Blow, blow thou winter wind

Valentines Day has brought weather warnings for approaching Storms Dudley and Eunice later this week. Dudley is likely to cause damage in the Grampian area of Scotland and Storm Eunice is tracking across the centre of the UK. The warnings include damage by fallen trees which is a common hazard both in urban and especially exposed rural locations in Scotland and the north and east of England. Forestry plantations have already suffered badly already this year from winter storms, with an estimated eight million trees blown over and may more damaged. It is too early to say if this is a record storm season but the damage to forestry is substantial and as the UK rushes towards larger land areas under woodlands there may be a reason to stop and think of how climate change and more severe wind storms will impact on the new trees.

Uprooted conifers at Bolam Lake, Country Park, Northumberland following Storm ARWEN.

(The root system is shallow and in the form of a large plate)

A visit to Northumberland last month highlighted the wide extent and severe impact of this storm. The most interesting aspect of this was the way in which conifers were more severely damaged than large deciduous trees. The Bolam estate near Morpeth was landscaped by a benevolent landlord in the early 19th century. John Decies, later Lord Beresford, employed local people in order to boost to the rural economy and help to alleviate poverty. A stream was dammed and mixed tree planting attractively arranged around the newly created lake. The planting is dated to 1820 but it is not clear if the wind blow pictured above is amongst these older trees. What is clear is that the main reason for the widespread damage is that the tree roots have formed a plate which is often the case with exotic conifers, especially if soil conditions are imperfect. Soils which are wet for long periods or have a dense clay as a subsoil, tend to form a plate. With high winds this is levered out of the ground and the tree collapse into the adjacent standing timber, creates a domino effect with the wind cutting a swath through a forest. This effect can be massively increased by the land topography such as a valley with the wind acting as in a funnel. During Storm Arwen winds were regularly in excess of 90 mph. In contract deciduous trees tend to form a root ball which allows the tree to rock and survive rather than topple as happens with a root which is shallow and plate like. Deciduous trees can of course be felled by high winds especially in summer when a leaf canopy adds wind resistance.

Wind blow in a funnel after Storm Arwen in a Scottish coniferous forest

New saplings planted in Bedfordshire February 2022

There are lessons from these storms for foresters, land managers and those who are desperate to plant trees in the landscape for good climate change reasons. However, does this unprecedented run of storm mean a more cautious approach: there is a strong likelihood that these storms will be become more frequent as climate changes.

These events have brought the power industry into the discussion as overhead lines across England and Scotland were damaged leaving 112,000 homes in NE England without power, and 80,000 in Scotland: trees and overhead cables do not mix well. For those wishing to plant new fast growing conifers, the damage from winter winds on exposed sites is yet another factor to think about.

There are varying figures for the survival rates of new planting especially from whips or saplings, with drought the main enemy. The accepted figure is a loss of 30 percent of new saplings in the first year. Lots of variable factors come into play but large scale planting by volunteers is very vulnerable to drought as the watering of individual trees is impossible. A dry spring and summer after winter planting can be deadly.

The aim of every organisation planting new woodland sites is to maximise community involvement. The volunteers who planted the above tree saplings, braved strong winds, occasional rain, and a lengthy walk to the site. There was no lack of enthusiasm but how many will be around next year.

Planting schemes do factor in a substantial loss in the first year and the mix of species is deliberate. Experience has shown that popular, willow and cherry saplings do well: beech, and oak less so. In regard to wind blow the Scottish example would indicate that larch and Norway spruce are vulnerable.

Poplars planted as part of arable farming diversification to be used as quick growing soft wood timber

(The title of this Blog comes of course from Shakespeare, As You Like It , Act II, Scene VII}

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Thanks to the Happiness Engineers

During early 2021 a technical hitch with this blog emerged and eluded my half hearted attempts to remedy the situation. The old blog posts disappeared and discouraged I retreated from the world of blogging. With family help and detailed instructions from the WordPress ‘happiness engineers’, the older posts were retrieved and this site is now active. Therefore, at the .beginning of 2022 thanks are due to all who worked through the problem and restored normal service.

During, my absence useful newspaper articles were stuffed in a file, and notes made against the possibility of resuming writing. The thought that, ‘this would make a good blog post’ was always there and during 2021 there was a deluge of reports on the environment. The new, Environment Act became law, setting in train a raft of initiatives including a new environmental watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP). There was also the CoP 26 process in Glasgow and pledges and initiatives were set out hopefully for implementation here in the UK and beyond.

In early January the Government released more details on how the new farming schemes would work and how farmers and land managers could be funded for environmental improvements. The new framework to encourage improved environmental land use known as Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS), is moving from policy to action with full implementation by 2028. The challenge faced is now to encourage farmers and land managers to buy into these schemes; and on the other hand to explain to the public, who are ultimately the funders through taxes, that these ideas will work and benefit farmers, the environment, and visitors to the countryside. There is then lots to look forward to and numerous pressure groups are watching. Talking the talk has run the its course. It is time to walk the walk.

Which brings us neatly to walking in the countryside. Many will have pulled on boots during the holiday season and battled with muddy footpaths. The government funded agency, Sport England attempts to estimate an annual measure of the average distance walked for pleasure each year and this increased to 220 miles in 2020 and the national Ramblers Association recorded a thirty per cent increase in membership in the same period. Books, and guides to walking routes have multiplied and there was a good selection available in the Christmas glut of new titles

The number of routes for a walk increase every year.
Will these be maintained?

One book which made me think was a recent publication, entitled, 22 ideas That Saved the English Countryside, published in 2016, by authors Peter Waine and Oliver Hilliam. This well presented text with beautiful landscape photographs, brings together 22 essays by well-known celebrity authors such as Ray Mears and Jo Brand on the theme of ideas, which did came reality and made a significant impact on the countryside. One such thoughtful contribution was by Julia Bradbury, who unsurprisingly, made the case for better access to the countryside. Her title, The Right to Roam, traces the historic battles which began to open up more areas of upland Britain to walkers. I was taken by surprise by this historical account which included what would now be called, ‘direct action‘ by national figures such as William Wordsworth, who was accused of damage to a wall blocking an ancient path. Mass trespass by determined walkers on the moors about Bolton in 1896, was followed by the Kinder Scout trespass in 1932. The violent scenes and arrests in 1932 led indirectly to the National Parks Movement with the Peak District National Park demarcated in April 1951. However it required numerous legal hurdles to be overcome before on October 31st, 2005, the Right to Roam finally came into force.

Campaigners have since then pointed out that the 11,000 square miles now open to walkers is less than 10 percent of the land area of England & Wales, leaving 90 percent or more of the countryside remaining out of bounds. During 2021 the latest salvo in the battle to gain increased access was fired by Nick Haynes in his book, Crossing the Lines that Divide Us. The author sets out clearly the arguments behind the trespass laws and takes the reader on a journey into the great swath of the countryside which the public is presently prevented from entering. The media reviews of this book describe it as both passionate and political which is exactly why progress on opening up additional land to the walker is glacially slow. This is political and therein lies the reason: no politician will dip into these contested waters.

A useful guide to the history of ideas which shaped the land

Yet one small glimmer of hope is that included in a list of potential outcomes within the ELMS funding arrangements, is a one line commitment to improved, heritage and access, in the countryside. Hopes were high at the beginning of 2021 that the whole underlying principle of, public funding in return for public goods, would stretch to incentives to allow more walking routes in a controlled way on farmed land. After a year long period of the pandemic during which there has been extraordinary pressure on the rights of way network in England, with people desperate to exercise and escape into the landscape, there was an aspiration that enhanced public access would be seen as a public good worthy of funding. Unfortunately the political pressure, not tamper with the knotty land problem, has seen this kicked into the next field.

Perhaps the answer is to exert pressure from below. Ramblers groups have seen a marked increase in membership and informal walking has been recorded as a hobby by almost 25 per cent of people surveyed. The profile of the middle aged, middle class, white British hiker is being challenged, with groups with names such as Black Girls Hike and Flocking Together expanding into minority urban based populations which have in the past been reluctant to venture into a countryside which was seen as strange even hostile.

Ivanhoe Beacon – east Chilterns close to the large conurbation of Luton – Dunstable

Finally, thanks again to the very polite and helpful technical wizards who steered me back on line. I do hope they escape from computers and enjoy time outside.

We Have to Talk About the Garden Shed

As the rain dripped on to the bikes and a lawn-mower, an unpleasant fact became  very clear. The garden shed needed to replaced, and soon. However, this shed is more than just a storage space – it has an important role in family budgeting and indeed folklore. The shed holds the position as a ‘benchmark’ in the endless ‘to do’ list . Above the garden shed and there is a real possibility that this job could be tackled and the funds spent. Below the shed in the list and there is little urgency. So a leaking gutter is above the shed as it spills water on to the walls; a garden gate which stubbornly and infuriately sticks, can wait for another day.

As I examined the leaking shed roof and tried to move the tools to a drier corner, the realisation came that this is how we, as a nation, have been regarding wildlife, nature and climate change. This has been called a state of, ‘twilight knowing‘ . We are aware that something needs to be done, but there is always another priority.  In national terms, health, education, Brexit, and of course recovery from the pandemic are the priorities. Like the garden gate we should get round to doing something about nature and the ailing envonment sometime soon.

The Budget of early March was a good example. Rightly the recovery was placed front and centre stage but there was no mention of a ‘green recovery’ and one of the lessons of the lockdowns was that people needed desperately to have access to green space, was skated over.  Commentators including the, Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), lined up to deplore that there was nothing in the budget to boost the repair needed to restore damaged wildlife and biodiversity in Britain. Caroline Lucas the only Green Party MP at Westminster, noted this was not how to ensure a green recovery.

This is both surprising and disappointing as earlier in the year a Treasury commissioned a report on the importance of biodiversity in making economic decisions was published.  Professor Parth Dasgupta, an eminent Cambridge ecoonomist had been asked given the task of creating the first ecomic framework of its kind based on biodiversity. His findings are stark:

Our economies,livelihoods and well beoing all depend on our most precious asset:nature 

   The government press release which accompanied the document spoke about urgent and transformative change required in how we think about and measure economic success. It is worth noting this was a Treasury document not commissioned by the Department for the Environment .  In theory the state of nature was being dragged into the very centre of government.

In a similar  way  a  government report on the economic consequences of climatic change in 2006 released by Nicholas Stern, began the long slow march of policy to take accouint of climatic resilience  and efforts to reduce carbon in the atmosphere.  Britain’s efforts in this will be on show when the global climate talks are held in Glasgow in the autumn.

It should not be a surprise  that these efforts to fully appreciate the value of nature are being led by prominent economists.  The  trend of giving a value to nature has been gaining ground for some time. Habitats such as peat bog or a wood  can be  seen as providing an ‘ecological service‘. The costs of flooding and the reduction by the care taken of nature in the upland catchments can be set against the expenditure on repair to damaged homes, and expensive flood protection works in the urban areas. 

 

Image by Joe Morris of flooding in the UK where agricultural land is alowed to flood to protect downstream communities

In Britain these ideas were explored in the recent book, How to Value a Skylark,   which sets out in a non technical way the trend which will influence what we see in the countryside in the next decade. The compulsion that any developement  needs to demonstate a, nett environmental gain, moves the obligation of, for example a house builder, to think carefully on how to provide an environmental plus well beyond a few trees planted as landscapeing.

The disappointment of a lack more radical budget measures is a reversion to the older thinking that the envoironment can wait.  However, like the roof of the garden shed  the damage to other assets in the economy cannot wait for ever.

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting for the Skylarks to Sing

The bird book on my shelf describes the skylark as a, ‘rather plain brown lark with an inconspicuous crest’ and goes on to tell me that the birds sing all year – often before dawn, but the song is rarely heard in mid winter.

 Skylarks were once common in fields close to my house, on the edge of a small and popular Bedfordshire town.  However,  this land was always ripe for development and the open field is now replaced by neat houses and small gardens.  Gone is the rough grazing, the green space for dog walkers, and the short-cut to local school.  Gone too are the skylarks.

Image by Ricard Revels ( Alauda arvensis)

Or perhaps not.  Last spring the footpaths across arable land to the next village was alive with the song of larks.  Many arable farmers nearby have carefully left small unsown squares in the midst of the  winter wheat which allow ground nesting birds cover, when nesting in the spring.  In the first lockdown of 2020 the larks and their tumbling song became a welcome signal that nature was still with us, as all else around us changed.  So, this personal tale of the skylarks became  the germ of an idea for a book now completed and published by Eventispress  in January.

How to Value a Skylark : The Countryside in a Time of  Change,  looks at  the rapidly changing landscapes across Britain, and in non-technical language unravels the pressures which the countryside is presently facing and how this may impact on what we see in the next decade.  At the heart of this the book is a question:

What do we Expect from our Countryside?

As some 70 percent of the land of Britain is farmed in some way, agriculture is at the centre of  most countryside change.  Pressure and worry has been mounting for farmers and land managers as concern grows over the changes to farms subsidy payments.  Now well underway by 2028 the old arrangements where funding is matched to the area of land farmed – known as the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) – will disappear. The new subsidy arrangements will follow  Government aspirations to encourage a transition the the spending of,  Public Funds for Public Goods.  This  then gives the taxpayer a say in how money  is spent and what we expect from the land.  Do we know what is best for land in Britain?

Will this mean more access and more space for nature to thrive, and how will this be paid for?  These are the  questions which will surface during the next decade. All this is taking palace against the background of global warming, with mounting evidence that the pace is accelerating and the time and space for  substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions narrowing all the time .

Other trends are also beginning to make an impact such as the growing acceptance of plant based diets, which has moved beyond simply a fashion statement to become a serious economic factor.   As the majority of land in Britain is  best used for livestock production and quality meat from the hills is a specialist product, this will have a marked impact. The marginal land across Britain, best suited to meat production may need to change.  How then can these landscapes be maintained without the drystone dykers and shepherds on the fells. 

There seems to be a growing understanding that the next decade will offer opportunities to do things in a different way.  And for every question there will be a many voices offering solutions .  How far can we push the ideas of re-wilding landscapes for example. and allowing nature to restore the land?  Can we legitimately expect greater access to the countryside and how can this be squared with ideas of trespass and private ownership?  The restrictions of 2020 have dragged these questions into the arena of public debate.  The outdoors and nature have become a place of solace in a time of woe.

T  

A horse rider on a wide bridle way with ample space for walkers and nesting birds in the hedge and along the field margin, is perhaps best practice allowing a mix of cropping, access. and  with space for wildlife – including skylarks

In, How to Value a Skylark, all these issues are discussed in a non-technical way with illustrations and examples drawn from across Britain. The book is available from the author, Eventispress, on-line bookshops and on Amazon.

Meanwhile as spring approaches we hold our breath and listen for the first skylarks song

 

 

What is happening to our footpaths

Tags

footpaths, lockdown, mud, walking, winter rain

Have you walked on a footpath recently? I don’t mean an urban trip to the post office or shop, but across fields and through the woods. If so, have you found time to clean the mud from your boots?

Two trends have come together to make a country walk a muddy experience: a period of wet weather with the land sodden and in many places flooded; and an upsurge in the numbers of people following the urge to breath the air outside their homes during lockdowns.

Local parks have become the ‘hot spots’,  with numbers usually only seen on a summer Sunday. Away from the increasingly well trodden paths in the local park, the countryside footpath network is under increasing pressure.    

A bridle way in winter – unattractive to walkers

Perhaps there is more going on here beyond a few wet days and muddy boots. Climate forecasting  predicts wetter winters in future.  Britain is becoming familiar with winter flooding: this morning in mid January there are 52 flood alerts  in place across England.   Cities such as Carlisle, and York, have suffered, with flood events spread from South Wales to the Ouse valley in Bedfordshire already this winter.    Footpaths will become  less attractive as the rain falls and the traffic of more boots increases

People have discovered, or re-discovered, the countryside.  Lockdowns meant green space became the ‘go to’, place for solace.  Attention paid to fitness and wellbeing and the importance of mental, as well as physical heath, meant more walkers tied up their boots, or trainers and ventured out. Off-road cyclists and joggers added to the  pressure.  Cycling became a  trend and the old bike in the shed was no longer up to the mark.  Technically cyclists are only permitted on bridle ways shared with horse riders and walkers.  In summer this may be a happy relationship.  In winter the  combination of hooves, and wheels, and boots makes the shared arrangement – how can I put this,  ‘slippery ‘  For two wheels the path becomes impossible

                 

Off road cyclists in summer in a forestry plantation.

Will summer, hopefully dry and warm, heal all this and banish mud.? Perhaps, or perhaps not.  Footpaths need maintenance, the additional traffic means paths become wider and on slopes lead to erosion.  May it be the case that , a limited number of paths need to be closed  in adverse weather.?  A golf course would not hesitate to stop play if the fairways and greens were in danger of damage. In fragile environments there has already been damage as reported on Scottish hills.  Ramblers groups do monitor paths and have repaired some  but the ultimate responsibility is with Local Government.  All Local Governments are cash strapped and there is always higher priorities pushing for attention. In the past the footpath network had a local champion, often called a ‘Footpaths Officer.’  These are now a rare breed in Local Government as staff numbers are reduced.

Other more weighty issues  also loom on the horizon. There exists a real  threat that government proposals to alter the law of trespass would have a negative impact on countryside access.  If the the law changed to make trespass a criminal offence,  rather than a  civil matter,  this would frighten many.  There is a danger that a simple mistake, such as becoming lost, would lead to a charge of trespass and a criminal record.  Remote perhaps but this would not encourage anyone to explore. For those not familiar with the countryside this adds a level of apprehension, even fear. 

The radical changes underway in the way farms are subsided by government has the simple objective of, Public Goods for the spending of Public Funds. Increased access has often been quoted as a positive outcome which would flow from the new funding arrangements.  The footpath network should benefit from this new way of thinking.  Clearly ramping up the trespass law  would not help more people to enjoy the countryside

A horse rider exercises along a field headland at a field margin

 

In contrast a party of winter walkers slip and slide along a muddy Footpath where the land  has been ploughed to the field edge . Damage to the crop is inevitable

Something to think about as you scape the mud from your boots!

Tell a Story-Find a Place

Tags

book launch, Books and words, Brian Kerr, Climate Change, Environment, farming., Skylarks

In the run-up to Christmas, publishers and booksellers were as as active as all other merchants in marketing the ‘must-read’ books to package as Christmas gifts. In January, which books will remain favourites to be read to the last page and the returned to later or recommended to friends. Which will eventually be passed on to the charity book shop?

Two books, kindly and carefully selected for me have either already been read, or begun, and are certain to remain favourites on my bookshelf. Both have similar countryside themes.

Dominick Tyler’s Uncommon Ground, is a lavishly illustrated guide – he is after all a professionals photographer – to the words we use the describe land and landscape. Many words will be familiar, or dimly remembered, from school geography text books: others will be new and somewhat strange . Take ‘ginny greenteeth‘ used in northern England to describe a weed covered pond, or a slow moving ominous, algae-covered stream: a place of water spirits, best avoided and certainly never swam in. The best Scottish equivalent would be the home of the mythical kelpie. As the author points out words such as these exist in many cultures to act as a warning to children and certainly scare those tempted to dapple, unsupervised in water.

Described as, ‘a word-lovers guide to the British landscape‘ the short passages of text not only describe each feature but provide an often entraining guide to the origins and use of each word. So, a ‘shiver is a Cumbrian dialect word for fragments of slate – often left over from quarrying, which have dangerous sharp edges and slopes covered in shivvers are dangerous to the unwary.

In the introduction Dominick Tyler, makes the point that many older terms have fallen into obscurity and as a consequence we can no longer describe the the land with precision and in detail .This is part of the growing distance between urban and rural and what he describes as a growing unease with the natural world. However pockets of language persist like oasis and add more colour to what we see. Phrases such as jackstraw for the tangle of trees and branches which remain after a storm on the edge of a wood are memorable. A woodsman would understand immediately that this is a dangerous place as any attempt to tidy up heavy branches could release whole trees held in the jackstraw tangle and fell the chainsaw operator. Meanwhile look out for witches knickers, a more modern term used in Ireland to describe unsightly plastic bags snagged in the tree tops or hedgerows.

James Rebanks returns to familiar themes and places in his new book, English Pastoral . This author first became popular with the BBC serialisation of his personal story of life on a small Cumbrian fellside farm. The Shepherds Life, became a best seller and this most recent book, expands on this account of family life and farming during a period when shepherding changed drastically from his grandfathers herding of sheep on the rugged land of the Lake District. to the authors tenancy of the land.

The choice of a curlew as a feature on the book cover is central to the theme of the book. This is one of the iconic birds of the uplands which has suffered a marked decline in the past 20 years and this picture of change and decline in the natural world, even in a relatively remote northern valley, is a thread throughout the pages.

James Rebanks evokes a sense of place and love for his patch of farmland using words which Dominick Tyler would be very familiar with – words like beck, and rigg and references to his hefted flock of Herdwick sheep. He describes learning, or re-learning, about the land and how to respect and work with nature. Beyond this message is another wider and more optimistic theme: others are beginning to share these values

—I see other people in our community who are not farmers also planting trees and hedges, or creating wetlands or helping to coordinate our efforts The old ‘us’ and ;them’ divide is fading. These things bring separate worlds together, and the old ‘us’ and ‘them’ divide is fading. There is a love of this place that unites us all. (James Rebanks p 273)

A dense hedgerow likely to be first established during the enclosure of fields in lowland England which is a splendid refuge for wildlife. Many of these older hedges have been removed. However there is a concerted effort to replant hedges often with community support. The new farm support arrangements will reward such efforts

Both these books are to keep and come back to – to lend – and to recommend. These are far from a dry analyses of environmental problems. They offer a glimpse of of what can be achieved in the next decade. At the heart of this is a social contract as described by Rebanks.

The old social contract between farmers and society is now stretched to breaking point . We need a new deal, a new understanding, a new system, that brings farming and ecology together. (p265)

There has never been a more urgent time to embrace the words quoted by James Rebanks from a fellow Lake District shepherd

Tell then what is happening on the land. Someone has to tell them… Mayson Weir Dowthwaire Head Farm

This idea that ‘place’ is important and learning to ‘read’ and understand the land is also at the heart of a new book by Brian Kerr to be published in mid January. How to Value a Skylark, unravels some of the changes which are likely to alter the way we see and think about the countryside around us.

So, for a birthday look for

1. Uncommon Ground, A Word lovers Guide to the British Landscape. Dominick Tyler, Guardian Books, 2015
2. English Pastoral. An Inheritance. James Rebanks, Allen Lane, 2020
3. How to Value a Skylark: The Countryside in a Time of Change. Brian Kerr, Eventispress. 2021

Please don’t wait until next Christmas

 

 

It has been a long time away

Tags

British countryside-farming-wildlife-rewilding

The last blog on this site was in mid 2015. David Cameron was the Prime Minister; the word Brexit has seldom in the news; and pandemics were something that happened in the history books. Since then the world has changed and we are all coping with very different circumstances.

The idea of the previous Blog posts, now five years and more ago, was to note changes to the countryside and landscapes within one small English county — Bedfordshire. The early posts were prompted by the publication of a book in 2014, entitled, An Unassuming Country. The Making of the Bedfordshire Countryside. This book, published by Eventispress, sold remarkably well and I was encouraged to embark on a second book which became available in early 2019. A Certain Degree of Magnificence: People in the Bedfordshire Landscape, picked up the story of how the land we see today was shaped and changed by the many people who farmed, and earned a living from the the soil. Humble workers such as the men who dug the field drains to turn wet heavy clays into fertile acres, to  the great gardeners such as Capability Brown who left a legacy of large manicured estates such as Woburn.

I have been encouraged  to take up blogging again by the remarkable events of 2020 which have touched everyone and led to a re-evaluation of things we once accepted as ‘normal’ . This include our relationship with nature and the countryside. The lockdown period allow time for these ideas to take shape and adsorb the way people were actively searching for experiences and time spent outdoors and how to find contact with ‘green space ‘ . Access to the countryside has suddenly become very important and is now at the point where medical and policy advise accepts contact with nature as an essential part of wellbeing and health.  Suddenly in mid 2020 the countryside became the ‘go-to’, place for solace. 

All these rapid changes led to the rapid completion of a third book due to the published, again by Eventispress, in January 2021. The title, How to Value a Skylark; The Countryside in a Time of Change , sets out unravel some of the potential changes which will impact on what we see during the next decade across the British landscape.  The book confronts these challenges and explains trends and the likely developments in a non-technical way. This publication therefore moves away from the previous Bedfordshire focus and has a national reach.

How to Value the Skylark

The Countryside in a Time of Change

At the beginning of 2020 there was a moment when we accepted the world needed to change. And then it did: during prolonged periods of lockdown, everyone in Britain was obliged to stay close to home. During this time the importance of the outdoors and access to the countryside became more important than ever, and to a wider range of people. As we return to a ‘new normal’, the future of this green escape to the countryside deserves attention.

The book poses a central question : What do we expect from the countryside?

The Government has promised a radical approach to the environment and the countryside, embarking on a new environmental ‘nature friendly’ approach to the land. All future changes are set against the backdrop of alarm over a climate emergency, the continuing a loss of wildlife in the countryside, and increased flooding events

This book sets out to provide a rapid guide to these topics in a non-technical way and will be of interest to anyone who values and is concerned with the British countryside. Will the pandemic sharpen accelerate these radical changes or push these into the background?

Other trends are likely to accelerate change such as the move to a plant based diets, and the aspiration to plant millions of trees. There are very radical changes underway which are not fully understood – can we move to a countryside which continues to provide us with food and at the same time act as as storehouse for carbon and allows some degree of re-wilding or at least a place where wildlife can thrive. And how can all this be achieved while allowing rural life to flourish and continue and provide jobs. The search for balance will inevitably reach a point where the decisions are made on the ‘value’ of the landscape and nature. While economists, politicians, and numerous pressure groups will have strong views there will need to be a public debate on values

How to Value a Skylark then becomes a relevant question and this book is a good stating point to find some answers.

Oilseed rape in flower, Toddington, Beds. 18th April 2017. Picture for Richard Revels .

(Images in the book are mostly from Bedfordshire -many by Richard Revels. The header picture for the Blog is from Lisa King)

 

Badgers, Bats and Birds

Tags

Bedfordshire, Natural History

I picked up a Bedfordshire book at the second hand stall in the Ampthill Charter Market (every Thursday morning), which was a great find. Bedfordshire Wildlife, by Nau, Boon, and Knowles, was published in 1986 by the Bedfordshire Natural History Society (Bnhs), and was then sold at the costly price of £15. It is still available on Amazon at around £20 so the cost at the market of only  £2, was the bargain we all hope to find. This is a handsomely illustrated text which is a mine of detailed observation on the wildlife in the County from wood mice to the Purple Hairstreak butterfly.

A feature of the text which increases the attractive presentation are the numerous pen and ink drawings together with both black and white and coloured photographs.

This tradition of publishing well illustrated books on the wildlife of Bedfordshire continues with the recent volume from the Bnhs, entitled, Wild Orchids of Bedfordshire, published earlier this year. Older publications such as the Flora of Bedfordshire, and books dealing with Dragonflies, Butterflies and Moths are regrettably out of print but still available second hand from Amazon and more specialist booksellers.

Bedfordshire Wildlife:  a bargain at two pounds from a  market stall-ten times cheaper than Amazon

  The Society is the modern expression of the Victorian Field Clubs which, were so popular in the second part of the nineteenth century.  Indeed the full title included Bedfordshire Field Club.  The modern Society welcomes,  all interested in studying and recording the natural history of the county.  Indeed the scientific recording of species in a systematic and comprehensive way is still an important activity for this and many other amateur naturalists throughout England.  this is important work as it provides a bench mark against which we can then measure change.  This is the more focused version of the Big Bird Watch, pioneered and run annually by the RSPB. The Bedfordshire Naturalist is the official publication of the Society and is a journal of record. Anyone interested in the countryside of the county can spend happy hours reading the Journal for 1946 to 1998 on line.

For the more general reader the frequent Newsletter with the catchy title,   Wild About Beds, is available to read free on the Society site at www.bnhs.org.uk.

Another publication from the Society now out of print is selling on Amazon at £270.Author Chris Boon

The Society also runs regular outdoor events for keen naturalists led by specialists. Trips in August include a search for dragonflies at Tiddenfoot lake, and Butterflies at Haughton  Regis chalk pit. The YoungGnats are the young peoples natural history group and there are regular Bug Hunts designed for children throughout the summer.

The Society represents the modern legacy of the Victorian passion for collecting plants, and recording wildlife. The early pioneers could not have envisaged how important this legacy would become in conserving the countryside.

Anyone interested in natural history, conservation, or simply a day in the country in expert and enthusiastic company, should visit the Society website and also keep looking for out of print publications on market stalls.

 

 

Roadside Nature

Tags

agriculture, Bedfordshire, bedfordshire nature reserves

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Now that we have past the summer solstice and the countryside is in full bloom, roadside verges are bursting with life.  Motorists will have noticed this as this as they crane forward and peer anxiously  to spot oncoming traffic above the hogweed and thistles.  Many will be  grumbling loudly on the subject of  councils no longer cutting roadside edges.

However, pause before you pull out of the side road and think-these verges contain a wealth of wildlife and many rare and well loved plants. Some twenty of the plants voted favourites in a national survey which listed 25 species in total are found along the roadside. This has been recognised in a campaign launched this month by Plantlife, which  aims at  better management of the roadside verge without endangering road safety. This conservation organisation has issued guidelines to encourage the cutting of verges on dangerous bends and at intersections but sparing other road stretches from excessive cutting. The Guidelines suggest two cuts each year-in early and late summer allowing plants to set seed and survive

Below: A marker post along side the A507 adjacent to the Cooper Hill SSSI site near Ampthill

The impotence of these verges is that they are in fact the remaining islands of the widespread meadows which were once common. Since the 1930s England has lost over 90 per cent of meadow land and these verges reflect the mix of plants which were once widespread.

The flowers of the verges provide bee pollen and corridors for wildlife.  The machine cutting of verges -often multiple times- has replaced the use of herbicides and the result is that a survey totalled over 1,000 plant species in verges across England.

In winter road side plants suffer from road salt.  The campaign recognised that safety concerns such as winter gritting  and cutting in danger spots is paramount but seeks a compromise made to minimise the damage and raise the awareness of the roadside resource.

In Bedfordshire there has been a well structured response to this and wider verges along new roads such as the Bromham, and Stagsden  by-pass roads are protected after sowing with a wild flower mix.  On minor roads such as around Ireland in Mid Beds the regime of cutting has been adjusted to accommodate the protection of verges, and where existing nature reserves abut onto a road special posts have been erected to warm and mark the verge.   Other protected verges are along the A6 close to Mauden Wood, and the climb out of Barton onto the chalk.

Above: Under threat. Vistas like these are important for butterflies and bees.

So the next time you curse the vegetation of the roadside verge  obscuring the view from the car window-think safety, take an extra second, and enjoy the variety of what in total is in fact one of the biggest nature reserves in the country.

 

 

Open Farm Sunday

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agriculture

Soon it will be the time of year when we are being advised what to read on holiday. I am always suspicious of these newspaper supplements as my holidays tend to be spent outdoors being active rather than inside with a book. However, if you are persuaded to take one book  then look for, The Shepherds Life: A Tale of the Lake District by James Rebanks. This loving description of life on a fell farm through three generations is not only a good read, which will appeal to anyone who has walked in the Lakes, but has much to say on the subject of how we view the farming families who manage the landscape of the hills. The book which to the surprise of many climbed rapidly to the top of the non-fiction best seller lists, charts a farming, or more accurately a shepherd’s year, in Matterdale one of the less visited Cumbrian valleys.
Rebanks has a quite detached view of the tourists and ramblers which now throng the fell walking routes in summer and even that respected author of the Lake District walking guides , Alfred Wainright is given a cool reception. Writing of the Wainright guide James Rebanks complains that:
Apart from the odd dot on the map for a farm or a wall, nothing of our world appeared in those pages. I wonder whether the people on that mountain saw the working side of the landscape, and whether it mattered. In my bones I felt it did matter. That, seeing, understanding and respecting people in their own landscape is crucial to their culture and ways of life being valued and sustained. What you don’t see, you don’t care about’.
This is theme he returns to in a few times in the book and this idea that if we value the countryside, even in a less specular location than the Lake District, then we should make the effort to learn something about the present land managers, farmers, and foresters and how they value the land which is their business. While there is growing interest in countryside as a place to visit, little is known about the countryside as a place to work. His strongly held view is that with a growing appreciation of the countryside came a responsibility on the visitor to understand more of what goes on in the landscapes they enjoy.
On a recent ramble with a Bedfordshire group, there was a discussion on crops including winter wheat, perhaps the most common crop in lowland England:  few recognised the green field in early grown as wheat and even less had made the link  between the bright  oil seed rape crop and cooking oil.  If this is new to the walkers, who do enjoy the countrside,  then there is a gap between the visitor and the farmer

This weekend there is an opportunity to learn a little more with Open Farm Sunday, (7-June). If you listen to the Archers you will be well ahead on this. A list of Bedfordshire farms is available on the Open Farm website with a key to the activities which are open to the public. There is much to enjoy for children also, such as tractor rides and animals to admire. For adults there are machinery demonstrations and self- guided farm walks. Farms with intriguing names such as Solitaire Farm at Sandy, and Scald farm at Turleigh are throwing open the gates-all the farms and there are at least 15 within twenty miles of Bedford are listed on the Open Farm Sunday page.

 Recent maize planted in  a field along the  Greensand ridge

So if you want to know the what is meant by a’ helfed ewe’, then get hold of a copy of, The Shepherds Life , published by Allen Lane. If you want to learn more about the lowland farming which shapes Bedfordshire then visit a farm near you on Sunday.  if you can not make the farm visits then it is great time of year to explore some of the bedfordshire paths.

A hedgerow alongside the Greensand ridge  last weekend.

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