THE ENVIRONMENT
Wild and wet Earlier this year, Grouville parishioners voted against including nine fields for housing in the Bridging Island Plan. Environmentalist Bob Tompkins wants to raise more awareness about the importance of Jersey’s wetlands. By Caroline Spencer
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ccording to international studies, wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests. The Ramsar Convention’s Global Wetland Outlook 2018 warned that wetlands remain dangerously undervalued by policymakers worldwide. Environmentalist Bob Tompkins is frustrated that there is no protection for wetlands except Grouville Marsh in that parish. Our walk, on a sunny spring day, centres on lanes around La Rue de la Marais à la Cocque. Marais, of course, means marsh. ‘The habitats here are as unique as in St Ouen’s Bay,’ Bob explains. ‘Any more development on these fields in Grouville would threaten the green corridors used by animals and migratory birds alike. For example, we get a big influx of wild geese, and waders during the winter.
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‘When the Brent geese come off the intertidal area, they weave their way through the field systems. They don’t like flying over high structures, and these wet fields effectively act as avian corridors, and they are also key grazing fields.’ The Fauvic coastal area is very much Bob’s patch, and he has been fascinated by local wildlife ever since he can remember. As we walk, he talks of the bank vole, the lesser white-toothed shrew, newts, toads and dragonfly larvae. He points out cattle egrets and buzzards flying overhead, all of which thrive in these wetland habitats.
‘The bird life here is astronomical,’ he said. ‘This is also prime real estate if you’re a barn owl as the long-term pastures provide excellent hunting ground.’ We walk past a field where studies have started into the life cycle of the common eel. ‘To my horror, I found out a few weeks ago that the common eel, Anguilla anguilla, is not protected locally at all,’ he said. ‘In Europe, the UK and America, it’s classified as critically endangered. A small group of us is trying to do something about that. We will collect as much data as we can and put it forward next year for a change in the wildlife law.
