as to how grouse moors
can be managed sustainably and within the law. RSPB Scotland and the Scottish Raptor Study Group have welcomed
today’s announcement by the Scottish Government on the grouse moor
enquiry panel. Duncan Orr-Ewing, Head of Species and Land Management for RSPB
Scotland said: "We very much welcome the announcement of this enquiry
and of the independent panel. We look forward to giving evidence to the
panel in due course. The remit of the panel includes consideration
as to how grouse moors can be managed sustainably and within the law.
There are significant public concerns about how grouse moors are
currently being managed in Scotland, including clear evidence gathered
over decades of the illegal killing of birds of prey. In recent years
these concerns have broadened to encompass wider grouse moor management
practices, as commercialisation has taken place, with an emphasis on
producing very large and unsustainable grouse numbers for sport
shooting. These practices include muirburn on peatland habitats which
are important as carbon stores for combating climate change, the culling
of mountain hares and the medication of ‘wild’ red grouse, both
designed to prevent grouse diseases and artificially boost grouse bags."
Moorland management under review - Scottish
Wildlife Trust Commenting on today’s announcement by the Scottish Government that an
independent panel has been appointed to carry out an inquiry into the
management of grouse moors, Susan Davies, Director of Conservation,
Scottish Wildlife Trust said: “Currently, over 10% of Scotland’s land
area is managed for shooting grouse. While this activity brings income
into rural communities we have to ensure a balance is struck, and that
any benefits are weighed against long-term environmental damage and the
persecution of wildlife that are often linked with intensive moorland
management. Scotland’s uplands have an important job to do as
stores of carbon and clean water. Unsustainable moorland management
including intensive burning and drainage have a serious effect on these
functions. There is growing evidence linking grouse moors to wildlife
crimes, including the recent report on the fate of 131 satellite tagged
golden eagles, between 2004 and 2016, which concluded that a third of
these young eagles probably disappeared under suspicious circumstances
in areas connected to contemporary records of persecution. Also,
despite a number of calls for restraint, mountain hares continue to be
culled in large numbers on some estates. The Scottish Wildlife Trust has
been consistently calling for better regulation and a move towards more
sustainable management of Scotland’s uplands. Taking a land stewardship
approach would have clear benefits for Scotland’s wildlife, but also our
economy and society."
SNH steps in to help #SaveCoulLinks -
Scottish Wildlife Trust Proposals to build a golf course on one of Scotland’s last remaining
coastal dune habitats have been dealt a major blow from an objection
lodged by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). The plans to turn the internationally protected sand dunes near
Dornoch into a luxury golf course now face a major hurdle due to the
statutory nature conservation body’s strong objection to the plans. SNH has warned that the proposed development:
The proposal has been strongly opposed by a number of conservation
organisations due to its location within a globally important wildlife
site which supports many rare plants and insects and over 20,000
wintering birds. The alliance of conservation organisations made up of Buglife,
Butterfly Conservation Scotland, Marine Conservation Society, Plantlife,
RSPB Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust has already submitted a
joint objection due to significant environmental damage that could be
inflicted if the plans were approved. The organisations welcome the strong objection made by the IUCN’s
World Commission on Protected Areas, the world’s premier network of
protected area expertise with 2,000 members from over 140 countries.
They also welcome the responses from Ramblers Scotland and the National
Trust for Scotland, who have recently voiced objections to the
proposals. Nearly 700 objections from both members of the public and
organisations have been submitted to Highland Council so far.
First steps taken to tackle puffin decline –
RSPB The RSPB’s Project Puffin has taken the first steps in solving the
mystery of why some puffin colonies in the UK are in decline after
scientists analysed more than 1400 photos sent in by the public, helping
them to build a better picture of UK coastlines come alive each spring with the sight, sound and smell
of puffins nesting and raising their young, known as pufflings. With
their bright orange bills and distinctive eye markings people from
around the world visit puffin hotspots in the UK and Ireland to
photograph the bustling colonies. However, in recent years puffin
numbers have plummeted at some colonies, and experts estimate that
without help more than half the global puffin population will disappear
within the next forty years.
Image: Chris Taylor In the summer RSPB scientists set out to understand more about the
differing fortunes of puffins around our coasts. The project aimed to
capture a snapshot of what puffins are feeding their young at as many
colonies as possible, as it is thought their food supply has been
negatively impacted by warming seas and shifting ocean currents. By
enlisting the help of the public, also known as the ‘Puffarazzi’, 1402
photos of puffins bringing food to their chicks were sent to the team. The photos have helped scientists identify areas where puffins are
struggling to find the large, nutritious fish needed to support their
chicks. Early results suggest that the diet of puffins vary
significantly around the UK - in the northern isles of Orkney and
Shetland, where serious puffin declines have been seen, puffins appear
to be consistently finding smaller prey compared to most other
colonies.
Wildlife crimes going unpunished without proper reporting
- Wildlife and Countryside Link Crimes against wildlife are going unpunished, as crime figures aren’t
properly recorded and assessed, warns a wildlife coalition as it
launches a new report ‘The Recording of Wildlife Crime in England and
Wales’. Wildlife and Countryside Link and Wales Environment Link are major
coalitions of wildlife and environment NGOs. The coalitions have
commissioned new research among key stakeholders revealing frustration
with the current system and overwhelming support for wildlife crime to
be made recordable. The research also collates and reports on data
collected by NGOs on various types of wildlife crime, which provides an
idea of the scale and nature of offences. Wildlife crime is a
significant threat to conservation, animal welfare and the wider
environment. However, unlike in Scotland, most wildlife crimes in
England and Wales are currently recorded as ‘miscellaneous’ offences and
they are therefore invisible crimes in police records. Enforcement
officers are working hard to tackle this area of crime, but they are
hindered by the lack of a proper recording and reporting process. The research shows that there were more than 4,000 wildlife crime
offences between 2010 and 2015. However this figure vastly
underestimates the scale of the problem as details of many types of
offences are not collected by NGOs, and they use different methods to
collect the data. Dr Elaine King, Director of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said:
‘'Wildlife crime officers do a great job, but they are being forced to
fight wildlife crime with one hand tied behind their backs. The lack of
proper recording, reporting and analysis of wildlife crime figures
hampers the setting of priorities and allocation of resources. Animals
are paying the price with their lives and criminals are going
unpunished. We want to urgently discuss these findings with ministers
and get firm commitments that wildlife crimes will be properly recorded
and assessed.’ As part of the research for this report, the views of law enforcement
and Government representatives, environment and wildlife organisations
and academics were sought on these issues. This research showed that:
There is a clear case for more effective recording of, and reporting
on, wildlife crime in England and Wales. These actions are essential to
help safeguard wildlife and nature and to enable more effective
enforcement. The coalition is seeking meetings with Home Office
ministers and officials to discuss the report’s findings. Download the report: ‘The
Recording of Wildlife Crime in England and Wales’.
Whilst in Scotland:
Project sees highest number of fledged hen harriers
- Scottish Natural Heritage As part of efforts to conserve hen harriers, 21 estates across
Scotland have now joined the Heads Up for Harriers project in 2017.
Heads up for Harriers - nest camera (image: SNH) As in previous years, estates have agreed to have cameras installed
on their land to monitor nesting hen harriers and help determine reasons
affecting survival. A total of 11 nests were monitored, with nine nests
successfully fledging 37 young and two nests failing. Fox predation was responsible for one of the nest failures, while the
second nest failed as a result of natural causes, according to analysis
of the eggs by the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme. Significantly, this second nest was located on a grouse moor in the
southern Angus Glens, an area that hasn’t recorded any hen harriers for
some time. The Heads Up for Harriers project will be working with the
estate again in 2018 and hope to see a nest successfully fledging some
young harriers.
Scotland’s colleges benefiting from wild places
- John Muir Trust Trust’s engagement scheme proves popular in Further Education
establishments
Colleges in Scotland have seen over 400 students and staff achieve a
John Muir Award during the 2016-17 academic year, with 84% of these
Awards being achieved by people facing some form of disadvantage. Across Scotland, further education colleges are using the John Muir
Award to give structure to programmes, support the delivery of the
Curriculum for Excellence, build skills for learning, life and work and
improve health and wellbeing outcomes for both young people and adult
learners. A recent report from the John Muir Trust has revealed
that 75% of the colleges in Scotland were involved in delivering the
John Muir Award during 2016-17. The report highlights how the Award is
used to deliver on a variety of themes including employability,
childcare, healthy living and adventure studies. Lucy Sparks, John Muir Award Scotland Inclusion Manager, said: “We’re
delighted to see colleges across Scotland using the Award to help reach
a wide range of audiences, from those who face barriers to learning to
those at risk of disengaging with their education. Getting out of
the classroom and experiencing wild places first-hand can create diverse
learning opportunities, allowing students to build confidence, develop
their skills and enjoy the wellbeing benefits that being in nature can
bring.” Read the
John Muir Award in Scotland’s Colleges 2016-17 report.
Iceland Foods and the Co-op come out in support of a UK Deposit Return
Scheme - Greenpeace Other UK supermarkets challenged to follow suit after Greenpeace
survey Iceland and the Co-op have become the first supermarkets to back a
UK-wide bottle deposit return system (DRS) as a way of tackling the
growing threat of ocean plastic pollution. The announcements came in a response to a Greenpeace survey of
supermarkets views about the introduction of a UK-wide DRS system.
Scotland has already decided to introduce a DRS and England and Wales
are currently considering the option. In response to the survey Iceland stated that it ‘fully supports
Greenpeace’s call for the Government to impose a bottle Deposit Return
Scheme’. The supermarket chain also offered to host a DRS reverse
vending machine within a number of its stores for the Government to
trial. The Co-op described themselves as ‘in favour of creating a deposit
return scheme which increases the overall recycling of packaging and
significantly reduces litter and, importantly, helps tackle marine
pollution’ in their response. However, all other national supermarkets surveyed, including Tescos,
Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, M&S, LIDL, ALDI and Morrissons, were either
non-committal or expressed reservations about DRS in their replies to
Greenpeace For the full text of all other replies from supermarkets received by
Greenpeace, please see
here.
Response:
CPRE delighted two major retailers will back a Deposit Return System Iceland and the Co-op have become the first supermarkets to publicly
back a UK-wide deposit return system (DRS) for drinks containers as a
way to tackle plastic pollution in the countryside and oceans. The announcement follows a survey of major UK supermarkets and their
views on the introduction of a DRS in the UK, and a national campaign
for a DRS by many environmental groups, including the Campaign to
Protect Rural England (CPRE)
England's largest woodland planting scheme gets green light
The Forestry Commission has approved planting at Doddington North
Moor in Northumberland, England's largest woodland planting scheme for
30 years. More than 600,000 trees are set to be planted across
Northumberland over the next two years, with England’s largest woodland
planting scheme in decades given the go-ahead by the Forestry Commission
today (Thurs 30/11).
Thanks to government funding, Doddington North Moor has been given
consent to plant a new 350-hectare forest near Wooler in Northumberland
– the largest of its kind to be planted in England for over 30 years.
The forest, which will span the equivalent of over 650 football fields,
will help to enhance populations of the iconic red squirrel, while
storing over 120,000 tonnes of carbon and helping to manage flood risk
in the area. With the forestry and timber processing industry a major
employer in the region, the project is also set to bring a boost to
local businesses and will generate a number of new jobs. It joins
another successful project that has just been approved this week in the
Lake District, with government funding helping the Lowther Park Estate
plant more than 200,000 trees over 170 hectares of their land. Planting at Doddington is expected to begin in March 2018 and will be
phased over the next two to three years.
Great British Beach Clean 2017 results -
Marine Conservation Society Almost 7,000 people took part in the Great British Beach Clean in
September 2017. Together, we removed 255,209 pieces of litter from 339
beaches, and recorded every bit for this report. On average, that makes 718 pieces of rubbish for every 100m stretch
of beach we cleaned. Sadly, that’s a 10% rise compared with the previous
year. As with previous years, tiny bits of plastic were the most common
items found, and in greater numbers than last year. Litter from foods and drinks, usually used just once and thrown away,
made up at least 20% of all of the rubbish we picked up. 138 pieces of
“on the go” litter were found, on average, for every 100m of beach
surveyed. Download the
Great British Beach Clean Report 2017
Migration makes breeding harder for seabirds
- University of Oxford An international collaboration has for the first time revealed the
key drivers of seabird migration. The new study suggests that puffin
colonies that travel great distances during the winter often find it
more difficult to breed than others, and that escaping your habitat with
far-flung migration therefore carries a cost.
Published in Current Biology, the work was led by researchers from
the Department of Zoology of the University of Oxford and conducted in
collaboration with eight international partners, Over the course of eight years the team studied the seasonal
behaviours of a wide range of puffin colonies across the species’ range,
covering 270 individual birds in total. By combining data from multiple
colonies the researchers were able to build an accurate picture of the
migration behaviours of Atlantic puffin colonies across the world. While previous research has focused on individual colonies and
seabird species, the study marks the first time that seabird migration
behaviour has been studied on this scale in such comprehensive detail. Dr Annette Fayet, lead author and a Junior Research Fellow of Queen’s
College, Oxford and of the Department of Zoology at Oxford University,
said: ‘By comparison to other migratory species we know very little
about puffin migration. Previous studies have tended to focus on
individual colonies, particularly British and Irish colonies, and
actually that is only a very small percentage of the puffin population –
the biggest colonies are found further North, e.g. in Norway and
Iceland. ‘Working collaboratively to study multiple colonies allowed us to
pool our results to build a broad picture, comparing behaviours between
populations and mapping multiple migration routes. In doing so we were
able to better understand lesser known colonies such as Canadian and
Icelandic puffins. Strategies seem to vary from colony to colony and
there is a huge range of difference in these patterns. Some puffin
populations, such as US colonies, never stray very far from their
colony, travelling a few hundred km away at most. While others, such as
Irish puffin colonies, travel vast distances across the Atlantic during
the winter months. Access the paper: Annette L. Fayet et
al
Ocean-wide Drivers of Migration Strategies and Their Influence on
Population Breeding Performance in a Declining Seabird. Current
Biology DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.11.009
‘Tree Power’ blasts off to reach more schools!
- International Tree Foundation A new teaching resource aiming to inspire children about the vital
importance of trees locally as well as globally has been published today
(1/12/17), as part of ITF’s Tree Power Programme for Schools. The Tree Power Teachers’ Resource Pack is a free downloadable
activity pack which gives primary schools the tools to engage the next
generation in protecting and caring for the natural world. It brings together the two educational strands of global and outdoor
learning, to enable children to become both informed ‘Tree Explorers’
and active ‘Tree Guardians’. There is growing recognition of the importance of both global and
outdoor learning for children’s development. Research shows that children benefit in a range of ways from outdoor learning, such
as persevering for longer with tasks, attempting a greater number of new
tasks and showing more enthusiasm. At the same time, children spend much
less time playing in natural places than they did in previous
generations. Global learning has been shown to improve attainment and
skills. ITF has been running Tree Power with schools across England since
2012. The course has received enthusiastic feedback from teachers and
children, which has helped shape the new Resource Pack. Anyone can download and use the pack for free –
click here to start the download.
Drone captures footage as Wildlife Trust and partners complete latest
phase of heathland re-creation -
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, the County’s largest locally based
environmental charity, has recently completed the latest phase of work
to re-create large areas of heathland habitat in Sherwood Forest.
The Trust, is working alongside Harworth Group plc to enhance and
re-create lowland heathland habitat, once wide-spread across the
Sherwood Forest landscape, on the spoil tip at the site of the former
Thoresby Colliery. Harworth is also redeveloping the former pityard site
at Thoresby into a new mixed-use development comprising an eventual 800
homes and 250,000 sq.ft employment space, complemented by over 90ha of
open space which will have a variety of wildlife habitats that are
special to Sherwood Forest, including heathland, acid grassland and oak
woodland. The latest phase of the work involved harvesting large quantities of
heather seed heads from well-established heathland at Vicar Water
Country Park, cared for by Newark & Sherwood District Council, and
itself re-created on the former Clipstone Colliery Spoil Tip 20 years
ago. This seed was then spread using a machine usually used as a
muck-spreader over specially prepared areas of the former colliery site.
The work at both sites was filmed by EMEC Ecology using a high tech
drone. Seed has also been harvested from Budby Heath which is managed
by the RSPB. The footage can be seen on the
Trusts You Tube channel.
Scientific Publications Enrique Murgui
Railways as a potential bird census tool in citizen-science projects: a
preliminary study Bird Study DOI: 10.1080/00063657.2017.1400518 Nakashima, Y., Fukasawa, K. and Samejima, H.,
Estimating animal density without individual recognition using
information derivable exclusively from camera traps. J Appl Ecol.
doi:10.1111/1365-2664.13059
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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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This
year has seen a bumper number of 37 young successfully fledging from
nests located on 7 of the 21 participating estates. This is the highest
number of fledged birds ever for the Partnership for Action Against
Wildlife Crime Scotland (PAW) Scotland project, led by Scottish Natural
Heritage (SNH).
Doddington
North Moor (image: Forestry Commission / Defra)
Puffin
in flight in the Norwegian Sea (Image: Tycho Anker-Nilssen)
Heather
brash at Vicar Water (image: Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust)
