Water Pollution & Regenerative Forestry

Welcome to Inkcap Journal, a newsletter about nature and conservation in Britain. This is the Friday digest, rounding up all the week's news, science, reports, comment and more.

National news

Water | The government has released a strategic policy statement for Ofwat, urging the regulatory body to do more to make the water industry protect the environment. The statement, which was officially laid before Parliament on Wednesday, sets out priorities for the regulator over the next five-year spending cycle. In particular, water companies will be expected to significantly reduce the frequency and volume of sewage discharges from storm overflows. Companies may seek to increase household water bills to fund the extra investment, but an Ofwat source said it would press them to cover the cost by operating more efficiently, according to the Times. Martin Salter, head of policy at the Angling Trust, said the guidance given to Ofwat fell short of what was needed to end the scandal of untreated sewage in rivers, and described the statement as “warm words”. Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said, “I have been very clear of my expectations of water companies and where they do not step up we will take robust action.” The Times, Guardian and the Telegraph covered the news.

Planting | Lee Waters, Wales’ deputy climate change minister, has said that tree planting is being used as a scapegoat for “other issues” in Welsh agriculture. Farmers have recently expressed concerns that valuable farmland could be lost to investors who want to buy it for afforestation, with farming unions saying that carbon emissions should be cut rather than offset. However, Waters told BBC Radio Wales that there is “very little evidence” that valuable Welsh farmland is being sold off to investors, and that the number of farms being bought up for tree-planting was “very, very small”. He suggested that farmers were worried about wider issues such as Brexit and climate change, and said it would be better if the people sounding the alarms “worked with us to try to manage the change instead of railing against the change”. The BBC and The National reported.

Levelling Up | The government has released its Levelling Up white paper, aimed at spreading prosperity towards forgotten communities throughout the UK. The paper (which the Guardian described as “littered with references to Renaissance Florence”) received criticism for the scant attention delivered to climate change and nature conservation. “A real plan to level up would be one that invested in the good green jobs of the future, with an ambitious Green New Deal to transform homes, buildings, local transport and energy supply, and a nature and net-zero test for all infrastructure spending,” said Green Party MP Caroline Lucas. The Wildlife Trusts said that the Levelling Up Fund should invest in green projects that address the inequalities in access to nature across society. Conservationists warned against untargeted development on brownfield sites, according to ENDS. Roz Bulleid, deputy policy director of Green Alliance, pointed out that the executive summary contained more references to football than to climate and nature combined.

In other news:

• Farm pollution increased “dramatically” during the UK’s wettest winter, reports ENDS.
• There has been an unexpected decline in Welsh otter populations, reports the BBC.
• Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific advisor, is to become the next chair of the Natural History Museum, reports the Guardian.
• NGOs have penned an open letter criticising proposed changes to the eligibility criteria for the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
• Scotland hopes to save wild salmon by planting millions of trees next to rivers, reports the Guardian.

Across the country

Worcestershire | The Wyre Forest has become the largest woodland National Nature Reserve in England after a decision to expand its boundaries. The Forest has been extended by almost 900 hectares, more than doubling its size: a designation that will help protect the woodlands, says Natural England. Wyre Forest contains a range of habitats including grassland, old orchards, areas of scrub and steep-sided valleys. Natural England chair Tony Juniper said, "It is exactly this kind of varied habitat that we must create more of if we are to improve the prospects for some of our most beautiful and interesting wild species." The area has been wooded since at least 900 AD, and was popular for hunting in medieval times. The BBC and Worcestershire Wildlife Trust reported the story.

Merseyside | Sand dunes covered in old tobacco are being given a new lease of life by the National Trust, reports the North Wales Chronicle. The ‘tobacco cliffs’ at Formby, Merseyside, were used as a dumping ground for tonnes of wet tobacco leaf between the 1950s to 1970s by the British Nicotine Company, which operated a plant nearby. Now, the National Trust is stepping in to remove the thick nettles and thistles thriving on the waste, and restore natural processes so the dunes can move and shift again. The Trust will also be creating 12 breeding pools for the rare natterjack toad, a species increasingly under pressure due to loss of habitat as well as climate change and rising pollution.

Norfolk | The Woodland Trust is fundraising to restore an Ice Age landscape buried beneath farmland in the Brecks. The charity acquired 119 hectares of agricultural land, and is now seeking to raise £4.6m to restore the landscape back to health, reports the Eastern Daily Press. The land contains the remains of dried-up “pingos” – Ice Age ponds – that provide habitats for damselflies and great crested newts, though they are currently under threat from agricultural runoff. “Making the most of established habitats close by and planting native trees will be an essential way to preserve the future of these natural gems that have remained for thousands of years,” said Ian Froggatt, estate manager at the Woodland Trust. “The trees will reduce surface runoff which carries nutrients to the water bodies and stabilise the soil as well as provide habitat for wildlife.”

Elsewhere:

• The Surrey Wildlife Trust has restored a 100-metre stretch of chalk stream in Alton.
• A project on the Apley Estate in Bridgnorth has planted 10,000 new hedge plants this year, reports the Shropshire Star.
• Britain’s cranes had their most successful year since the 17th century, with a record-breaking 72 pairs, reports the BBC.
• The Welsh government could have stopped approval of the Aberpergwm mine plans according to the UK coal authority, reports the BBC.
• Plymouth locals are objecting to plans to cut down an old yew tree, reports Plymouth Live.
• A Perthshire estate has been sanctioned after “clear evidence” of wildlife crimes, including a dead hen harrier, reports BirdGuides.
• Birmingham City Council plans to create 400 new parks and green spaces in the city over the next 25 years, reports Birmingham Live.
• In Leicester, an ongoing campaign battles to save an ex-golf course from development,  reports Leicestershire Live.
• Fishermen in North Yorkshire have found king crabs in their pots, sparking fears that local crab populations could be decimated by the invasive species, reports the Guardian.
• A ‘green corridor’ linking Bath to its surrounding hills will be the first of 20 to improve access to nature, according to The National Trust. The Guardian reports.
• A supermarket boss has lost his legal battle to cut down protected trees at his home in South Wales, reports the Daily Mail.

Reports

Forestry | The Soil Association has produced a report on regenerative forestry, looking at how commercial forests could be better managed and supported for nature. We are currently in a “golden age” for forestry, with high timber prices and public support for tree-planting, write the authors. Yet our forests are not as healthy or productive as they could be. “Regenerative  forestry would ensure that our forests are fit for the future. It would achieve an even more positive carbon balance from the UK’s forests, increase biodiversity, support forestry livelihoods and create spaces for people to enjoy nature.” The report identifies five regenerative forestry principles, as well as a number of ways to evaluate regenerative practices.

Parks | A report by CPRE highlights the value of Local Green Spaces for both people and nature. A total of 6,515 Local Green Spaces have been designated in the decade since their introduction, totalling 30,000 acres of protected green space: an area greater than the city of Manchester. The research found that 80% of Local Green Spaces have been designated at least partly for their recreational value, while the richness of their wildlife was a factor in over a third of designations. “The Local Green Space designation has become a cornerstone of local democracy and is unique in protecting land according to its importance to the community,” said the charity. However, the report also revealed that the north of England has half as many designated Local Green Spaces as the south, demonstrating there is still progress to be made.

Adaptation | Natural England has published its Climate Change Risk Assessment and Adaptation Plan, outlining how the organisation will attempt to combat the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, and help nature adapt to the latter. The report recognises that climate change is already underway and in many ways irrevocable, and therefore action to mitigate and adapt must be swift. “Even if we manage to reduce our global emissions, change is already happening, and more is inevitable. Adapting to climate change is therefore essential,” said the announcement. The report also stresses the value of conservation in adaptation: for example, nature recovery increases the resilience of the natural environment to cope with climate change. ENDS Report featured the report, highlighting that climate change poses a “major risk” to Natural England’s nature recovery objectives, even if global warming is slowed.

Science

Climate | Plants in the UK are flowering a month earlier due to warmer weather, according to a study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. A team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge analysed over 400,000 records from the citizen science database Nature’s Calendar, which goes back to the 18th century. Herbs saw the biggest advance, producing flowers an average of 32 days earlier. “The results are truly alarming, because of the ecological risks associated with earlier flowering times,” said Prof Ulf Büntgen, lead author of the study. A particular threat is “ecological mismatch”, when plants, insects, birds and wildlife are no longer synchronised, leading to species collapse if they cannot adapt quickly enough. BBC News, Science Focus and the Guardian reported on the research. In other species-related research, this study found that current conservation policies in the UK are taxonomically biased towards butterflies and moths to the detriment of some endangered insects.

Oak | Too much grazing by livestock can prevent the natural expansion of the UK’s upland oak woodlands – its so-called temperate rainforests – according to a new study by academics at the University of Plymouth. Some disturbance, however, may help forests to re-establish, as trampling by cows and ponies can open up areas of bracken and allow saplings to receive the light they need to grow. It also found that forests are not naturally regenerating quickly enough to meet the UK’s tree targets, and selective planting and informed livestock management should be encouraged to reverse deforestation trends. The study focused on woodlands in Dartmoor. It was covered in a blog by the British Ecological Society and by the Plymouth Herald.

Hedgerows | Although a widespread habitat throughout England and Europe, the potential for hedgerows to sequester carbon has been unclear. A study in the Journal of Environmental Management is the first to quantify the soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration rate associated with planting hedgerows. Researchers measured SOC stocks from 26 hedgerows and their adjacent grassland fields on five dairy farms in Cumbria. On average, the sequestration rate was 31% higher beneath hedgerows than in the fields, with that difference rising to 45% for hedgerows older than 37 years. The authors conclude that the current rate of hedgerow planting funded by agri-environment schemes is too slow, annually offsetting only 0.02% of present-day agricultural emissions.

Driftwood

Bracken | Bracken can be used as a guide to the locations of Britain’s lost temperate rainforests, according to a new blog by writer and campaigner Guy Shrubsole. Bracken currently covers around 1.6% of Britain – more than the land covered by buildings – and the soils could be fertile ground for regeneration, he writes, adding that the reforestation of these areas should be fairly uncontroversial. “Some farming unions oppose large-scale reforestation in Britain on the grounds that it might dent food production. But the truth is, the vast areas of land covered by bracken – 50,000 acres in total across the Lakes and Dartmoor, far more across Britain as a whole – are not productive farmland.”

Boar | An article in the Sunday Post has come under fire for its rather hysterical approach to rising populations of wild boar populations in Scotland – and for its photo of a tweed-clad man looking extremely distressed about some damaged soil. As well as safety concerns, farmers are concerned about the boar digging up the earth. Steve Micklewright, head of Trees for Life, called for a strategy to deal with rising numbers, but pointed out the ecological benefits of rooting in woodland soil, opening up the land to seedlings. Peter Cairns, from rewilding charity Scotland: The Big Picture, tweeted: “Embarrassingly, shamefully perhaps, we are a zoophobic nation, a curse that is perpetuated by sensationalist reporting like this.” Check out this article in Inkcap Journal for some more measured reporting on the topic, and follow its author, Chantal Lyons, who is now writing a whole book on wild boar.

Land | How are decisions around land use really made? A new article in The Welsh Agenda looks beyond land ownership to the forces acting beyond the land itself, touching upon everything from agriculture to forestry to clean energy – and the global pressures that are forcing the hands of those who own them. “In each case we can trace how the locus of decision-making has moved away from the town and its residents,” writes Chris Blake, a community and climate activist living in Powys. He discusses Skyline, a project in the South Wales Valleys that seeks to co-design the future of the local forest with the people who live there, integrating nature, performance, a forest school, agroforestry and more.

Further reading:

• A longread in Reuters looks at the rise of green lairds in Scotland.
• Minette Batters, president of the NFU, has written to the Times challenging Ben Goldsmith’s column on the benefits of wilder farming. She was also interviewed in the Telegraph.
• The Guardian has a feature on a restoration project in the Cairngorms, where pine plantations are being “messed up” to allow nature to thrive.
• A new report by the Wildlife Trusts looks at the benefits of nature-friendly farming carried out by Jordan’s oat growers.

Happy days

Exhibition | If you live in London, you might want to consider checking out a new exhibition on Beatrix Potter. A collaboration between the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Trust, it will examine Potter’s deep interest in the natural world, especially her study of fungi, around her Lake District home. According to Fine Books Magazine, it will include “clogs, sketchbooks, and an iconic waistcoat” alongside the more standard fare of letters and photographs. The exhibition runs from 12 February 2022 to 8 January 2023.

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