Green Group discussion
General
>
Rewilding Projects
Mod
Rewilding: Giving Nature a Second Chance
Cities can benefit from rewilding projects too, including making nature parks from waste ground.
Mod
"Rewilding is about reconnecting modern societies � both rural and urban � with wilder nature. While the Save the Blue Heart of Europe � Albania project focuses on protecting the Vjosa rather than rewilding it, it will generate a sense of pride, common ownership and responsibility for wild nature amongst land owners, communities and resource users. This will hopefully lead to the development of nature-based economies tied to sustainable use of the river and the riverine environment.
The Balkan Peninsula is home to numerous wild rivers and streams, extensive gravel banks, pristine alluvial forests and spectacular waterfalls. These waterways host 69 endemic fish species, while more than 40% of all of Europe’s endangered freshwater mussels and snails can be found in these freshwater systems. The biodiversity of these rivers and connected habitats, as well as livelihoods in local communities, is threatened by nearly 2,800 hydropower plants projected and planned for development over the next few years."
Mod
"Rivers are our lifelines, but the majority suffer from human interference in their natural flow. In Europe it is estimated that there is almost one barrier for every kilometre of river. While tens of thousands of these barriers are obsolete, they still block fish migration, impede sediment and nutrient flow, and reduce the value of rivers to both people and nature. Collaboration on the freeing up of European rivers is essential, because it can result in better fisheries, flood protection, water quality and opportunities for recreation, as well as supporting the return of wild nature.
Dam Removal Europe (DRE) is a coalition of five organisations: WWF, the World Fish Migration Foundation, the European Rivers Network, The Rivers Trust and Rewilding Europe. It is working to restore rivers on a European-wide scale, bringing benefits to both nature and people."
Mod
""The borrow pits enhance habitats for a number of species of wildlife in the bogs of northern Alberta," said Mark Boyce, co-author of the study and Alberta Conservation Association Chair in Fisheries and Wildlife.
"The deep water and adjacent forage create excellent habitats for beavers. And wolverines thrive when beavers do. Not only do they prey on beavers, but wolverines also have been shown to use beaver lodges as dens where they have their cubs."
Displacement of wildlife by industrial development is a complex issue, Boyce explained."
Mod
"Dunsany has become a safe haven for a wide range of species, many of which are in decline across Ireland. Otters have returned � the first time the species has been seen on the estate in my lifetime. We have pine martens, stoats, hedgehogs, foxes, badgers and barn owls. Red kite and snipe have returned. We have seen a big increase in insects � with a massive surge in butterflies � and we now see many different bat species. Even endangered Irish species such as corncrakes have come back. Nature really is flourishing."
Mod
Mod
I love the crab crossing on Christmas Island!
Mod
Mod
Rewilding has got to leave more dead animals in the landscape, is not going to be too popular. Here's an experiment or two, and how the rotting bodies increased biodiversity. Well, I always understood that bodies returned nutrients to the soil.
Not mentioned, the sea has vastly fewer whale carcasses than would be normal. At one point, a whale dying normally fed all kinds of creatures on the surface, then more when it sank. Now there are few whales and many of them are still being killed for meat and taken out of the sea. They used to support a food chain. Now there is no chain.
Mod
One vet has been farming nettles and flag iris to recreate a safe home for the corncrake. This report says he is doing well. His rewilding also produces cover for the twite and bumblebee.
Mod
Take a look.
Mod
Mod
Bison were extinct in the wild since the end of WW1.
Mod
Mod
Here is a nice article from Gizmodo.
Mod
Mod
We have been to Bodmin Moor, this is the home of Jamaica Inn.
Mod
A Solitude of Wolverines: A Novel
Mod
A Solitude of Wolverines: A Novel
[bookcover:A Solitude of Wolverines: A Novel..."
Ooh... this looks awesome. Thanks for the tip, Clare!
Mod
Mod
Entitled: Welcome home.
Mod
"Environment minister Rebecca Pow visited one of the stretches of river where the beavers are active. She said that the project, "was so important because it is informing how we think in the future."
She described beavers as a "natural management tool", and said that having them on land could be seen as providing a public benefit for which farmers and landowners could get paid, under the new subsidy system once the UK leaves the EU.
She said: "In our new system of environmental land management, those with land will be paid for delivering services, such as flood management and increased biodiversity.
"Using beavers in a wider catchment sense, farmers could be paid to have them on their land.""
Mod
And a herd of these Tauros, bred in the Netherlands, is being released in wild Croatia. Great work.
Interesting addition:
"Much of Europe has experienced rural depopulation for many years. As people have left the land, so grazing livestock numbers have plummeted, meaning many landscapes are increasingly covered by young, often monotonous forest or dense scrub that is low in biodiversity and susceptible to wildfire.
The Tauros bred through the Tauros Programme will be able to perform a free-roaming grazing role in many of these areas, with the ability to defend themselves from predation by carnivores such as wolves and bears as they reshape the landscape and enhance wild nature."
Mod
Mod
Mod
"Ultimately, conservationists believe people’s acceptance of large mammals may come down to whether they see them as an economic threat or benefit. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the second poorest state in Germany, and the main industries here are agriculture and tourism. Rising sea levels and sinking coastal land are making farming more expensive, as land has to be drained more regularly.
“The future for this region is in nature tourism,� one local nature guide, Gunter Hoffmann, tells me when I meet him in the main square of Anklam, the nearest large town. “When people see that the animals can benefit them, things will change. But I think it will take a new generation.� Nature safaris are becoming increasingly popular on both sides of the border. In other eastern German states, such as Saxony, dedicated wolf tours are also becoming commonplace.
Overall, there may be even deeper reasons that explain why large mammals are better accepted in Poland, which will be difficult to recreate In Germany. “There is research suggesting that if you grow up with these animals, you are more accepting of them,� says Perino. “I think [these animals� history in Poland] is why people are more relaxed.� As to whether environmentalists� dreams of humans and large mammals living together side by side in Germany, we’ll have to wait and see what happens when they next wander across the border."
Mod
"If we ask elderly people what the Danube Delta once looked like � before such the large-scale transformation of nature � they will tell you that the delta was a diverse and interesting ecosystem. The large lakes along the River Danube contained a huge amount of fish; we can only read with envy the statistical reports on fish catches from the 60s. They can tell us about the sweeping meadows of the Danube Delta, where huge numbers of birds found shelter and fish spawned. We will learn that there were huge riverine forests in the delta, in which eagles nested, and deer, wild cats and many other mammals made their home. In due course, a reasonable question arises: how did all this nature exist without us and our active participation? Rewilding, in essence, means revitalizing those mechanisms and tools which supported the existence of the Danube Delta so well, without human interference, in the past."
Water buffalo, konik and jackals are transforming the environment back to steppe and open forest.
A great book on rewilding efoorts around the world is "Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution"by Caroline Fraser. See /book/show/7...
Mod
about UK and Ireland.
Mod
"Pratt has rights to graze 250 sheep on Ravenstonedale Common and talks enthusiastically about his tups (rams), yaws (ewes), hogs (a lamb more than six months old) and shearlings (a lamb after the first year). Pratt’s livelihood is etched into the landscape. His sheep are also “hefted� to this land, meaning lambs are taught how to navigate the fells by their mothers, and they in turn pass on this information to their offspring. That link � passed down several generations of Pratt’s family � is being broken. In the new year, John and Hazel Pratt will leave the family farm on the moors and rent a bungalow in Kirkby Stephen.
Other farmers are also finding they are at the end of the line. In 2000, there were 27,000 sheep on Howgill Fells but by 2009 there were fewer than 23,000, with numbers continuing to fall. Most hill farmers would make a loss without government support (70% of Pratt’s income is from subsidies, he only earns about £7,500 a year from selling sheep). Change is coming with shifting agricultural subsidies as Britain leaves the EU and faces urgent calls to address catastrophic biodiversity loss.
The Howgills have been dominated by sheep grazing for more than a century, which has resulted in a loss of biodiversity, according to Natural England. Now, the decline in sheep numbers offers an opportunity to bring more texture into the landscape by encouraging a closer union between farming and wildlife.
For two decades, Pratt has been managing two upland wildflower meadows (of which there are only 1,000 hectares � 2,470 acres � left in Britain), in return for a £7,000 annual payment. He is now seeing some wildlife start to come back elsewhere on the fells. “When I was a young lad there was a lot of heather behind the house but it mainly disappeared because of pressure from sheep. Now there are fewer sheep on the hills, it’s back and it’s really noticeable. It’s good for wildlife, it’s good for black grouse and it’s good for hares,� he says."
Mod
The project is being advanced by a partnership between the Rosebud Economic Development Corporation (REDCO) and WWF with support from Tribal Land Enterprise, the Rosebud Sioux Tribes� land management corporation, and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Amid a global pandemic and social unrest, the Sicangu Oyate are revitalizing their relationship with bison to demonstrate the potential this creates for economic, ecological, and cultural resiliency.
“The sacred relationship between Native nation communities and the buffalo is part of a shared story of strength, resilience and economic revitalization,� said Wizipan Little Elk, CEO, REDCO. “The arrival of the buffalo marks a new beginning for the Sicangu Oyate, where cultural, ecological, and economic priorities are equally celebrated and supported and are of great benefit to our community and serve as an example to the entire world.�"
Mod
Mod
Mod
Mod
"A new season of Darwin’s rhea releases in Patagonia National Park is bringing forth a hard-won recovery of this locally endangered flightless bird. An emblematic species of the Patagonian steppe, the rhea plays a fundamental role in creating and maintaining healthy grasslands by dispersing seeds to renew vegetative growth. In Chile’s Aysén region, more than a century of overgrazing, hunting, and nest destruction has threatened the rhea’s survival.
This year marks the most rhea releases in Patagonia National Park since the program’s inception in 2014. Tompkins Conservation donated over 200,000 acres in 2019 to help create the 750,000-acre park. According to Cristián Saucedo, director of rewilding at Tompkins Conservation Chile, “Active restoration of rheas has proved instrumental to its survival. We have tripled the population to approximately 70 specimens and increased their habitat in the national park by over 30%.�"
Mod
"The world must rewild and restore an area the size of China to meet commitments on nature and the climate, says the UN, and the revival of ecosystems must be met with all the ambition of the space race.
Existing conservation efforts are insufficient to prevent widespread biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, the global body has warned at the launch of the decade on ecosystem restoration, an urgent call for the large-scale revival of nature in farmlands, forests and other ecosystems.
Governments must deliver on a commitment to restore at least 1bn hectares (2.47bn acres) of land by 2030 and make a similar pledge for the oceans, according to the report by the UN Environment Programme (Unep) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to launch the decade.
Humans are using about 1.6 times the resources that nature can sustainably renew every year and the UN said short-term economic gains are being prioritised over the health of the planet. "
Mod
Anne Shillolo
"Beavers may be hard-working and great engineers, but they can cause a lot of trouble! If one of their dams gives way, it can wash out a highway, as happened near us a couple of months ago. Now, they have been busy on one of the roads on my bike route.
They felled a huge poplar. It blocked the entire road, and had to be cut in two pieces and pushed off to the sides to let the traffic go by. But... conveniently, the top branches landed across the road from the stump - on the shores of a wetland. Easy pickings off the tender top leaves and branches, and lots of building materials:)
What amazed us, though, was the size of the chew-marks. Whoa! Big teeth!"
Mod
Mod
"After roaming the continent for millennia, the last wild European bison became extinct on the continent in 1927, due to hunting and habitat loss.
However, 50 animals remained in captive collections which have provided the basis for an extensive and intensive breeding programme, according to the project's conservationists.
The trio now calling the Kent woodland home are some of their descendants.
"The bison that we've selected are part of the European endangered species breeding programme," said Habben.
"We selected the animals based on their genetics... but also their location and source of origin was very important".
Another central aim of the habitat restoration project - costing £1.1 million (�1.3m) and largely funded by donors - is to help British ecosystems cope with climate change and severe biodiversity loss.
The bison's impact will gradually alter the forest away from a monoculture and create wetter areas that will store carbon, reducing emissions driving up temperatures, while also reducing flood risk."
Mod
Feel free to use it.
Mod
"Although once commonplace, this species of dung beetles have not been seen in the region since 1965, as Sargos recounts � around the same time the last feral Marines Landaises cattle herds stopped roaming freely. The Marine Landaise is a cattle breed uniquely adapted to the wetlands of Landes De Gascogne, which began disappearing when maritime pine forest plantations and intensive farming began dominating the region.
In total, there are around 300 individuals of the Marine-Landaise breed spread over the coast of southwestern France. With help from WWF, the Cousseau Nature Reserve purchased the last known remaining herd in 1988 after the owner passed away. They are managed according to rewilding principles. Their grazing actions help to create a patchwork of wet woodlands, bogs and marshes that enhance and restore wild nature across the reserve.
The newly introduced dung beetles will accompany the cattle in these restorative actions � a relationship that has a deep evolutionary history. Dung beetles coevolved with large herbivores and omnivores, and can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Wherever animals have been grazing, browsing, and defecating in large quantities, dung beetles have been driving dung into burrows and filling a unique ecological role.
With the loss of natural grazers in open landscapes, dung beetle populations have declined in parts of Europe. With the recent comeback of large herbivores in Europe, bringing back this companion species is the logical next step."
Mod
"The Greater Côa Valley was once home to the ancestor of the Tauros, the aurochs. The aurochs is the wild ancestor of all domestic cattle, and thus considered the most important animal in the history of mankind.
The release of Tauros into the Greater Côa Valley is a continuation of the European Tauros programme, which began in 2009 and then progressed as a cooperation between Rewilding Europe and the Taurus Foundation, which started in 2013. The programme aims to return a self-sufficient, wild-living bovine species to Europe that is both genetically and functionally similar to the aurochs, thus able to fill the same ecological niche. Through careful back-breeding of ancient cattle breeds, the Tauros was born."
A book I am now reading says that the aurochs was so large it would feed 200 people. Ice Age mammals were larger.
Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans
Mod
"“They almost weren’t preserved,� he says as he points to the remains of a dam whose planned construction in the early 1990s was halted when archaeologists found the first of the carvings. One of the etchings was a cluster of auroch. “Think about the significance of that,� he says. “For 30,000 years people drew pictures of them. That creature was not just important, it was key to their survival.�"
?
Mod
The English version translated by RTE.
"Today, the only lowland primary forest in Europe is located on the borders of Eastern Europe, between Poland and Belarus. It is the Bielowieza forest, covering 140,000 ha. Today, however, the Francis Hallé Association would like to see a similar project set up closer to home. They have selected two sites, one in the Vosges, the other in the Ardennes. To better understand their project, we asked to meet its initiators. We met them in front of Givet town hall. Charles Papageorgiou, a forester from the Ardennes, suggested we follow him along the Meuse to a forest massif that could become part of the primary forest in the future. But, as he observes on the spot, we're still a long way off: "It looks a bit wild, but it's a forest that's cultivated quite intensively and regularly. You can see this in the stumps just behind me. Trees have been cut everywhere, on a regular basis. And you can see it because there are lots of gaps in the forest. And of course, there are young stands that are starting to arrive because the forest, naturally, seeks to close up automatically.""
Mod
"Helio da Silva has single-handedly planted about 40,000 trees in the urban jungle that is Sao Paulo.
The former food industry executive says he was called "crazy" when he started his quest to transform what used to be a hangout for drug users between two busy avenues.
Today, there stands the Tiquatira Park with thousands of trees of 160 species stretched over 3.2km long and 100 metres wide.
Mr Da Silva, 73, told AFP he did it because he "wanted to leave a legacy to the city that hosted (me). I started and never stopped."
Without any formal authorisation, Mr Da Silva started in 2003, with no funding but his own savings, to collect and buy cuttings to plant in his adopted city.
Five years later, Sao Paulo formally named his project the city's first linear park.
According to the municipality, 45 types of birds have been identified in the park.
"Look how he has transformed that degraded area. It's splendid!" said Angela Maria Fiorindo Pereira, a 69-year-old retired teacher who frequently walks in the park.
Experts say green spaces like these are crucial to lower the temperature in concrete urban centres and to improve air quality."
Green Group
Books mentioned in this topic
His Imperial Majesty: A Natural History of the Purple Emperor (other topics)An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding (other topics)
Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans (other topics)
Holiday Homicide: Murder In Season - Book 2 (other topics)
Poodle Versus The Rustler (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Matthew Oates (other topics)Eoghan Daltun (other topics)
Anne Shillolo (other topics)
Rewilding is all about working with nature and restoring the balance, letting biodiversity present thrive and new species enter.
"Before rewilding began, the Wild Ken Hill team conducted a comprehensive survey to evaluate the baseline ecological condition of the site. Well over 2,000 species were recorded, including numerous bird and bat species, roe and fallow deer, and over 800 invertebrates. The project has become one of the first major UK rewilding projects to secure funding through the UK Government’s Countryside Stewardship Scheme, which provides financial incentives for farmers, woodland owners, foresters and land managers to look after and improve the environment."