8 minute read
Lead interview: Rewilding the
Rewilding the Wight
Debbie Tann’s job is inherently contradictory - a mixture of urgency and taking the foot off the gas. Of engaging the public, while keeping them at arm’s length. And right now it is about managing expectations of something potentially very exciting for the Isle of Wight...
By Roz Whistance Pictures Julian Winslow
There’s a sense of suppressed excitement on the spring morning when we meet at Newchurch Moors, one of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust’s newest nature reserves. Debbie Tann has news about rewilding the Isle of Wight – and this spot in particular. Debbie is the Chief Executive of the Trust, a charity with the aims of conserving wildlife, and engaging and educating the public about it. “This is part of a bold plan to put nature into recovery,” she explains as we walk. “We’ve got 13 nature reserves on the Island, but will be adding to that this year. That’s doubled our land holding in the last five years.” The Trust has been buying land throughout the Eastern Yar Valley – from Morton Marsh through to Sandown Meadows – and recently added Newchurch Moors. “Norah Boswell of the Garlic Farm dynasty gave part of this land to the Trust,” Debbie explains, “and the rest, along with some neighbouring land, was purchased from the family after a successful fundraising appeal last year, creating a vital sanctuary for nature – and the Trust’s biggest reserve on the Island. It’s like a big jigsaw puzzle, we put the bits together so the land is more effective.” ‘Being effective’ means improving the area for wildlife. Some of the trees have been opened out to allow
Image credit: David Parkyn & Cornwall Wildlife Trust
for ground flora, such as sedges and herbs, to thrive. Now, light filters through and improves the water quality. By grazing the land, too, the vigorous plants are kept down to enable wildflowers to flourish. Their nectar feeds insects, which feed the birds.
It’s only when talking to Debbie that you realise not only the scale of the Wildlife Trust’s influence on the Island, but also its huge ambition. “When we started it was in such a small way, but now thanks to our fantastic members – we’ve got about 27,000 now who donate monthly, as well those leaving legacies and even donating land – we are able to acquire areas that can give nature more space,” she says. “Some wildlife doesn’t cope well with disturbance, and it’s vulnerable to pollution and climate change.” Debbie has been part of the Trust for 20 years, but an environmentalist since, as a child in Surrey, she saw fields she played in ripped up to make way for the M25 motorway. “Seeing it being dug and the hedges and trees disappear made me quite upset. The more I learned about the environment the more I yearned to do something positive to help it.” She gained a place at University College London to study environmental science, and followed her first degree with a Masters in Conservation. “I was really chuffed to get there. There weren’t many courses in the subject then, and famous conservationists and environmentalists like Tony Juniper had studied this course at UCL.” At the time few people thought you could make the environment a career, so Debbie began volunteering, and eventually landed a paid job, surveying all the ponds across Surrey, using old maps to locate many that had disappeared. “My work involved walking around in waders and wellies. My car always smelled of pond water!” In 1998 she landed the job as conservation officer with the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and left Surrey for Southampton. “I was quite good at fundraising and management. I kept getting promoted and eventually got the role of Chief Executive in 2008.”
As we talk we have reached a lake, round which the path goes under willow and other trees and bushes, and the Trust’s vision for the land becomes apparent: “Because it has been used
by anglers the lake has been managed. It’s pretty good for wildlife now, but it could be much better.”
Then she adds, in a low key, don’tcount-on-it sort of way: “There’s a lot of interest in bringing beavers back to the UK. A very successful reintroduction trial by the Devon Wildlife Trust showed beavers hugely increased the biodiversity value of the area. They create pools, then lots of other wildlife will come through, such as dragonflies, which in turn attract amphibians. Then you’ll get birdlife, and more wetland plants. Beavers bring life, bring biodiversity.” It is an attractive ambition, and while not yet finalised – a licence application needs to be submitted to Natural England, the Government’s advisory body – the success of the Devon model suggests the scheme is likely to go ahead. And this, Newchurch Moors, will be the place. “Feasibility studies have shown it to be highly suitable. It is not open to the public, but glimpses can be had from the footpath. In time, when the beavers have settled in, we could have Beaver Discovery Walks, Beaver Watches. I’m excited too about what else will turn up.” Beavers may not be universally welcomed, however. Emma Hunt, the Trust’s reserves officer on the Island, is well versed in the opposition arguments: “People say beaver dams cause problems, but they are leaky and filter the water, making it cleaner. Or they don’t want beavers because they eat fish: which they don’t! Actually, they create slow flow areas in the river which helps the spawning of the fish.” Surely, though, with front teeth like those they are guilty as charged when it comes to felling trees? “Only if there’s not enough food for them low down – and they’ll eat aquatic vegetation.” Won’t they eat farmers’ crops? “Here, there’s not much cropland, and if that was a problem they could be fenced off – or an individual beaver could be relocated.”
The main problem she and Debbie anticipate is our reluctance to embrace change. “Humans have had control over the natural environment for so long. We’ve bent it and shaped it for our benefit and nature has suffered.” Indeed, ignoring the needs of the natural world has led to worrying declines in species, as well as climate change: “While it’s nice to have days like this in February it’s not normal. Blue Tits, for example, need to emerge when there’s food for them. It’s not just a problem for wildlife, but for us too. Our wellbeing depends on a healthy planet. Nature is one big collective web and we’re messing with that.” Hence Wilder Wight – an important initiative launched last year to raise awareness of the dangers of ignoring the environment, and to create momentum for positive change.
“There’s good research showing you get tipping points in society – if 25 per cent of people think and do certain things you get a shift in what is considered normal. Part of our Wilder Wight strategy is to support and empower one in four people to act for nature, and to treat the environment in a sustaining way.” She adds: “The vision is to find the leaders, the champions, and by training them, getting them together, creating the tipping point for social change.” Wilder Wight is about making nature’s recovery normal, she says. “The Wilder Wight Community Programme will be launched to work with schools and communities, engaging them in our vision to restore habitats and bring back missing species.” The prospect of bringing back missing species has a wonderfully Jurassic Park feel, and indeed the excitement expressed by Debbie and Emma on the results of rewilding could almost be akin to that of Richard Attenborough’s character in those films. Rewilding is about letting nature lead. “As well as restoring the wetlands through the Eastern Yar valley we are rewilding former farmland. We’ve bought one farm, and we’re about to work with some other landowners in grazing native breeds and using low density farming with minimum tillage, so carbon stored in the soil is undisturbed.” By ‘stepping off the gas’ they have already seen near miraculous results. “In just the first year the birdlife has been astonishing. We found an explosion of arable weeds, too, some of which are critically endangered across the UK, just pop up – species like spreading hedge parsley, hairy tare and field speedwell. How long must the seeds have lain in the ground, just waiting!” It is a vision of hope that sustains Debbie and the Trust – necessary when they are up against not only climate change and poor land management, but us, humans. “Last summer we had a lot of problems with antisocial behaviour – vandalism, with gates and fences broken, even a brand new viewing platform set on fire.” Debbie went on local TV saying ‘enjoy the countryside – but please don’t trash it’. Then there is the constant demand for land. “It’s a finite resource, and we need more of it for nature. But one of the things we’re keen to promote by working with governments and other organisations is the role of naturebased solutions, such as seagrass beds off the coast, which capture carbon at rates 35 times faster than tropical rainforests – making their restoration really important in the fight against climate change. It’s about helping society to recognise that health, beauty, spiritual improvement and finance are all benefits of nature.” A spring morning in woods flooded with sunshine and birdsong is certainly a mood enhancer, but is Debbie optimistic? “I am. Yes, nature’s in a bad state, the climate is changing. But young people are acting, demanding a better future. That gives me real optimism. They’ve really taken on board that rallying cry: We’re the first generation that really understands we are destroying nature: and the last that can put it right.”
Find out more about Debbie's plans for a Wilder Wight at hiwwt.org.uk
