Rewilding and habitat restoration

Discussions about serious topics, for serious people
Post Reply
User avatar
jimbob
Light of Blast
Posts: 5276
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 4:04 pm
Location: High Peak/Manchester

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by jimbob » Tue Jul 12, 2022 2:42 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Mon Jul 11, 2022 2:14 pm
There's a chapter on ragwort in Isabella Tree's book. It was very controversial with the locals too. But it's great for biodiversity https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ll-of-life

At least in terms of birds and insects it's one of the most biodiverse sites in the country, eg supporting more Turtle Doves than a lot of decades-old RSPB projects, huge numbers of Purple Emperor butterflies, etc.

I suspect initial reactions are strongly influenced by shifting baseline syndrome, as it looks very different to typical UK management regimes.
Dad's comment was that there'd need to be a lot of Cinnabar Months for all that ragwort. It was the fact that it was so dominant and with ryegrass (cannot remember what type) as the overwhelming flora compared to some of the grasslands he or my brother have assessed.

It does seem to be good for birds though
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation

User avatar
jimbob
Light of Blast
Posts: 5276
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 4:04 pm
Location: High Peak/Manchester

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by jimbob » Thu Jul 14, 2022 8:57 pm

First beaver cub in Cheshire for 400 years, video in tweet

https://twitter.com/cameranatalie/statu ... 8jV1JwkOIA
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation

User avatar
Fishnut
After Pie
Posts: 2447
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 1:15 pm
Location: UK

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by Fishnut » Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:03 pm

jimbob wrote:
Thu Jul 14, 2022 8:57 pm
First beaver cub in Cheshire for 400 years, video in tweet

https://twitter.com/cameranatalie/statu ... 8jV1JwkOIA
In case you missed it, I've made a thread for all the best beaver news. They're a fantastic ray of hope and cuteness in an otherwise dismal world.
it's okay to say "I don't know"

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by Bird on a Fire » Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:47 pm

Fishnut wrote:
Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:03 pm
jimbob wrote:
Thu Jul 14, 2022 8:57 pm
First beaver cub in Cheshire for 400 years, video in tweet

https://twitter.com/cameranatalie/statu ... 8jV1JwkOIA
In case you missed it, I've made a thread for all the best beaver news. They're a fantastic ray of hope and cuteness in an otherwise dismal world.
And yet still fairly controversial amongst old-school conservationists.

All for them personally.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

User avatar
Grumble
Light of Blast
Posts: 4746
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 1:03 pm

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by Grumble » Fri Sep 02, 2022 10:51 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Fri May 20, 2022 8:26 pm
Grumble wrote:
Fri May 20, 2022 4:15 pm
Bird on a Fire wrote:
Sun Dec 26, 2021 11:49 am


I have - it's a very good book. MacDonald knows his onions (and indeed birds), explains the status quo very well and has an enormous, ambitious vision for the future.

I won't post any spoilers, but I'd be interested to hear what you think when you've read it.
I’m partway through, and I hope I’m through the most depressing bits. It is certainly making me very sad - I knew we were nature deprived in the U.K. but it’s being laid out in great detail just how bad it is.

Having to read in small chunks because it’s a bit much.
It does get brighter, IIRC, as it moves on to discussing what could be, with a few interesting case studies from around Europe.

But I know what you mean. I rarely read much "pop" natural history /ecology stuff these days, because frankly looking at it all as a day job is more than enough.

I will say, though, that one of the things that first wowed me in Portugal is that it's not so depleted yet. There's still fallow fields and scruffy corners and tumbledown houses and silvopasture etc, and there's just birds everywhere. What strikes me in the UK (and similar places, like the Netherlands) is the loss of abundance as much as anything.

I do remain hopeful that we can turn things around, though. There seems to be an appetite for it, and lots of smart folk working hard.
It has got a bit brighter. Despite currently (as in the section I’m reading now) discussing grouse moors. He does seem to be fairly in favour of hunting as a rule, but in the context of it providing jobs in a genuinely wild countryside.
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three

User avatar
Woodchopper
Princess POW
Posts: 7057
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2019 9:05 am

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by Woodchopper » Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:14 am

I don’t know what kind of hunting he means, but as we’ve discussed earlier without a population of wolves humans will need to control deer numbers

User avatar
Grumble
Light of Blast
Posts: 4746
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 1:03 pm

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by Grumble » Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:37 am

Woodchopper wrote:
Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:14 am
I don’t know what kind of hunting he means, but as we’ve discussed earlier without a population of wolves humans will need to control deer numbers
Definitely strongly for culling, but also in favour of big game hunting of red deer and elk, which aren’t yet reintroduced, as a way of bringing money for managing the land. I think this is fairly mainstream for conservation in many places, but not necessarily here in the U.K.
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by Bird on a Fire » Sat Sep 03, 2022 11:15 am

Grumble wrote:
Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:37 am
Woodchopper wrote:
Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:14 am
I don’t know what kind of hunting he means, but as we’ve discussed earlier without a population of wolves humans will need to control deer numbers
Definitely strongly for culling, but also in favour of big game hunting of red deer and elk, which aren’t yet reintroduced, as a way of bringing money for managing the land. I think this is fairly mainstream for conservation in many places, but not necessarily here in the U.K.
The introduction of predators like wolves and lynx also changes herbivores' behaviour in a way that lessens long-terms impacts on vegetation regeneration: as predators learn where the herbivores like to hang out and hunt there more often, the herbivores in turn have to keep shifting around, sparing more areas intensive grazing. So even without drastically reducing numbers, rewilding can lessen the negative impacts of deer.

This is a concept called the landscape of fear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology_of_fear_(concept) which was demonstrated quite neatly in Yellowstone following wolf reintroduction.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

User avatar
Woodchopper
Princess POW
Posts: 7057
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2019 9:05 am

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by Woodchopper » Sat Sep 03, 2022 1:30 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Sat Sep 03, 2022 11:15 am
Grumble wrote:
Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:37 am
Woodchopper wrote:
Sat Sep 03, 2022 2:14 am
I don’t know what kind of hunting he means, but as we’ve discussed earlier without a population of wolves humans will need to control deer numbers
Definitely strongly for culling, but also in favour of big game hunting of red deer and elk, which aren’t yet reintroduced, as a way of bringing money for managing the land. I think this is fairly mainstream for conservation in many places, but not necessarily here in the U.K.
The introduction of predators like wolves and lynx also changes herbivores' behaviour in a way that lessens long-terms impacts on vegetation regeneration: as predators learn where the herbivores like to hang out and hunt there more often, the herbivores in turn have to keep shifting around, sparing more areas intensive grazing. So even without drastically reducing numbers, rewilding can lessen the negative impacts of deer.

This is a concept called the landscape of fear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology_of_fear_(concept) which was demonstrated quite neatly in Yellowstone following wolf reintroduction.
Yes, though wolves tend to be controversial. The Swedes are currently discussing culling about a half of their population of circa 400. A large wolf population may not be feasible.

User avatar
Grumble
Light of Blast
Posts: 4746
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 1:03 pm

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by Grumble » Wed Sep 21, 2022 7:29 pm

Forests in Iceland?
https://youtu.be/K-r2EetCtO0
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by Bird on a Fire » Sun Oct 23, 2022 4:57 pm

Review in Science: Rewilding complex ecosystems
BACKGROUND
Rapid global change is creating fundamental challenges for the persistence of natural ecosystems and their biodiversity. Conservation efforts aimed at the protection of landscapes have had mixed success, and there is an increasing awareness that the long-term protection of biodiversity requires inclusion of flexible restoration along with protection. Rewilding is one such approach that has been both promoted and criticized in recent years. Proponents emphasize the potential of rewilding to tap opportunities for restoration while creating benefits for both ecosystems and societies. Critics discuss the lack of a consistent definition of rewilding and insufficient knowledge about its potential outcomes. Other criticisms arise from the mistaken notion that rewilding actions are planned without considering societal acceptability and benefits. Here, we present a framework for rewilding actions that can serve as a guideline for researchers and managers. The framework is applicable to a variety of rewilding approaches, ranging from passive to trophic rewilding, and aims to promote beneficial interactions between society and nature.

ADVANCES
The concept of rewilding has evolved from its initial emphasis on protecting large, connected areas for large carnivore conservation to a process-oriented, dynamic approach. On the basis of concepts from resilience and complexity theory of social-ecological systems, we identify trophic complexity, stochastic disturbances, and dispersal as three critical components of natural ecosystem dynamics. We propose that the restoration of these processes, and their interactions, can lead to increased self-sustainability of ecosystems and should be at the core of rewilding actions. Building on these concepts, we develop a framework to design and evaluate rewilding plans. Alongside ecological restoration goals, our framework emphasizes people’s perceptions and experiences of wildness and the regulating and material contributions from restoring nature. These societal aspects are important outcomes and may be critical factors for the success of rewilding initiatives (see the figure). We further identify current societal constraints on rewilding and suggest actions to mitigate them.

OUTLOOK
The concept of rewilding challenges us to rethink the way we manage nature and to broaden our vision about how nature will respond to changes that society brings, both intentionally and unintentionally. The effects of rewilding actions will be specific to each ecosystem, and thus a deep understanding of the processes that shape ecosystems is critical to anticipate these effects and to take appropriate management actions. In addition, the decision of whether a rewilding approach is desirable should consider stakeholders’ needs and expectations. To this end, structured restoration planning—based on participatory processes involving researchers, managers, and stakeholders—that includes monitoring and adaptive management can be used. With the recent designation of 2021–2030 as the “decade of ecosystem restoration” by the United Nations General Assembly, policy- and decision-makers could push rewilding topics to the forefront of discussions about how to reach post-2020 biodiversity goals.
Version of record openly available here.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

User avatar
jimbob
Light of Blast
Posts: 5276
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 4:04 pm
Location: High Peak/Manchester

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by jimbob » Sun Nov 06, 2022 10:48 am

Dad's just told me about his friends' son's latest work on coral bleaching in the Seychelles.

The worst bleaching was on reefs with few birds beforehand, and those reefs tended to be on Islands with rats, so they are now working on rat eradication.

He's now back in the UK to crunch the data. So I don't know anything more about the status.
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Rewilding and habitat restoration

Post by Bird on a Fire » Thu Dec 01, 2022 3:09 pm

Large wetland restoration project going ahead in Somerset. They're calling it rewilding but it's also "working within the existing drainage system", which is interesting. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/environ ... 43823.html
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

Post Reply