A fundraiser, writer and folk musician in the UK playing guitar, bass, singing, writing and marketing. All posts in this blog are personal and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer, cat, neighbour or government.
Mid-September,
the weather is on the turn. Gone are the heady days of summer, but the hay
needs bringing in, so the wildflower meadow can flourish. There’s lots of wildlife in the meadow –
lizards, frogs and insects. The grass
has to be hand raked to preserve the wildlife and to stop the rotting cuttings
putting too many nutrients into the ground and changing the meadow’s plant life
balance.
The field
had been mown with a brush cutter (giant strimmer to you and me) and now the
long rows of cut grass and other plants needed raking up and putting into the
woods where it could rot nicely, and provide further havens for other herpetological
inhabitants.
It all came
about when I asked my team if they wanted to do something different for a ‘team
day’, and the result was this – we volunteered our services (humanpower) to
Pensthorpe, which has around 700 acres of land that it manages for
conservation.
The idea
was proposed by one team member so she was team leader for the day, but our
work was of course directed by the Pensthorpe team.We spent all morning raking and moving the
grass and saw lots of wildlife including butterflies, dragonflies, and the
already mentioned lizards and frogs.
After lunch
we moved to working on fence repair, and I learned how to dig a 3 foot deep
post hole.It was hard work, but we
worked well as a team, and the three missing fence panels were erected securely
and the electric fence to keep the less popular wildlife out of the nesting
grounds was pinned back across.
It may seem
odd that charity staff should volunteer for another charity, but in my mind it
was a fitting example of how our charity (an air ambulance) contributes to the
wider community – not only through our services, but through our thoughts and
deeds as community members.
I
thoroughly enjoyed the day, and so did my colleagues, and though we were a
little tired, the objective of effective teamwork was not only achieved, but
Pensthorpe had a clear wildflower meadow and a new fence erected.
Where I work, colleagues from the organizations that share
our building give talks on a wide range of interesting conservation topics. A
couple of months back I learned about the systems that are used by wildlife
rangers to monitor their patrols and increase effectiveness, and this week I
learned about how tiny snails and unique lizards are at extreme risk of
extinction thanks to cement.
Cement is made from limestone, and limestone occurs
naturally both below and above ground. The limestone hills that are the perfect
mineral combination for cement – which is demand more now than ever before as
housing and other human needs continue to grow – are also amazing habitats for
extraordinary specialized species.
The speaker, Tony, told us of his work (which goes back to
1995) in looking at the biodiversity of these limestone hills. What looks like
a ‘lump in the landscape’ to us, whether in Malaysia, Myanmar or Merseyside,
probably has very distinct and often endemic (not found elsewhere) species. OK, maybe not so much Merseyside (but check out Avon Gorge!), because in the UK we’ve more or less mined out
every possible bit of limestone we can without crumbling into the sea, but in
other countries, that have been slower to ‘develop’ their infrastructure, then
the demand for limestone is encroaching some of the most amazing landscapes in
the world.
Biodiversity examinations of these rocky outcrops, some of
which are huge and cover many hectares, whilst some may be small enough to walk
around in an hour or so. The fascinating
thing about the larger ones is not only are there amazing species living on the
rocks (fauna and flora), the forest and other habitats on the limestone
surface, but also the internal world – the caves. From snails and bats to shrimp, spiders and
crabs, many of the creatures that live in the limestone caves are found nowhere
else in the world except in their little ‘bioverse’.
And our need for cement is wiping them out. Knowingly. Some cement companies will do a biodiversity
evaluation, and maybe leave a bit of the rock for the wildlife, but others are
knowingly making species extinct. Admittedly it may only be a snail, but it
will be made extinct nonetheless. And I can’t help feeling that without knowing
everything there is to know about a species or habitat before we wipe it out is
quite important (see ‘an
overheard conversation’ – there are unknown herbs and plants on these rocks
that could have tremendous benefit to humanity, but we’ll never know).
We are losing our precious species on this earth at an unsustainable rate. In the ‘Bank of Planet Earth’ humanity is seriously overdrawn,
and unless we curb our consumption (or reduce our population dramatically), the
bank is going to crash – and there’s no other ‘bank of…’ to bail us out.
It’s cold, damp, dark. I’m standing at the edge of Thetford
forest with a group of people, most of whom I don’t know. We are listening –
and after a short while the ‘churr’ of nightjars fills the air.We are quietly excited. A noctule bat swoops
overhead, and the sharp ‘tweep tweep’ of a woodcock alerts us to its passage as
it flies across the clearing in front of us.
“Two on the path!”The whisper goes up, and all binoculars are trained on two long black
blobs that we can just about see in the dim light of the moon. They flit
upwards, a flash of white indicating that one is male. I’ve seen my first
nightjars!
It wasn’t a good view, but it was good enough for me.Seeing the nightjars was the culmination of
an interesting evening on the Brecks
– a unique habitat in the East of England.I was lucky enough to be with a group of conservationists and forestry
commission staff who have some interesting challenges. In listening to the
discussions about what could be done to conserve some beautiful river habitat,
I learned so much about the hands-on side of conservation. One of the
discussions was about whether they could re-flood a now dry flood plain; The ideas for how this could be done had to be in context not just of what can
happen now, but in consideration of what conditions might be like in 50 years’ time.
Sea level changes may affect the water table as our climate changes, but in the shorter term,
upcoming housing developments may further reduce the water flow.There are never any simple fixes such as
building a dam or creating a culvert – not if you want long-term, realistic
changes whose benefits will last. It will be interesting to see what they decide to do.
A bright moon over the Brecks
Change in human behaviour has a real impact on our wildlife
and even in our woodlands. Around the flood plain, for example, were lots of
dead poplars. These trees were planted to provide wood for the matchstick
industry, but as that disappeared rapidly with the invention of the
lighter.The trees have just been left
to die naturally over their long lifetime. So the actions of man many decades
previously have left their mark – especially given that Thetford Forest itself
is a commercially planted forest.Even
the clearance of land by the nearby holiday park has meant that some endemic
plants are actually flourishing in the car park!
Balancing the needs of the commercial and the natural world
are always challenging, but in the Brecks they have a unique habitat that has
some amazing birds, insects and plants. Wildlife is in crisis not just in Africa and
Asia, but in our own backyards – our woodlands, heath and moorland, and even
our back gardens. I enjoyed my dark and
chilly night on the Brecks because I learned so much, as ever, about our
amazing natural world.
A few years back I overheard a European
royal talking to an English duke’s daughter. The latter was a keen advocate of
prison reform, whilst the former supported conservation.The nub of the conversation was “It doesn’t
matter how many prisoners are rehabilitated, if we have an uninhabitable
planet, it won’t matter anyway.”
Since then, I have worked in higher
education and medical research. I believe in both strongly – the benefits of
good education and the desperate battle against dementia, and I continue to
advocate for these and other causes. (I do believe that prison should be about
rehabilitation, not just punishment, but that’s perhaps a whole other blog post.)
Working on wildlife trade is an interesting
area – it’s a different perspective on conservation. By understanding consumer
demand, trade channels and market trends, it’s possible to identify growing or
emerging problems and what threat they pose to wildlife.And then (with a wide range of partners) to
do something about it.
As well as the well-known species under
threat from trade like rhino, elephants and Tigers, there are many other living
organisms threatened by unsustainable and illegal trade practices.Losing animals, trees, fish and plants at the
current rate is rapidly depleting the resources that humanity relies on; we
need to steward our consumption now if we want them to be there for future
generations.
Pasque flower, also a medicinal herb
I’ve learned a lot more about plants in my
current role. Plants: essential to all life on the terrestrial planet, and yet
they receive little fundraising attention (perhaps because they are not
‘cuddly’?)Wild plants are a major
source of medicine (the breast cancer drug was developed from a yew tree),
food, and income for the harvesters who collect them. Given their tremendous
benefit to humanity, plants deserve as much attention as our favourite
‘charismatic megafauna’.And it’s not
just medicinal plants under threat from trade – orchids, for example, are extremely
popular with horticulturalists and also used for food in some cultures (try
searching ‘salep’).Both markets have a
thriving legal, and illegal trade.
Why did I write this piece today? Because
looking at the funding landscape, conservation and wildlife are way down on the
‘I care about’ scale from the big money players. In the UK, for example, around
only 4% of trust funders have wildlife conservation as a charitable objective. Yes,
I am a conservation fundraiser, so I have a vested interest in this subject. But
as the princess said, if we don’t look after our planet, our wildlife and
climate, then there’s really not a lot of point worrying about anything else
because human life will be unsustainable.In other words, we all have a
vested interest in conservation.
Like me, many mothers with sons are likely to have an ‘above
average’ knowledge of dinosaurs and sharks. Some of this knowledge stays with you even as the
boys grow into men – and some of it stays with them no doubt, if not crowded
out by hormones etc.
Aside from the seminal film ‘Jaws’ tainting the Great
White with a human-hating personality, and the dubious invention of ‘Sharktopus’, most of what I
have seen on sharks is documentary. My son was riveted by Discovery Channel’s Shark Week and we had
at least two model sharks (though seriously outmatched by a whole zoo of
plastic dinosaurs).
Ichthyosaur
I visit the Cambridge University
museums often – particularly the Sedgwick
which houses prehistoric relics from the region and a full-size replica of an iguanodon
skeleton. I love looking at the model recreations of small dinosaurs, and the skeletal
remains of ichthyosaurs that are a step towards our modern sharks. I say
modern, but sharks in fact pre-date dinosaurs by several million years.
Sharks are apex predators – an
essential part of the complex ecosystems that live in our oceans. Though I’m
relieved that the megalodon
(a prehistoric shark which might have been as long as 67 feet) is extinct, it
is concerning that we are losing our current populations of sharks. At current
rates several species may join the megalodon in extinction very soon.
Why? What is happening to our
sharks, and what is the impact of losing them? This apex predator is itself
being predated. It is being hunted and consumed by an animal with no predator to
manage its population – or its hunger for wildlife: humans. Millions of sharks
are fished for their meat, skin and liver oil, whilst some are taken just for
their fins.
Shark fishing
Many are aware of the precarious
nature of fish stocks in our oceans and fishing quotas, marine reserves and
many other regulations have been put into place to try and preserve our
dwindling wild fish stocks. But shark fishing (and bycatch, where sharks are
incidentally caught when fishing for other species) has been largely unregulated
until relatively recently.
Sharks continue to fascinate me –
they are living prehistoric relics, essential to the balance of life in the
ocean. Sharks, rays and chimaera
(another close relative) are now under threat, and it’s not just the Asian market
for shark fin soup that is driving their decline. Europe’s penchant for eating
skate and many other fish products that contain shark meat is contributing to
the decline of these amazing creatures (Europe is in fact the third largest
consumer of wildlife products after Asia and the USA).
If you have time, listen to Glenn in the video below talking about the work that he and his team are doing. It’s
thanks to passionate individuals like Glenn and the many like him in
conservation organisations around the world, that we might actually stand a
chance of saving endangered species.
What can you do? You can support wildlife charities, you can sign
petitions and lobby government to protect our oceans. You can eat only MSC certified fish, and learn more about our
oceans so that you can make informed choices on what seafood you choose to
consume - and educate your children. It’s their world we are destroying.
I loved learning about dinosaurs
as a child and as a mother. I love learning about sharks and other wildlife as
a conservation professional. I do hope that we can help preserve these less
than loveable creatures for the sake of our children, and the planet.
After lunch
we moved to working on fence repair, and I learned how to dig a 3 foot deep
post hole. It was hard work, but we
worked well as a team, and the three missing fence panels were erected securely
and the electric fence to keep the less popular wildlife out of the nesting
grounds was pinned back across.
