9. Case studies 2: Re-wilding the uplands

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9. Case studies 2Re-wilding the uplands

• Lecture outline
• Trees for Life
• The Carrifran Wildwood
• Wild Ennerdale
• Guest lecture Alan Watson Featherstone Trees
  for Life

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Wilderness

• A wilderness, in contrast with those areas
  where man and his own works dominate the
  landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where
  the earth and its community of life are
  untrammeled by man, where man himself is a
  visitor who does not remain. US Wilderness Act
  (1964)

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• For some, wildernesses are desolate places
  outside of the humanized realm, either to be
  avoided or brought under some kind of human
  dominion, and for others, they are places to
  practice humility, experience a certain
  vulnerability and acknowledge the creative and
  even destructive powers of the natural world.
  Peter Taylor in Beyond Conservation a wildland
  strategy (2005, p.8)

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Self-willed land

• True wilderness is a land that has supreme
  naturalness and is free of any human control. It
  is a self-willed land because plants and animals
  can thrive there, in their own unfettered
  communities. (Mark Fisher)

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Wilderness Britain?

• Those regions or locations that are remote,
  devoid of human features and with natural or
  near-natural ecosystems.
• wilderness is just one extreme on a continuum
  - a kind of sliding scale of human modification
  of the environment - from the 100 artificial
  buildings of the city centre through to the
  pristine nature found in remote locations. The
  position along this wilderness continuum at which
  wilderness occurs has perhaps more to do with
  individual perceptions than it does with
  ecological conditions.
• Carver (1996)

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Wild land

• Wildland in Scotland is relatively remote and
  inaccessible, not noticeably affected by
  contemporary human activity, and offering
  high-quality opportunities to escape from the
  pressures of everyday living and to find
  spiritual and physical refreshment. NTS (2002)

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Question

• What are the attributes which contribute to or
  detract from a wildland experience
• (i.e. enhancers and detractors)?

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Re-wilding

• In Britain, an ethos of wildland is emerging
  in which human intervention is minimal and
  natural processes are respected. (Peter Taylor,
  2005, p.14)

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• Self-willed land for its own sake will only
  exist in Britain if land is held inalienably in
  the public good and that legislation exists to
  define its natural character, and thus the limits
  to human intervention. (Mark Fisher)

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Approaches to re-wilding

• Letting go
• if a landscape is left unmanaged for a long
  enough period, nature will take over and produce
  its own entirely natural landscape
• may not necessarily be the same landscape that
  existed before human settlement, but it will be
  natural
• Wild by design
• we may need to actively 'design' wild landscapes
  by assisting the regeneration of native species
  to recreate a more natural looking landscape
• limited economic activity in the form of low
  intensity grazing and recreation is still
  possible and indeed desirable
• From protectionism to strategic habitat creation

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Trees for Life

• Vision a large core area in the north-central
  Highlands of Scotland
• Ecological principles Nature knows best
• practical demonstration realities of ecological
  restoration
• including
• mix of planting programmes
• keeping out the deer
• natural regeneration
• re-introduction of native mammals

Guest Lecture Alan Watson Featherstone
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The Carrifran Wildwood

• Vision to re-create in the Southern Uplands of
  Scotland an extensive tract of mainly forested
  wilderness, with most of the rich diversity of
  native species present in the area before human
  activities became dominant.
• past conditions informing future natural
• no commercial exploitation
• careful management of human impacts
• open access to all
• inspirational and an educational resource

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The Carrifran wildwood (contd)

• The site
• eastern limit of Dumfries Galloway in the
  Moffat Hills, Scottish Borders
• approx. 1600 acres (650 hectares)
• overgrazed sheepwalk, grouse moor and sitka
  spruce plantation
• relict broadleaf trees in steep gullies (cleuchs)

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The Carrifran wildwood (contd)

• Existing designations
• Regional Scenic Area under the local authority
  Structure Plan
• Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA)
• Moffat Hills Grade 1 Nature Conservation Review
  Site (NCC 1991)
• Moffat Hills Site of Special Scientific Interest
• original SSSI notification was in 1956 and
  re-notifications have taken place in 1972, 1974
  and 1988
• candidate Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
  under European Union legislation.

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The Carrifran wildwood (contd)

• History
• Project conceived by local grassroots community
  action in early 1990s with a simple vision to
  create a near-natural woodland landscape where
  there would be a chance in years to come of
  losing oneself in the woods
• Money to purchase raised by private subscription
  (450k) and charitable trusts (150k) with
  support from JMT and SNH
• Purchased in 2000 and 30,000 trees planted

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The Carrifran wildwood (contd)

• Ethos
• maximise the role of natural processes minimise
  use of physical and chemical intervention make
  the wildwood feel wild
• aim to create a functioning ecosystem that can
  evolve over centuries and where human influence
  will gradually decrease as nature takes over
• side-stepped ongoing debate on what is natural in
  favour of positive action
• maintain high level of volunteer participation
  through volunteer days and boundary warden scheme
• nature ultimately in charge, though no room for
  re-introductions or large herbivores or predators

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The Carrifran wildwood (contd)

• Scientific basis
• strong links with academics and professional
  foresters
• learn from experience elsewhere
• discussion on what trees/shrubs appropriate for
  establishment according to pollen record, NVC
  class and ESC analysis
• helped apply for WGS funding
• seed collection by volunteers from local sources
  within ancient woodland to ensure provenance
• planting patterns sensitive to habitat niche and
  landscape

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Small enclosures planted as seed source for
regeneration of montane scrub
Unplanted for natural regeneration
Upland oak-birch woodland (Type W17) with Rowan,
Holly, Hazel, Juniper and Shrub Willows
Juniper woodland (Type W19) with Birch, Rowan and
Scots Pine
Upland oak-birch woodland (Type W11) with Rowan,
Holly, Aspen, Hazel, Juniper and Shrub Willows
Upland broadleaved woodland (Types W7/9) with
Birch, Ash, Rowan, Oak, Holly, Wych Elm, Birc
Cherry, Alder, Aspen, Hwathorn, Blackthorn,
Guelder Rose, Elder, Roses and Willow
Birch woodland (Type W4) with Alder and Willows
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The Carrifran wildwood (contd)

• Problems and challenges
• need to treat botanically rich flushes and rare
  montane plants carefully
• avoid planting around archaeological features
• avoid obscuring view near to public highway
• removal of feral goats
• accidental loss of 10,000 recently planted trees
  to muirburn from adjacent farm
• problems establishing young trees in face of
  natural processes
• competition by grass and bracken
• browsing by deer, voles, hares and stray stock
• need to fence and maintain enclosures
• need for initial herbicide treatment and vole
  guards
• need for some culling of deer

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Wild Ennerdale

• Vision to allow the evolution of Ennerdale as a
  wild valley for the benefit of people relying
  more on natural processes to shape its landscape
  and ecology
• not about re-creating a past landscape, but about
  allowing the character of the valley to develop
  into the future
• no fixed end point

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Wild Ennerdale (contd)

• The site
• northwest corner of Lake District National Park
• 4,500 hectares in ranging 770m in altitude
• Dramatic scenery Pillar (892m), the River Liza
  one of the most wild and geomorphologically
  natural rivers in England and Ennerdale Water
  SSSI
• Farming, commercial forestry and water supply

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Wild Ennerdale (contd)

• Existing designations
• Ennerdale Water SSSI
• Designated for lakeshore habitats and flora
  fauna (inc. Arctic Char)
• SSSI along southern watershed (Caw Fell, Haycock,
  Scoat Fell, Pillar, Kirk Fell and Great Gable)
• candidate SAC
• designated one of the best examples of
  altitudinal succession in England

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Wild Ennerdale (contd)

• History
• land owned by Forestry Commission, National Trust
  and United Utilities
• 1990 FC and NT agreement on need for shared
  vision for the valley
• 2002 FC and NT joined by UU to form Wild
  Ennerdale partnership
• supported with English Nature funding
• since 2002
• period of information gathering
• developing stewardship plan

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Wild Ennerdale (contd)

• Ethos
• two key philosophies
• biocentric - encourage natural forces in
  long-term development of the valley to shape
  distribution, extent and variety of habitats and
  ecosystems
• anthropocentric recognises that wildness is a
  human experience and so is need to increase sense
  of wildness by limiting visual impact of people
  at same time as encouraging involvement
• looking forward, not back
• reduce detracting features associated mainly with
  commercial forestry

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Wild Ennerdale (contd)

• Scientific basis
• set up advisory group
• information gathering
• full NVC survey completed 2004
• Historic Landscape Survey completed 2003
• GIS extensively used to map valley including
  spatial distribution of wild and detracting
  features and its use to help understand the
  sense of wildness throughout the valley
• involve universities and students
• information used to draw up extensive stewardship
  plans for the valley

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Wild Ennerdale (contd)

• Problems and challenges
• commercial forestry
• mixed views both wild and detractor
• careful management (thinning/planting) vs dense
  spruce and self-seeded re-generation

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Wild Ennerdale (contd)

• Problems and challenges
• Need for natural grazing patterns and move away
  from grazing based on ownership, fenced stock and
  subsidies and towards large dynamic disturbance
  by cattle
• break up mats of dead litter and create pathways
  through tall, dense vegetation and promote varied
  mosaic
• small herd of Galloways introduced in 2006
• monitoring by vegetation and photo surveys

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Reading

• Ashmole, P Chalmers, H. (2004) The Carrifran
  Wildlwood Project. ECOS 25(3/4), 11-19.
• Taylor, P. (2005) Beyond Conservation a wildland
  strategy. Earthscan. Chapters 3 5.
• Watson Featherstone, A. (2004) Rewilding in the
  north-central Highlands an update. ECOS
  25(3/4), 4-10.
• http//www.carrifran.org.uk/
• http//www.wildennerdale.co.uk/
• http//www.treesforlife.org.uk/

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Guest Lecture

• Alan Watson Featherstone

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Next week...

• 10. Case studies 3 Re-wilding the lowlands
• Ostvardersplassen, The Netherlands
• Wicken Fen
• Abbots Hall Farm
• Workshop Summary, QA and exam preparation