Transcript Lecture 2 Wilderness typology and characterisation

9. Case studies 2:
Re-wilding the uplands
Lecture outline:
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Lecture 9
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 highquality 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
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“Letting go“
- if a landscape is left unmanaged for a long
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“Wild by design“
- we may need to actively 'design' wild
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Lecture 9
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
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
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Vision: a large core area in the northcentral Highlands of Scotland
- Ecological principles – “Nature knows best”
- practical demonstration realities of
ecological restoration
- including:
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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
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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 (cont’d)
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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 (cont’d)
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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 (cont’d)
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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 (cont’d)
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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 (cont’d)
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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 oakbirch woodland
Juniper
woodland
(Type W17) with Rowan,
Holly, Hazel, Juniper and
Shrub Willows
(Type
W19) with Birch, Rowan
and Scots Pine
Upland oakbirch woodland
Upland
broadleaved
woodland (Types
(Type W11) with Rowan,
Holly, Aspen, Hazel,
Juniper and Shrub
Willows
W7/9) with Birch, Ash,
Rowan, Oak, Holly, Wych
Elm, Birc Cherry, Alder,
Aspen, Hwathorn,
Blackthorn, Guelder
Rose, Elder, Roses and
Willow
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Birch woodland
(Type W4) with Alder
and Willows
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The Carrifran wildwood (cont’d)
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Problems and challenges:
- need to treat botanically rich flushes and rare
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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
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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
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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 (cont’d)
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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 (cont’d)
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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 (cont’d)
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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 (cont’d)
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Ethos:
- two key philosophies:
• biocentric - encourage natural forces in longterm 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 (cont’d)
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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 (cont’d)
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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 (cont’d)
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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, Q&A and exam
preparation
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