Transcript Lecture 2 Wilderness typology and characterisation

10. Case studies 2:
Re-wilding the lowlands
Lecture outline:
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Oostvaardersplassen, The Netherlands
Wicken Fen
Abbots Hall Farm
Workshop: Summary, Q&A and exam
preparation
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Oostvaarderplassen
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Vision: “a more natural
oostvaardersplassen”
- managed as a 'near-natural' reserve…
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a form of management was selected in
the 1989 Nature Policy Plan
aims to:
• facilitate natural processes as far as
possible and reduce human intervention
to a minimum
- free free-ranging, undisturbed herds of
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red deer, Heck cattle and Konik horses
one of only a few areas in the
Netherlands where the lead is taken
from nature, where there is no human
direction, and nature takes its course
• can have as yet unknown - positive and
negative - effects in terms of natural
processes and the social behaviour of
herbivores
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Oostvaardersplassen (cont’d)
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The site:
- 5600ha (inc. 3600ha marshland,
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2000ha grasslands/roughs) 20km east
of Amsterdam
integrated mosaic of 8 ecological types
including:
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very wet zone (reed beds)
dry and wet grassland
open water (shallow lakes/mudflats)
spontaneously grown woodland
(willow, etc.)
- similar ecological landscape to the
primeval marshes of the estuaries of
the big rivers of Europe…
• a landscape that use to be common
along the river banks and great deltas
covering huge surface areas and one
which has almost completely
disappeared from western Europe
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Oostvaardersplassen (cont’d)
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Existing designations:
- European Diploma of Protected Areas
• prestigious international award granted to
natural
and
semi-natural
areas
and
landscapes of special European importance
for the preservation of biological, geological
and landscape diversity
- SAC and SPA
• part of the Natura2000 network
• Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food
Quality… Ecological Network (EHS)
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Oostvaardersplassen (cont’d)
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History:
- 1968 Southern Flevoland polder was reclaimed
from the Ijsselmeer
• provide an area for agriculture, urban development
and forestry
• part of this polder was intended to be used as an
industrial zone
• this area that now constitutes the original 3600 ha
of marshland within the Oostvaardersplassen.
- natural value of the area progressed very rapidly
and “Oostvaardersdiep area”developed into a very
important wetland according to international
standards
• wetlands and the fauna depends a great deal on
surrounding area to function properly so original
wetlands should be bordered by a dry area of
roughly the same size
• Primitive breeds of large herbivores introduced in
1984 including Konik horses and Heck cattle
(grazers) and red deer (browsers) to control and
direct succession
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Oostvaardersplassen (cont’d)
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Ethos:
- give maximum scope to
natural processes
• free-ranging primitive breeds
with wild habits to control
natural succession
• give nature room and let it
grow
- give the floodplain back to the
river
• contrary to whole Dutch
tradition of river/floodplain
engineering!
- freedom of access for people
• free recreation
• attractive landscape
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Oostvaardersplassen (cont’d)
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Scientific basis:
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use of large herbivores to control and
direct succession
• create a ‘park-like’ landscape mosaic
successional process:
1. mix of grass, scrub and trees
2. scrub (e.g. Sloe) takes hold in grass and
prevents grazing
3. scrub protects young tree saplings (e.g.
oak) and allows them to grow
4. forest develops and shades out scrub
5. tree dies to create new clearing in which
grass takes hold
6. back to 1.
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Oostvaardersplassen (cont’d)
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Problems and challenges:
- lack of large carnivores
• possible problems for herbivore numbers?
• quickly reached carrying capacity but limits
of available forage have kept numbers within
carrying capacity through natural selection
(use of data from Africa as analogue)
- animal welfare problems
• what do about old/injured animals?
• what do with carcasses? (need to bring back
large carrion e.g. Black Vulture)
• fell foul of local vet laws (need to remove
carcasses)
• requires change of mind set to see Konik and
Heck as wild animals
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Wicken Fen
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Vision: “to secure the
future of Cambridgeshire’s
fenland wildlife and to reestablish lost species”
- lowland fen largely
drained land for
agriculture in C16th/C17th
by Dutch engineers
- Remaining fragments of
old fen (alder carr, sedge
and reed swamp)
- Wildlife-rich habitat
though relying on pumps
for drainage
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Wicken Fen (cont’d)
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The site:
- 195ha of former farmland owned by the
National Trust
- 10km northeast of Cambridge
- part of Swaffam Internal Drainage Board
- natural grazing by Konik ponies and
Highland cattle
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Wicken Fen (cont’d)
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Existing designations:
- National
Nature Reserve under the Wildlife
and Countryside Act 1981.
• Britain’s best recorded nature reserve
- Site of Special Scientific Interest under the
Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
- Special Area of Conservation under the EU
Habitats Directive.
- Wetland protected under the international
Ramsar Convention
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Wicken Fen (cont’d)
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History:
- October 2000 NT acquires Guinea Hall Farm (115
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acres)
October 2001 NT buys Burwell Fen Farm for
£1.7m (supported by Heritage Lottery Fund)
2003-date under negotiation to acquire another
500 acres
100 year vision:
• acquire up to 3700 ha. of farmland to the south of
Wicken Fen over the next 100 years thus extending
the wetland to provide new and exciting benefits for
people and wildlife
• land is currently owned by around 120 individuals
and acquisitions can only proceed with their
approval - the National Trust has no powers of
compulsory purchase
• envisaged that an access / recreation corridor can
be set up at the southern end of the reserve to join
the reserve to the centre of Cambridge thus
enabling the new area to become the 'green lung'
for the city
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Wicken Fen (cont’d)
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Ethos:
- Putting wildlife back into the countryside
on a landscape scale
- Integrating requirements of wildlife with
the needs of local people, economy and
tourism… holistic approach… benefits from
biodiversity, landscape and general
environment
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Wicken Fen (cont’d)
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Scientific basis:
- in order to secure the future of
Cambridgeshire's fenland flora and fauna
and to make viable the re-establishment of
lost species, it will be necessary to think
beyond the bounds of the existing tiny
fragments of wetland
• extending the boundaries of the Fen to make
it possible to maintain populations of fen
flora and fauna over a wider area so
dissipating the risk of individual species’
extinctions
• making possible migration between
populations enabling the body of peat,
which is the Fenland’s most precious
resource, to begin to grow after three
centuries of loss
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Wicken Fen (cont’d)
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Problems and challenges:
- complex drainage
- requiring engineering work to restore
- isolated nature of fen (island of wild among
farming landscape)
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Abbott’s Hall Farm
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Vision: “We must rethink the way we look
after our coast. We have the vision of a
more sustainable coastline which is better
for wildlife and people. We have a great
deal of research and expertise in our
partners and Abbotts Hall Farm puts this in
to practise so we can all see the benefits
and really understand any of the practical
difficulties” John Hall, Director Essex WT
- managed coastal retreat in face of sea-level rise
- creation of new salt marsh wildlands
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Abbott’s Hall Farm (cont’d)
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The site:
- Abbott’s Hall Farm, Balckwater Estuary
- 350ha of arable and pasture land
- Example of managed coastal retreat
• Maintain sea defences for farmland in
coastal areas at increasing cost in face of
sea-level rise… or… breach defences and let
sea back in to create new salt marsh?
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Abbott’s Hall Farm (cont’d)
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Existing designations:
- winner
of the 2005 RSPB/CIWEM Living
Wetlands Award
- In Balckwater Estuary SSSI
- SPA
- candidate marine SAC
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Abbott’s Hall Farm (cont’d)
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History:
- bought by Essex WT in 2000
• is being managed as a viable farm but with
emphasis on improving the conditions for wildlife
• part of this work includes a 'managed realignment'
over 200 acres (84ha) of former farmland where
breaches in the sea wall took place (November
2002)
• rest of farm managed for extensive/light grazing
- creating 115ha of transitional and intertidal
saltmarsh and mudflat. The proposed sequence
of habitat restoration on the site is:
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new
new
new
new
mudflat/saltmarsh
coastal grassland
saline lagoon
reedbed
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Abbott’s Hall Farm (cont’d)
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Ethos:
- “This scheme solves in one go the problem
of decreasing space for wildlife, recreation
and flood waters. It is an excellent example
of how consultation, imagination and
environmental objectives can work
together for biodiversity and the public
interest.”
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Abbott’s Hall Farm (cont’d)
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Scientific basis:
- Managed realignment as one of several
'soft' engineering options which may
reduce the costs of coastal defence (in this
case in low-lying areas)
- provide a more 'natural' response to the
problem of rising sea levels and at the
same time deliver environmental,
specifically nature conservation, benefits
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Abbott’s Hall Farm (cont’d)
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Problems and challenges:
- generally acceptable where the area of land
behind the sea wall is already impoverished
from a nature conservation point of view
- difficulties will arise where the land has a
high value, possibly as lagoonal or more
likely traditional coastal grazing marsh. In
these circumstances consideration will
need to be given to creating new coastal
wet grassland from arable or other
intensively used agricultural land, if the full
sequence of habitats is to be re-created.
- managed realignment schemes will be
subject to a number of consents and
licenses governed by EA
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Reading
Colston, A. (1997) Conserving wildlife in a black
hole. ECOS 18(1), 61-67.
Pethick, J.S. (2002) Esturarine and tidal wetland
restoration in the United Kingdom: policy versus
practice. Restoration Ecology, 10, 431-437.
Taylor, P. (2005) Beyond Conservation: a wildland
strategy. Earthscan. Chapter 5.
http://oostvaardersplassen.biofaan.nl/scientificcd/content.html
http://www.rlg.nl/english/publications/reports/058a.html
http://www.wicken.org.uk/100y_scoping.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,975224,00.html
http://www.rspb.org.uk/policy/waterwetlands/livingwetlands/2005winner.asp
http://www.english-nature.org.uk/livingwiththesea/
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Workshop
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Summary of module
FAQs
Exam
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