Suffolk
Wildlife News from Suffolk Wildlife Trust
SPRING/SUMMER 2017
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
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Living Landscapes Living Gardens Living Seas
SPRING/SUMMER 2017
CONTENTS
JOHN FERGUSON
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PAUL NAYLOR
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CONSERVATION NEWS
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Response to Sizewell C
The Trust warns that current proposals could have a catastrophic effect on nationally important habitat
The birth of a veteran
See how a pioneering technique is being trialled at Bradfield Woods
LIVING LANDSCAPES
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Protecting Suffolk's seas
The Trust calls for greater marine protection
12 A lifetime in the woods
Pete Fordham talks about his 36 years as Warden of Bradfield Woods
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SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
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MATHIUS SHAEF FLPA
JOHN PERGUSON
12 SPECIES SPOTLIGHT
16 Swift action
How you can help safeguard the future of Suffolk's swifts
Just why is the toad in trouble?
Author Tom Cox looks at the beaver population in Devon
22 The not so common toad
UK NEWS
24 Green groups unite for nature
Post Brexit, environmental organisations are asking the Government to keep the EU's existing protections
29 My beaver epiphany
GREAT DAYS OUT
WILDLIFE FOR PEOPLE
26 Great places to see bluebells
Our guide to the ultimate spring- time displays
19 Wild about learning DIRECTORY Judy Powell, the Trust's Head of 32 Advertising directory
Education talks about how education and parenting has changed during her 30 years at the Trust
EADT ARCHANT
Welcome
Suffolk
Wildlife News from Suffolk Wildlife Trust
SPRING/SUMMER 2017
On the cover Common seal
Irina Fischer, Alamy SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
I was not around during the ‘locust years’ as Oliver Rackham called them; the 1960s and 70s when, as a matter of course, hedges were removed and fields enlarged across the country. But recently I had a taste of how it might have been when, near my home, a small army of tractors, diggers and flails moved onto half a dozen small fields − unlikely survivors of ancient countryside. Huge spilling out hedges of ash and thorn were razed to the ground, willow scrub bulldozed and bramble flailed to fragments. Flames Julian Roughton licked into the night sky from fires as high as houses Chief Executive with resulting mounds of ash that glowed with heat for days. It was an act of brutality that moved me to tears. In truth these hedges will regrow − for they have not been grubbed out as in earlier decades − but it will be many years, if ever, before they are as rampant and wild. Agriculture goes to the heart of nature conservation − its success or failure − and opportunities for wildlife are defined by a combination of farming policies and the individual enthusiasm of landowners. There has been a huge shift from the dark days of 1970s farming subsidies but, despite reforms, only a small portion of Common Agricultural Policy budgets benefit the natural environment and in some cases are still damaging it. Last summer’s political whirlwind provides an unrivalled opportunity to design an agricultural policy that benefits our countryside and supports farmers in ways that sustain nature. High hopes were held for Defra’s proposed 25-year plan for the environment − that it would set an ambitious blueprint for the restoration of nature. But despite being much discussed its publication has been postponed time and time again. Brexit is so complicated that it has become all-consuming for Defra officials. Another unlikely casuality is Suffolk’s two proposed Marine Conservation Zones − the Alde and Ore Estuary and Orford Inshore − both of which have been shelved for the time being. The Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) designation is an accolade to the natural beauty of our coastline but the bitter reality is that Suffolk, almost uniquely amongst English coastal counties, has no Marine Conservation Zone. The process of Brexit threatens to unravel protections and legislation that have safeguarded habitats and species as well as driven improvements to water quality in rivers and lakes. These were hard-won gains for nature so it is encouraging to see Suffolk MP, Peter Aldous, in his role on the Environmental Audit Committee, calling for protection for the natural environment to be safeguarded and strengthened. Defra’s Environment Minister, Therese Coffey, will play a pivotal role in how our countryside will be cared for, perhaps for a generation. Let us hope that, driven by the natural inspiration of her Suffolk Coastal constituency, she will ensure that nature gains whatever the outcomes of Brexit.
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Living Landscapes Living Gardens Living Seas
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE SUFFOLK WILDLIFE MAGAZINE is published by Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Brooke House, Ashbocking IP6 9JY 01473 890089 info@suffolkwildlifetrust.org suffolkwildlifetrust.org SWT CENTRES Bradfield Woods 01449 737996 Carlton Marshes 01502 564250 Foxburrow Farm 01394 380113 Knettishall Heath 07717 156601 Lackford Lakes 01284 728706 Redgrave & Lopham Fen 01379 688333 EDITOR Matt Gaw
DESIGN & ARTWORK Clare Sheehan ADVERTISING Today Magazines, Framlingham 01728 622030 PRINTING Reflex Litho, Thetford PATRON Lord Tollemache PRESIDENT Lord Blakenham VICE PRESIDENTS David Barker MBE, Sir Kenneth Carlisle, Lord Deben, Dawn Girling, Bernard Tickner, Peter Wilson TRUSTEES Ian Brown (Chairman), Rachel Eburne, Nigel Farthing (Vice Chairman), Robin Drayton (Treasurer), James Robinson (Hon Secretary), David Alborough, James Alexander, John Cousins, Denise Goldsmith, Pip Goodwin, Peter Holborn, Simon Roberts
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE TRUST is one of a national network of Wildlife Trusts dedicated to safeguarding the future of wildlife for the benefit of all Suffolk Wildlife Trust is a registered charity no 262777 and a company limited by guarantee no 695346
KEEP IN TOUCH
The Trust benefits from the most incredible support, with many members’ commitment stretching over decades. Please keep in touch so we can ensure you get the most out of your membership.
We can tailor your membership to suit your family. If your children are aged betwen 6-14 they’d enjoy our Wildlife Watch magazine. Likewise do let us know if your children have grown too old for the magazine. Sam Grange our Membership Manager would love to hear from you. Please call on 01473 890089 Follow us on twitter and facebook
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
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CONSERVATION NEWS
The Trust responds to
Sizewell C The Trust manages the 356 acre Sizewell Belts area of the EDF’s Sizewell Estate – designated as the Sizewell Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest
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uffolk Wildlife Trust has warned that current proposals for the construction of Sizewell C could have a catastrophic impact on nationally important habitat. In a written submission to the Stage 2 Consultation on the new nuclear power station, the Trust raised several concerns with EDF about ecological aspects of the plans and registered our disappointment about the continued lack of information contained within the consultation documents. James Meyer, senior conservation planner at the Trust, said: “Whilst we acknowledge that some areas of additional detail and clarification have been provided as James Meyer part of this Stage 2 Consultation, we retain our serious disappointment about the lack of information in the consultation documents.” The Trust’s official response states: “Insufficient detail on the scope and
The current proposals for the construction of Sizewell C could have a catastrophic impact on nationally important habitat
HOWARD MARSH ALAMY
and indirect impacts that would arise from the development which would result in the proposed loss,” The Trust response stated. The current proposals would see the loss of reedbed, wet woodland, ditches and fen meadow from within the SSSI boundary. EDF Energy have suggested a habitat creation scheme at Aldhurst Farm would compensate for the loss of some of these habitats. However, the Trust has registered its concerns that the consultation is moving straight to compensation, rather than seeking avoidance or mitigation of these impacts. Other concerns raised by the Trust include the potential raising of groundwater levels during development – something that would “have a catastrophic impact on the habitats for which the SSSI is designated.” The Trust acknowledges that extensive ecological surveys have been undertaken by EDF since the Stage 1 Consultation. This work is on-going and the Trust will engage with further consultations as the Evidence Plan progresses.
Star grazers Work to maintain and protect one of the largest continuous areas of Sandlings heathland has been supported by Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB’s Sustainable Development Fund. The grant to Suffolk Wildlife Trust has allowed the purchase of 45 rare-breed Hebridean ewes, which have now been introduced into our conservation grazing flock on Sutton & Hollesley Commons. These important habitats, which are a Site of Special Scientific Interest, were shaped by human activity and grazing is the most effective and sustainable way to maintain an open landscape that benefits wildlife – including nightjar, Dartford warbler, woodlark and adder – while also improving visitor access. The funding will also support the continued care of the Trust’s existing sheep flock by funding necessary veterinary costs, the shearing programme and assisting with the purchase of vital husbandry supplies. In supporting the flock, the funding from Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB has helped ensure the future of this breathtaking landscape and the wildlife that depends upon it.
i FIND OUT MORE Further details on Sizewell C and a copy of our response to the Stage 2 Consultation can be found on our website suffolkwildlifetrust.org/ sizewell-c
JOHN FERGUSON
scale of the development has severely hampered the making of a robust consideration of the proposal.” The Trust, which manages 356 acre Sizewell Belts, designated as Sizewell Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and part of EDF's wider Sizewell Estate, said the power company’s commitment to “limit any adverse effects on the environment and on local communities as far is reasonably practical” did not go far enough. The Trust’s response said: “Given the environmental importance of the area, significant impacts must be avoided, mitigated, or as a last resort compensated. We consider that it is not acceptable to follow these steps ‘as far as is reasonably practical.” Concerns were also raised that the amount of the SSSI land to be taken had increased from 4.6ha at Stage 1 to between 5.04 and 5.55ha in Stage 2. “We remain unconvinced that any loss of SSSI has been adequately justified in any of the consultation documents to date and remain extremely concerned about the direct
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
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CONSERVATION NEWS
The birth of a
veteran
NEIL GEACH
An innovative technique to create “veteran” trees has been introduced at Bradfield Woods National Nature Reserve. The process, called veteranisation, is designed to replicate the hollows, cracks and splits found in old pollarded trees, which are vital for wildlife, including invertebrates and bats. Reg Harris, whose Bury St Edmundsbased company Urban Forestry volunteered to carry out the work, said the treatment helped bridge the gap between the existing tree population and ancient veterans.
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“With the abandonment of traditional silvacultural practices, and the intensification of agriculture and forestry, trees are no longer pollarded on any scale." He added: “It was these traditional cutting techniques, that have now lapsed, that have led many of our old pollards to now be full of splits, cracks, hollows and wood mould, which are so important for all the rare flora and fauna. But what happens when all these pollards gradually die or collapse? Where are the pollards of tomorrow, and what will happen to all those species that rely
VISIT BRADFIELD WOODS Postcode: IP30 0AQ Map ref: TL933575
solely on them?” This winter Mr Harris and his colleague Andy Clarke veteranised a non-native Turkey oak that otherwise would have been removed. Work included boring into the trunk to create a nest box, recreating a natural branch fracture and making a large “flush” on the tree’s southern side to encourage hollowing. Mr Harris said: “It will be really interesting to see what happens to it and I look forward to returning to monitor it with the team from Bradfield Woods.”
Hedgehog safari!
A pioneering technique
PAUL HOBSON
Ali North the Trust's Hedgehog Officer
MIKE WILKES NATUREPL.COM
Holes cut into the trunk create habitat and encourage hollowing
Woodpeckers and nuthatch are some of the species that will benefit
i FINDOUT OUTMORE MORE iFIND For more information about these events, please head to the What’s On section of our website suffolkwildlifetrust.org/whats-on For more information about the Trust’s vision to make Ipswich the UK’s most hedgehog-friendly town, go to suffolkwildlifetrust.org /hedgehog-action
A team for nature A team from Suffolk Highways helped improve access at Lound Lakes nature reserve by erecting a new boardwalk. The 100m walkway, which was supplied by Essex & Suffolk Water and is made from 16.5 tonnes of recycled plastic, took the team 400 man hours to put in place. Mark Stevens, assistant director of operational highways said, “Suffolk Highways is delighted to have the opportunity to work with the Trust and it’s our intention to participate in more of these immensely rewarding communitybased activities in the future.”
AMY LEWIS
DID YOU KNOW? A male hedgehog can travel 2-3km in a single night JOHN FERGUSSON
This spring Suffolk Wildlife Trust is hosting night safaris to highlight the importance of green spaces in urban areas. A series of events will be held later in the year with the hope of watching the nocturnal habits of hedgehogs, bats, moths and amphibians in the parks of Ipswich. Ali North, the Trust’s Hedgehog Officer, who will be leading the events, said people would be able to use night vision and thermal imaging technology, bat detectors, moth traps and torches to help record different species. She added: “We hope these events will help demonstrate just how important the green spaces in towns can be and highlight the importance of ensuring that residential areas help connect these refuges. Hedgehog highways can be created by making a hole in a fence and feeding and nesting habitat is critical for hedgehogs and other species living in urban areas.”
ROB WALTERS
NEIL GEACH
Replicating a "hazard beam" for roosting bats
i FIND OUT MORE If your business would like to make a difference with the Trust please contact michael.strand@suffolkwildlifetrust.org and visit suffolkwildlifetrust.org/ corporatesupport
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CONSERVATION NEWS
Wild Tots
Detecting hazel dormice in the UK
From building dens and splashing in puddles, to singing songs and playing in the mud kitchen, Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s new Wild Tots sessions are designed to encourage children under five to explore and play in nature on three of our reserves. Joanne Atkins, our Woodland Education Ranger at Bradfield Woods, said the Wild Tots sessions give children the chance to explore their environment with all their senses and connect with nature, while developing strength, balance and co-ordination and growth in self-confidence. She added: “Whatever the weather, we always find ways to play.” Wild Tots sessions are available at Foxburrow Farm, Carlton Marshes and Bradfield Woods.
i FIND OUT MORE Please check the website for dates. Book online at suffolkwildlifetrust/ whats-on. Children under 5 £4/adults and babes in arms free
New Wildlife Watch group
Thank you
We are grateful to the families of the following friends of the Trust who have recently remembered us in their Will or through an In memoriam donation. Kathleen Bagen Clifford Barham Dick Briggs Fred Burton Ray Cardy Marjorie Frooms Michael Gooderham Kathleen Dixey Groom
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Florence Hall John Holmes Susan Kelly John & Kathleen Laws Georges Lucas John Moody Elizabeth Nash Richard Nightingale John Ransome Dick Rice Donald Robertson Ian Rose Norman Smith Pam Sugars Margaret Theobald Ann Watson Peter Wright
ADOBE STOCK
Following a successful pilot study last year, Suffolk Wildlife Trust has been awarded funding from the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) to carry out research into different methods of detecting dormice in the UK. The Trust will survey 12 known dormice sites across Suffolk with a variety of habitat types, including scrub, woodland and hedgerows. Between April and November, a combination of nest boxes, nest tubes and footprint tunnels will be checked every fortnight at each location to test the best ways to detect dormice. One of the aims of the study will be to see whether footprint tunnels can be used to speed up detection of dormice compared to the other more established methods.
AGM SAVE THE DATE
Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s 56th AGM and Conservation Day will be held on Saturday 21 October 2017.
Launched in December 2016, Haverhill Wildlife Watch group is the Trust’s newest Wildlife Watch group, providing nature discovery and adventure for children aged six to 12 years. The group is one of 11 groups run by registered volunteer Wildlife Watch leaders around the county, including groups at each of the Trust’s education reserves, at Flatford Mill and in Ipswich, Hadleigh and Sudbury. At the mud-themed launch meeting the group made mud faces, organised a mud painting relay and hunted for earthworms. Sessions on owl pellets, hedgehogs and den building are planned for future months. Hadleigh Wildlife Watch Group, which was New Wildlife Watch Group of the Year 2015, is runner up in Wildlife Watch Group of the Year 2016. They win a trophy, certificate and a £20 gift voucher for Vine House Farm.
i FIND OUT MORE For more information haverhillwildlifewatch @hotmail.com or 07538 108512. To find a Wildlife Watch near you visit suffolkwildlifetrust. org
To register your interest and to receive further details on how to book, email sam.clanford@suffolk wildlifetrust.org
RICHARD FERRIS
LIVING LANDSCAPES
Protecting
CRYSTAL SEA SLUG ROB SPRAY
SUFFOLK'S SEAS Efforts to safeguard Britain’s sea life include protecting two sites of Suffolk's coast as Marine Conservation Zones. Bex Lynam explains why action can't come soon enough
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tanding on the shore, the North Sea is both captivating and mysterious. A surging, boiling force of nature that has shaped the 50 miles of Suffolk’s coastline for millennia – helping to create some of our best-loved wildlife watching areas on land, including Hazlewood Marshes, Simpson’s Saltings and Alde Mudflats. A whole host of seabirds, waders and wildfowl can be seen both on shore and at sea throughout the year, from red-throated diver and oystercatcher to curlew, avocets, and little tern. But despite our long appreciation of the wildlife that can be seen in and around Suffolk’s shores, our understanding of what’s beneath the waves has been very limited until the last decade or so. Dare to dip your head under the water’s surface and a whole other world can be found.
LIFE BENEATH THE WAVES
Imagine diving down several metres to the seabed. Here you’ll find a rich mosaic of habitats, from fine mud and sand to coarse sediments, pebbles, cobbles and gravels. While these habitats sound rather uninteresting they provide numerous functions, and support a huge variety of animals. Worms, brittle stars, anemones, and bivalve molluscs, such as cockles, bury themselves in the sand. Sea urchins, starfish and sea cucumbers slide over the seabed feeding on animals buried below it. Crabs and lobsters scuttle along the bottom, scavenging for small scraps, while flatfish bury themselves just below the seabed providing them with the perfect camouflage from predators. Juvenile fish use gravelly ground as a nursery area and adult fish species will spawn amongst the sediments. SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
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PAUL NAYLOR
LIVING LANDSCAPES
Earth's seas and oceans produce half the oxygen in the atmosphere This wealth of life, propped up by the seabed, provides hunting opportunities for larger species such as harbour porpoise, whales and dolphins, and the numerous familiar birds many of us regularly spot from our shores. Without such a diversity of habitats in our seas, much of the wildlife we appreciate and enjoy from land would struggle to thrive. This intricate food web relies on a healthy, clean, and productive sea. And so do we. We are all connected to the sea, regardless of where we live. The earth’s seas and oceans produce half the oxygen in the atmosphere, so every second breath you take comes from the sea. The world’s seas regulate our climate and provide us with fresh water and a source of food. We use the sea for transport and are increasingly looking to it to provide us with renewable energy sources. But for too long we have relied on the sea to provide for us without enough thought for how to look after it; a dependency which has left it degraded and damaged. Since 1900, it is estimated that populations of large predatory fish in the North Sea like cod and haddock have been reduced by 90%. Species, such as the angel shark and what is now the inappropriately named common skate, have all but disappeared while the seabed has been fundamentally transformed over the last century. 10 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
TAKING ACTION
A world of starfish and sea urchins exists beneath the waves
Dip your head under the water's surface and a whole other world can be found
However, work is now being done to stop this damage and ensure our seas can recover from its past declines. The Government has committed to creating a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which are essentially nature reserves at sea, in UK seas by 2020. Using MPAs to safeguard marine species and habitats is just one management tool that can be used to help restore our seas to something like their former selves; safeguarding them and the creatures that live in them for future generations. And it’s this tool we hope to use to protect more of Suffolk’s marine environment. Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs), a type of MPA, are currently being put forward to protect threatened, rare and declining species and habitats as well as those considered typical of the region. In the English North Sea region, nine MCZs have already been designated but more sites are needed to ensure the network of sites is “ecologically coherent”. Further sites were due to be put forward for public consultation with the aim of making designations by late 2018. However, Defra has delayed holding a consultation for this year and we now expect this to take place in 2018 with designation expected to follow the year after. Two of the sites currently being considered for any future consultation lie within Suffolk’s waters. The designation of both the Alde Ore Estuary and Orford Inshore (described on p11) would help to fill the current gaps in the network as it stands.
TONY HOWELLS
Orford Inshore
Alde Ore Estuary
Lying 14km offshore adjacent to the Alde Ore estuary, this site contains a large area of mixed sediments. Many flatfish species, including dover and lemon sole, sprat and sandeels use these areas as well as skates, rays and small-spotted catsharks. The site will also help to ‘connect’ species within it to other sites they may use, ensuring that large spatial gaps in protection do not exist.
No more than five metres in depth, the bottom of this important estuary site contains sheltered muddy gravels and mixed sediments providing nursery grounds for juvenile fish and foraging and roosting grounds for many bird species. The estuary acts as a spawning ground for smelt, a migratory fish species that has suffered large declines throughout its range, mainly due to habitat loss. This site already has a number of legal conservation designations that overlap with each other. These include being a Special Protection Area, internationally important for overwintering and breeding bird species, a Special Area of Conservation for its salt marsh, sand and mudflats and a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its shingle structures and coastal formations. However, these designations do not currently protect other features of this estuary which, if designated, the MCZ would do. t Flatfish on mussel bed
p Lion's mane jellyfish
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Protecting our marine environment has benefits beyond those to wildlife. A healthy sea is a productive one which we will continue to benefit from. If you’d like to show your support for protection of Suffolk’s marine wildlife and habitats you can do so by signing up to become a Friend of North Sea Marine Conservation Zones. You’ll receive quarterly newsletters with information on MCZ designation and how you can help. You can do that at: northseawildlife.org.uk/act-now n
The wealth of life, propped up by the seabed, provides hunting opportunities for larger species such as harbour porpoise, whales and dolphins Light bulb sea squirt
Bex Lynam is the North Sea Marine Advocacy Officer for the Wildlife Trusts
i FINDOUT OUTMORE MORE iFIND northseawildlife.org.uk/
WHAT WILL THESE PROTECTED SITES ACTUALLY DO? Marine Protected Areas are a tried-and-tested means of giving vulnerable species the time and space to recover, whilst allowing sustainable use of the sea. Therefore, key to the success of these zones is effective management, ensuring that damaging activities do not continue. If managed effectively, the habitats and species within them will be given the breathing space they need to recover from past damage and give them the resilience to cope with ongoing pressures, such as climate change.
WHAT IS AN ECOLOGICALLY COHERENT NETWORK? You’ll hear us talk about creating an ecologically coherent network but what do we mean by this? The science indicates that for these sites to be truly effective they must form a network and meet five crucial criteria. These criteria, alongside appropriate management, stakeholder engagement and ongoing monitoring, will ensure the network is truly coherent and maximise the benefits of the MPAs in the UK.
1. Big enough
2. Close enough
3. Representative 4. Numerous enough
5. Actively protected
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LIVING LANDSCAPES
woods
A lifetime in the
After 36 years working in Bradfield Woods National Nature Reserve, Pete Fordham tells Matt Gaw about the joys and challenges of life in one of the UK’s most important coppiced woodlands
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e follow the tractor and its fishtailing trailer along the track, making our way slowly towards where the woodsmen have been working for the last two months. The sun rose red over Bradfield Woods a few hours ago, but in amongst the coppices the night’s cold still lingers. Puddles splinter and crack underfoot and the piles of felled timber are sugared with frost. Freshly cut ash glows cream against boot-churned mud. I’ve come to talk to the wood’s warden Pete Fordham. It is his last winter in these woods. A final rotation. For 36 years he has worked in Bradfield Woods and I want to know what this place means to him, about the changes he has seen. But I’ve been told I have to work for my interview. Pete hasn’t got time to just stand and chat. “You’ll have to make yourself useful,” he says. “Bring wellies... And a cake.”
SO MUCH WOOD, SO LITTLE TIME
Between November and the end of February is the busiest time in the woods. A narrow window to work when saws and billhooks won’t disturb nesting birds or foraging dormice. There are nine acres of coppice to cut before time runs out. But for now, the chainsaws are silent. The group works in hard, quick bursts to sort and stack wood that has already been cut. The guys make it look easy, flicking three metre logs over their shoulders or using timber tongs to drag the wood to the right pile. Best ash goes here; there best hazel; that one to firewood. Stacked knee-deep and several metres wide, efficiency is a watchword. Giles Cawston, the Trust’s Woodlands Warden, smiles at me huffing and puffing as I try to reposition a piece of ash, attempting to keep the pile neat for the crane that will later collect it. “The secret is not to touch anything twice, you’ll knacker yourself out,” he says. Pete shouts out his mantra from another wood stack a few metres away. 12
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“Take your time and hurry up.” The team chant it back at him, grinning. There is a lot of laughter here. Shared anecdotes, gentle ribbing and even impressions; Neil, the Trust’s winter woodsman sending a passable tawny owl call wobbling through the coppices. But there’s always an ear to the wood, a sensitivity for its song that only comes with experience and care. At one point Pete breaks off mid-sentence and holds up his hand. The talking stops and we work in silence, listening to the ascending treep, treep, treep of a nuthatch. “Lovely, isn’t it?” he says.
A CATHEDRAL OF TREES
We break for tea and the conversation turns to the history of Bradfield. There has been woodland here since the Ice Age and the mix of species, including small-leaved lime and crab apple, reflects the trees and shrubs in the wildwood from which it evolved. But this is a cultural space too. A working wood that still produces hazel for thatching and fencing, bean poles and pea sticks. Ash is in big demand for steam-bent furniture while about 150 tonnes of firewood is sold within a five mile radius of Bradfield. It is a national nature reserve of the rarest kind – it pays for its own conservation. According to the records from Bury St Edmunds Abbey, coppicing was taking place in Bradfield from 1252. The late, great Oliver Rackham, who along with the local community fought to save this wood from being grubbed up during the 1970s, was certain some of the ash stools were even older, possibly dating back 1,000 years. In fact, about five years ago he pointed them out to me, their woody footprints sprawling for metres in the understorey, furred in moss and memory. The oldest living things in Suffolk, deeply rooted in human history. Since that time I think of Bradfield as not so much a wood but a cathedral of trees, in whose cloistered rides it is possible to feel a connection with all those who worked and walked here
King of the coppice, Pete Fordham, in Bradfield Woods where he has worked as the warden for 36 years
SUFFOLK SUFFOLK WILDLIFE WILDLIFE 13 13
LIVING LANDSCAPES
It is the constant working of the woods, this relationship between human activity and trees that makes Bradfield so important for wildlife. The system of cutting small compartments of woodland on a 25 year rotation creates a mosaic of trees at different growth stages, allowing for incredible habitat diversity in a comparatively small area of woodland. But to say coppicing is good for a wide range of species – from migrant birds and dormice to some of the richest woodland ground flora in Britain – is not enough. It is coppicing that created the conditions to which our wildlife has adapted over the centuries. To carry on that tradition and maintain this habitat is a unique coming together of heritage protection and conservation. Pete’s role in maintaining coppicing at Bradfield is not easy to overstate. His arrival in 1980 effectively ended one of the wood’s longest periods without cutting and re-established traditional management methods. While coppiced woodland had declined significantly by the 1900s with the cheapness and availability of coal, Bradfield had been preserved after being bought by a rake factory in 1890. But with the rise of modern machinery and tractors rendering scythes and hay rakes redundant, the wood began to slowly fall out of rotation. “My first day was definitely daunting,” says Pete, “I can’t remember it exactly but I do know that when I first came here the rides were very overgrown with scrub. The woodsman who was here was an old boy, although probably a bit younger than I am now, and there was just one chainsaw. I don’t think the rides had been touched since the rake factory closed. They used to 14 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
Coppicing the woodland on a 25 year rotation creates a mosaic of trees that makes an incredible diversity of habitats
Pete trimming hazel during the 1990s
Bradfield is a working wood that still produces hazel for thatching and fencing, bean poles and pea sticks
STEVE AYLWARD
COPPICING SHAPES WILDLIFE
Giles Cawston who will take over the management of the wood, explains the process of coppicing
JOHN FERGUSON
centuries before. And, judging by this morning, probably even telling the same jokes. I ask Pete if it is being part of this story – this unbroken tradition of at least 800 years – that has made working in Bradfield Woods so special. He sips his tea thoughtfully. “Yes, I think so. It’s fantastic to have a direct link going back to medieval times. We are using modern tools but it is the same practice. It really is an honour working here, working with trees that old. I think all of us would say that.” Giles who is lying with his back to an alder, his eyes half closed against the winter sun, nods his head in agreement. “Absolutely. It’s an honour. I think you need to feel that passion, to have that connection to work in these woods. To feel it in your blood like Pete does.”
Speckled wood
mow them quite regularly in 1930, 1940s and up to the 50s, but there was a good decade of growth and some of the old coppice was in danger of coming out of rotation. So in the first couple of years we set about working on a big block of coppice and opening up the rides to let light back into the wood.”
LETTING THE LIGHT IN
Light is all important in Bradfield. This is not a closed canopy woodland but a place of glades and rides, rich in butterflies and wild flowers. The light ushered in between the trees to encourage the bramble and understorey so important for dormice. Pete empties the dregs of his tea and slaps his leg. “Right, enough chit chat” and bounces back off towards the coppice. I can’t quite believe he’s retiring. His energy and enthusiasm is boundless. I turn to Giles. “What will it be like without Pete here?” “Wrong, to be honest.
It’s Pete’s wood isn’t it? Pete’s got an MBE for the work he has done here. Pete hasn’t got very big feet but they’ll be hard boots to fill. It will be as daunting for me as it probably was for him when he first started here. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Pete for about 15 months and that time has been invaluable in knowing how this wood functions.” We return to work, this time stacking ash tops up into brush hedges, driving the ends into the mud to create black-budded pikes to stop deer leaping into this clearing – the “coop” or “cant” – and browsing on the freshly coppiced stools. Something Pete says would be a nibble to the death. The increase of deer has been one of the many challenges faced in Bradfield Woods, not only threatening stools but chewing through the bramble and scrub that many migrant birds rely on. But conversation is focussed on another, less manageable threat that faces Bradfield.
I think of Bradfield as not so much a wood but a cathedral of trees, in whose cloistered rides it is possible to feel a connection with all those who worked and walked here centuries before
TOP AWARD
ASH DIEBACK
Giles passes me a piece of ash that he has sliced across. A dark shadow girdles its width, the pale wood grey and soft. This is the slow creep of ash dieback. The disease, caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus (previously identified as Chalara fraxinea) is now widespread and in Bradfield there is a resignation that most, if not all, of the ash will eventually be lost. The team are discussing whether this coop will ever be cut again. Even if the wood grows back it is likely the fungus will cause stress in the trees, warping the straightness of the coppice and destroying the structure that makes it so valuable to craftsmen. Pete says the rate of infection on coppiced trees is high. To cut means likely death, not to cut means the death of something far bigger. But there is hope, if not for ash, then for the woodland and the wildlife it supports. “It is possible ash dieback might improve the habitat,” Pete explains. “Ash is very VISIT BRADFIELD WOODS dominant and grows Postcode: much faster than the IP30 0AQ hazel. Because we’re Map ref: losing it in here now, TL933575 the coops are staying open. It’s keeping the
whole structure a lot lower for a lot longer. It could be that it will prolong that optimum time for wildlife. But, it is out of our hands.” During lunch Pete agrees to take me to his favourite spot in the woods. Hewitt’s meadow, a space he cleared in his early days at Bradfield. We open the gate and walk down towards the pond. Pete sighs. “It’s lovely here. Such a quiet spot. I like to come here in spring when the water is covered in water crowfoot, a delicate little white flower. Some years it will cover the whole pond.”
It’s Pete’s wood isn’t it? Pete’s got an MBE for the work he has done here It seems this is not just Pete’s favourite spot. A woodcock takes off with a startled grunt, tail feathers fanned in a display of burnt orange, brown and white. I ask him if he’ll miss all this and tell him what Giles said. Pete smiles. “I’ll certainly miss the camaraderie, but it’s time for me now. I want to visit Australia with my wife Diane and I’m looking at another wood I might do some work in.” We walk back, past pollarded trees that sprouted magically from willow fence posts Pete hammered into the ground decades ago. Giles is waiting with a chainsaw. I watch Pete walk over to join him, ready to cut their place in history. Another rotation in Bradfield Woods. n
Pete's trademark wooden tie which he wore on the big occasion!
ROGER WILMSBURST FLPA
It really is an honour working here, working with trees that old
Pete is unfailingly modest. But the scale of his achievements in restoring Bradfield has been recognised nationally. In 2008 he was awarded an MBE by the Queen, although he admits he nearly dismissed it as a joke. “I got a letter in the post. It seemed like a circular. I said to Diane, ‘Look at this’, it didn’t seem believable. I almost put it in the bin. I thought it was a joke. But she got it out and said ‘No, it’s genuine, you have to reply’. I was never looking for any medals but it was an honour. The saddest thing for me was my father wasn’t around to see it. He would have been really proud to have known I had gotten something like that.”
Blackcap
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
15
SPECIES SPOTLIGHT
Swift
ACTION Over the last 25 years Suffolk has lost almost half of its swifts. Edward Jackson explains how action is being taken to safeguard the future of this scythe-winged summer visitor
BLICKWINKEL ALAMY
I
f you’re reading this in early May, most of our Suffolk Swifts will be completing a 10,000km journey back to the UK from their overwintering areas in the skies above Mozambique and Malawi. Birds that bred here last year will be the first to return. So perfectly adapted to life in the air, they have probably spent every day and night on the wing since leaving us at the end of last summer – feeding, sleeping and generally cruising at altitude. They have a pretty useful ability to sleep
16
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
alternately with one half of their brain and then the other – helps guard against mid-air accidents! Birds that have bred together before will most likely re-establish their pair bond and return to exactly the same nest site used previously. In a breeding colony, birds skim and wheel over the rooftops in ‘screaming parties’ – one of the special sounds of summer. Breeding activity starts almost immediately and mating often takes place on the wing too.
In the past 25 years we have lost almost half our Suffolk swifts and this is echoed across much of the UK SCREAMING PARTIES
Swifts normally don’t start breeding until their third or fourth calendar year (the year they fledge being year 1). So in years 2 and 3, there are a lot of ‘teenage swifts’ to account for. Although some may stay in Africa and not return to the UK in Year 2 they will almost certainly
SAVE OUR
SWIFTS Birds skim and wheel over the rooftops in screaming parties – one of the special sounds of summer
be back by Year 3, but not arriving until swoop up and away from a hole (known later in May or early June (we know this as ‘banging’!), these birds continue to live from ringing and other tagging studies). an exclusively aerial existence. So it may They also then start pairing up and be three or even four years before a prospecting for their own nest sites. younger bird actually comes properly back to land. Any screaming parties seen and heard ‘Land’ is not quite the right term around midsummer may include these though. Apart from a very few potential first-time breeders. DID YOU KNOW? birds that nest in crevices on Having found a suitable nest Apart from brief cliffs in northern Britain, swifts site, they may breed that moments swifts are almost entirely dependent summer or wait another year. live an on holes in our buildings for Apart from very brief moments exclusively nesting sites – in older houses, when they cling to a wall near a aerial existence churches and commercial and possible nest site or repeatedly
public buildings of all sorts. But this has spelt real trouble for them. In the past 25 years we have lost almost half our Suffolk swifts and this is echoed across much of the UK. We’re pretty sure that the main reason for this is due to nest sites being blocked up – usually inadvertently – as building repairs are made to eaves, soffits, timber, brick and stonework generally. Returning to find a long-used nest site no longer accessible may mean a pair is unable to breed that year and maybe in future years too. With an average life span of five years, year 3 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
17
and year 4 are critical for the breeding successes that maintain the population at a stable level. This just hasn’t been happening, as the BTO/ JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey graph below clearly shows.
TOP RIGHT: Swifts
are dependent on holes in our buildings for nesting sites
Edward Jackson is an ornithologist and a lead volunteer with the Save Our Suffolk Swifts project
SIMPLE CHANGES MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
However, the good news is that swifts take very readily and successfully to artificial nest sites. Nest boxes can be either attached to the outside or inside of an existing building or integrated into new buildings as they are constructed. Since installing nest boxes in 2009 inside the church tower at Worlington, north west of Bury St Edmunds, a new extension of the village swift colony has grown from zero to 27 breeding pairs and 60 young fledged in 2016. The Save Our Suffolk (SOS) Swifts Project − jointly run by Suffolk Wildlife Trust and Suffolk Ornithologists’ Group (SOG) – has been working since 2014 to raise awareness that our Suffolk swifts are disappearing fast, but also to encourage everyone to look out for them and help build their numbers back. We’ve set up a dedicated ‘Suffolk Swift Survey’ page on the Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service
SWIFT BREEDING BIRD SURVEY 1994-2015
website to collect records of screaming parties, known nest sites in buildings and new nest box sites too: suffolkbis.org. uk/swift By 2020, we want to know whether or not every civil parish and urban ward has swifts breeding there. The map of Suffolk below shows where they have been recorded since 2009 – based on a combination of SOS Swifts and RSPB survey data. Please help us improve what we know already and fill in the blanks on the map by submitting records wherever and whenever you can this summer. However, please don’t log normal sightings of swifts just seen overhead. We need the clear evidence of breeding that screaming parties and holes in buildings in active use show, plus information about all the swift nest boxes that are going up all across the county. Even if you have logged records in previous years, please continue to do so for 2017 onwards, as this all helps to build up our picture of what’s happening. For more information about Suffolk swifts visit the Trust and SOG websites. Thanks – and enjoy a swift-filled summer! n
RIGHT:
Juvenile swifts in the nest
SBRC: CROWN COPYRIGHT ORDNANCE SURVEY 100023395
INDEX (100 IN 1994)
ROGER WILMSHURST
SWIFT
BREEDING SWIFTS IN SUFFOLK 2009-2016
Parish swift records 2009 onwards (with number of parishes)
51-277 (12)
16-51 (35)
4-8 (58)
1-4 (100)
HOW YOU CAN HELP
The SOS Swifts Project is encouraging everyone to look out for swifts and help build their numbers back 18
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
8-16 (54)
We’ve set up a dedicated Suffolk Swift Survey page on the Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service website to collect records of screaming parties, known nest sites in buildings and new nest box sites too: suffolkbis.org.uk/swift NATUREPL.COM
BTO/JNCC/RSPB
MATHIUS SHAEF ALAMY
SPECIES SPOTLIGHT
i FIND OUT MORE Visit the SWT and SOG websites
WILDLIFE FOR PEOPLE
Wild about After 30 years with the Trust, 14 of which have involved leading the education team, Judy Powell is stepping down this year. She tells Matt Gaw about how education and parenting have changed and why the Trust’s role in inspiring young people to get involved with nature has never been so important
FOXBURROW FARM SENSORY GARDEN: STEVE AYLWARD
I
learning
’ve got my ear to a tree, listening for the sound of rising sap. Through the hornbeam’s thin bark it’s sometimes possible to hear the tree’s pulse. Its heartbeat. Sticky life exploding into sleeping buds. Today I can’t hear anything apart from the urgent pli-pli-pli of a blackbird’s alarm call. Judy grins, and sticks her own ear to the other side of the tree. We both stand, ears pressed to wood. “No. Not today,” she says, pulling away and dusting down the side of her face, “It’s best to wait until spring just when the first leaves are about to break, but it’s always worth a try.” We chat as we walk around the circle of trees she planted in the early 1990s. What were saplings of cherry, ash, oak, crab apple, hornbeam and hazel, grown to help children identify different species by sight and touch, are all mature now, tall trees that have long since closed canopy; a visual reminder to Judy about how deep her roots are at this site. Judy first came to Foxburrow Farm 30 years ago as an ecological surveyor. The position rolled into a
short-term contract as the site’s Education Officer; a role she would hold for 15 years. Now after 14 years as Head of Education, Judy is set to retire.
THE GROWTH OF FOXBURROW
Over the three decades her career has taken in dramatic changes in education and seen wild learning become a core part of Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s philosophy. “When I first arrived at Foxburrow the education brief was very much centred on the community; we didn’t have lots of children coming here or strong relationships with schools. Then in 1988 Tim and Robin Miller, who owned the site, said they really wanted to start having more children come to Foxburrow. I went to the Trust and they said they would give me three months to see how it goes. “Anyway, I wrote to all the schools and I welcomed 1,000 children during that time – it was just great. I think everybody was really ready for it. We were as a Trust and the schools were ready too.” In some ways it was the golden age of environmental SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
19
JOHN FERGUSON
WILDLIFE FOR PEOPLE
Our outdoor centres let children be free and learn in their own way NATIONAL CURRICULUM
But by the early 1990s, teachers, restricted by national guidelines, were beginning to ask for specific things. “We realised that if we still wanted children to come we had to accommodate that, we had to change. But it also made us much more creative. “The thing that drove the days in the past when there was less structure was the passion of the people doing it. So the way we taught, we made sure that we retained our enthusiasm and passion. We moved with the curriculum but at the same time used nature and the wonder of ecology to get through to children. Foxburrow and any of our outdoor centres let children be free and learn in their own personalised way. We would hear time and time again of children that do badly in class who would all of a sudden shine.” Judy pauses to point out the wood, 1,000 trees planted by the community in 1998. “I think it always worked because there is this incredible motivation. You are making children incredibly happy by giving them 20 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
Judy helped to start Foxburrow Farm as an education centre in 1988
a hands-on experience. It brings out the best in them.” But if the curriculum and demands of government ministers have changed, so too have parents and children. Judy laughs when I ask her about it. “I was thinking about this and nature deficit the other day. It’s such a modern thing. I think that it really all changed when people started thinking that parenting is an art. I think there’s a lot of competition now in parenting; your child has to be the most stimulated, the most free. But how can children find their freedom if they are over stimulated? Technology has obviously changed too. Everyone watches more telly, or uses a computer. It has meant that we have to do more to get children out to us, away from their computers and even away from their parents, or at least get their parents relaxed about their child getting messy and climbing trees. She adds, “We have introduced more den building and bush craft to try and interest children. Then Forest Schools came along and that meant kids could do all these things themselves; with us facilitating we could pass on an enthusiam for nature. We also do Forest Schools with families and we had parents saying 'thank you for showing me how to play with my child', which was great but in some ways really surprising. It just shows how important the Trust is now.”
You can only really connect with children through mystery and magic
Finding bugs during a Forest Schools day at Rendlesham Forest
MATTHEW ROBERTS
education: a brief window before the introduction and tightening of the national curriculum which meant schools had to make sure that every excursion fulfilled a brief. “At first schools were just very happy to come for a visit to a nature reserve. It wasn’t really linked to the curriculum; it was just about nature and having fun in the summer or in the autumn. There were no boxes to tick. Teachers were just in tune with having nature trips, for the benefits of the children.” She adds, “It was about looking and touching and experiencing. It meant that we were a site where we could take children on a journey of learning every time they came.” Judy says she still meets people in their 20s and 30s who came here during that time. “They come up to me and say ‘You’re the lady who did the pond dipping with us’. Even now! It’s amazing and rewarding; but it does make me feel old!”
JOHN FERGUSON
WILD LEARNING
DAVID TIPLING
A magical find at Foxburrow: a 2.5 million year-old shark's tooth
Judy leads me down the steep sides of a pit hidden away in the woods of Foxburrow. The site of an old quarry, it is a place where fossils have been uncovered, including a shark’s tooth; smoothed and blunted by millions of years in the earth. “It’s magical”, I say. Judy laughs. “I think that’s the secret to the Trust’s success right there. The magic. Yes, we may have more boxes to tick with schools, but you can only really connect with children through mystery and magic. So much of that depends on the people delivering it, you have to feel that yourself, have that passion, that’s why my team – the staff and all the fantastic, dedicated volunteers – are so brilliant, because they have that passion for wildlife.” She adds, “We reach 15,000 children a year through our work with schools. But we also want to take them back to wildness. This is where things like Wild Tots come in; it’s bringing back wild play and helping people to play with their children with no props. Forest Schools has a few props but it is reacting to what is going on around us. I think that is where the Trust has really succeeded; it has reacted but also kept a finger on the pulse nationally.” As we walk back to the centre, I ask Judy what she’s most proud of. She hardly takes a breath. “Well there’s two things really. I’m proud that I helped start Foxburrow as an education centre and made it a place to be, a place where people loved. “But it’s the people that are the real legacy. As Head of Education I’m proud that I could build a team of fantastic people that have helped give so much to so many children and families.”n
THE TRUST'S EDUCATION CENTRES
Judy in her early days at Foxburrow Farm
Matt Gaw is Editor of Suffolk Wildlife & freelance writer SWT
To find out about visiting our education team at Foxburrow Farm, Redgrave & Lopham Fen, Bradfield Woods, Lackford Lakes, Carlton Marshes, Knettishall Heath, Arger Fen & Spouse’s Vale and Ipswich’s wild spaces visit suffolkwildlifetrust.org or phone 01473 890089
JOHN FERGUSON
Foxburrow Farm is one of Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s eight education reserves across the county.
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
21
SPECIES SPOTLIGHT
Successful males cling to the back of a female to hitch a ride to the pond to mate
EDWIN GIESBERS ALAMY
The not so common
toad
22 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
Distinctive and shrouded in myth, research suggests toads are now in serious trouble. John Baker looks at the cocktail of factors that could be to blame and how we can give toads a much-needed foothold
T
he common toad is a familiar animal – familiar as garden wildlife, in folklore and through historical culture. Its distribution throughout mainland Britain and its occurrence in most habitats, except for upland areas, may explain this. Historical attitudes towards toads have been, at best, mixed. A toad was one of the first ingredients of Macbeth’s witches’ cauldron – probably because toads were commonly regarded as venomous. Toads were also supposedly witches' familiars – accomplices or companions – an idea that has persisted into the Harry Potter stories with Neville Longbottom’s Trevor.
BREEDING
In contrast with frogs, which are not too fussy about where they spawn, common toads tend to choose large water bodies as breeding sites. Toad spawn – long gelatinous strings containing several thousand eggs – and tadpoles are distasteful to predators, which means toads fare better with fish than our other native amphibians. Toads are well-orientated animals and sometimes migrate over long distances to return to particular breeding sites. It is these breeding migrations that can take them across roads.
A WORRYING DECLINE
In spite of its familiarity, the common toad is in trouble. A recent study of toad numbers collected by volunteers helping toads across roads during the annual spring migration has found that, in spite of committed efforts, the numbers of toads have gone down. Amphibian declines have prompted a great deal of interest in the last few decades and there are parallels between our common toad and global perspectives. It was another toad species – the golden toad from Costa Rica – that symbolised the ‘global decline’ phenomenon. What distinguished amphibian declines from those NOCTURNAL HUNTERS in other species groups was that the causal factors Toads are creatures of the night, with excellent nightwere not apparent, especially when they occurred in time vision allowing them to hunt for their prey (small, areas where habitat appeared to be intact. When the live animals, mostly invertebrates) under conditions of complete darkness to human eyes. Feeding is prompted golden toad disappeared in the 1980s, it became the first species extinction attributed to human-induced by movement. Small prey items are caught with a flip climate change. But since then disease has been of the tongue, larger items, such as a long earthworm, are stuffed into the mouth with the aid of the front feet. found to be a key driver of amphibian declines. Climate change has been suggested as a possible Kenneth Grahame’s Mr Toad may cause of common toad declines; they lose more body have been less enthusiastic about condition in milder winters. The disease that has caused amphibian declines around the world – a driving if he had understood the microscopic fungus (chytrid) that grows in amphibian impact of traffic on amphibians skins – is certainly present in the UK but so far does not seem to have caused population crashes here. Kenneth Grahame’s Mr Toad may have been less Although toads do not discriminate between garden enthusiastic about driving if he had understood the pests and beneficial invertebrates, early naturalists felt impact of traffic on amphibians; road mortality is that toads were useful animals in the garden. This view surely affecting some of our toad was also shared by some market gardeners DID YOU KNOW? populations. But in other cases, like the who even purchased toads in an early example Toads have global declines, some of our toads have of biological pest control. disappeared with no immediate explanation. Although the belief that toads are venomous excellent night-time vision is untrue, they do have toxin glands in the allowing them to ALL IS NOT LOST skin, particularly concentrated in the raised hunt for prey It is likely declines in common toads, as in areas behind the head – the parotoid glands. under conditions other formerly commonplace wildlife, such These toxins are exuded if the toad is of complete darkness to as hedgehogs, farmland birds and even attacked, deterring some, but not all predators. human eyes invertebrates, mirror the general One of the toad’s predators, the grass snake, deterioration of wildlife habitat in a is immune to the toxin and where toads are abundant grass snakes feed predominantly on them. In countryside under pressure from, well, us. But all is not lost. The common toad is a resilient animal able to their bid to stay ahead in an evolutionary arms race live in a range of habitats. So readers can help toads with grass snakes, toads have evolved a behavioural by supporting Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s vision for a defence – they raise and inflate their bodies in an Living Landscape – where people’s own gardens form attempt to appear too big for the snake to swallow. a mosaic of habitat that spreads out from nature Bird and mammal predators avoid the toad’s skin and reserves. Although toads are unlikely to breed in small consume the tissues below. In most cases the predator garden ponds, the larger ponds found in rural Suffolk tears or pierces the skin and removes internal tissues, gardens may provide breeding sites, while gardens leaving a mutilated corpse. Some otters have learnt to managed for wildlife can potentially provide habitat do this so effectively that they leave nothing but an empty toad skin. during the terrestrial life stages. n SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 23
UK NEWS
Green groups unite for n Farming
Environment
Keep
Keep Protection for important wildlife sites
MATTHEW ROBERTS
MATTHEW ROBERTS
Controls on pollution of our rivers, soils and seas
Introduce
Introduce A world-leading Environment Act, and map nature’s recovery
Following the vote to leave the EU, environmental organisations are asking the Government to keep the EU’s existing protections, and strengthen them
T
hirteen major environmental organisations including The Wildlife Trusts have formed a new coalition called Greener UK. Their aim is twofold: first, to ensure that wildlife’s fortunes improve when we leave the EU; and second, to persuade the UK’s Governments to seize this moment and lead the world in nature’s recovery. The 13 organisations in the coalition speak for almost eight million members – but many more people support the coalition’s objectives. In a recent YouGov poll, eight out of ten British adults thought we needed the same or stronger levels of 24 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
UK PARLIAMENT/JESSICA TAYLOR
MATTHEW ROBERTS
Investment to restore our soils, rivers and countryside to full ecological health
also asking for sustainable and effective farming and fisheries policies, underpinned by safeguards for important wildlife sites and species, pollution control, and marine protection. The Wildlife Trusts are asking the Government to: l Bring in a world-leading Environment Act and map nature’s recovery; l Invest public money in restoring our soils, rivers and countryside to full ecological health; l Complete the UK’s network of Marine Protected Areas and ensure we fish sustainably. “We have secured real, tangible and positive change in the past and are determined to do so again,” says Stephanie Hilborne. “The people of the want their wildlife back. Eight out of ten adults think UK Now is the time to call for we need the same or more that, on behalf of this environmental protection generation and the next.”
environmental protection after we leave the EU. “This coalition is powerful because its moment has come,” says Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts. “If these islands are to change fundamentally, let’s make that change a good one.” Greener UK is concerned that wildlife could be forgotten in the rush to attract new investment or make new trade deals. This might reduce the protection we give our most important wildlife sites, or the vigour with which we control pollution. The coalition is calling on the UK Government to keep as much of the EU’s environmental protection as possible when we leave and uphold it into the future. It is
ature Fisheries Keep
Pine martens back in Shropshire
countin g
In the la st to sign issue we aske a pledg d every UK a w orld lea e to help mak MP e der on protect environ the ion and res and climate c mental signed tore nature. S hange, ee who at gree n-allia Greene nce.org.uk/ rUK
PAUL NAYLOR
Momentum on banning discards and moving to sustainable fishing
180 MP and s
Introduce More protection for vulnerable habitats, and let fish stocks recover
PAUL NAYLOR
Shropshire Wildlife Trust is supporting what may be the only breeding population of pine marten in England. The animals were first observed on a trail camera, and thought to be migrants from Wales passing through. Subsequent monitoring revealed a small population in the woodlands of the Clun Valley. Several woodland owners in the Valley have already agreed to manage their land with pine marten in mind and are working with the Trust to install over 100 den boxes. Local volunteers are helping with scat searches to further monitor the animals. With improved denning options, the Trust thinks the pine marten can become fully established in Shropshire. More on shropshirewildlifetrust.org. uk/pinemartenproject
Who are the Greener UK coalition? Trust and the RSPB. All of them say that leaving the EU is the moment to restore and enhance the UK’s environment. More on wildlifetrusts.org/Greener-UK
TERRY WHITTAKER
DAVID CHAPMAN
Greener UK is a group of 13 environmental organisations representing almost eight million people. It includes The Wildlife Trusts, the National
Pine marten have been absent from most of England for more than a century following persecution
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 25
UK NEWS
Suffolk’s vision for a giant wetland reserve
Great places to see
BLUEBEL TOM MARSHALL
Sir David Attenborough is backing Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s biggestever appeal – to raise £1 million to create a giant nature reserve in The Broads. If the appeal succeeds (the total raised is already over half way), the purchase would expand Carlton & Oulton Marshes, and establish a 1,000-acre wetland. All donations are most welcome: suffolkwildlifetrust.org
26 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE
TOM MARSHALL
MICHAEL LORD, MARSH HARRIER: THOMAS HANAHOE ALAMY
This would be habitat restoration on a landscape scale. Can you help it happen?
STEVE AYLWARD
They smell good too!
Share experieyour nces We wo uld
ELLS
your blu love to see ebe and exp ll images e @suffo riences lkwildli fe #lovew ildlife
1
Moss Valley Woodlands WT for Sheffield & Rotherham A secluded reserve on the southern boundary of Sheffield containing a beautiful string of ancient woodlands. Where is it? From Jordanthorpe to Norton, just to the south of Sheffield S8 8DZ.
2
Gobions Wood Hert & Middx Wildlife Trust Mostly wood, but also grassland, hedges, ponds and wetland. The ancient trees and soil make it particularly rich in fungi: 558 species have been found here. Where is it? Next to 18 Mymms Drive, Potters Bar AL9 7AF.
3
Barkbooth Lot Cumbria Wildlife Trust A mix of open fell, grassland and ancient oak woodland, rich in birdsong and dragonflies. Where is it? A mile west of Crosthwaite. Map ref SD 418 909.
4
Captain’s Wood Suffolk Wildlife Trust Step into Captain’s Wood and back hundreds of years into a woodland habitat of ancient trees and beautiful wildflowers. Where is it? School Road, Sudbourne, Woodbridge IP12 2BE.
5
Arger Fen & Spouse’s Vale Suffolk Wildlife Trust A mosaic of ancient woodland alongside fen meadow, and one of the best bluebell sites in the UK. Where is it? Assington, Sudbury CO8 5BN.
6
Bunny Old Wood Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust Some of the reserve may have been tree-covered since the Ice Age. Where is it? Off A60 Loughborough Rd, NG11 6QQ. For more infomation and to find a bluebell wood near you, visit wildlifetrusts. org/bluebells
No photograph does a bluebell wood justice: you just have to see it for yourself. And in the UK we have some of the best displays in the world
O
f all our wild places, ancient woodlands are the ones most steeped in magic. Take one step inside and you can sense the sheer age of the trees and the soil. But for a few weeks in April and May there’s something more magical still: an extravagant carpet of heavily-scented blue flowers. The UK has half the world’s population of common bluebells, and their profusion here reaches a peak
unequalled anywhere else on earth. A bluebell’s seeds only spread a foot or so from each plant, so their presence denotes a truly ancient forest. And these beautiful flowers are an important early food source for bees and butterflies. The Wildlife Trusts care for hundreds of bluebell woodlands. Here are just a few of them.
Bluebells denote a truly ancient forest
3 1 4 5
6 2
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 27
SPECIES SPOTLIGHT PURPLE EMPEROR LIVING LANDSCAPES
My beaver
RON WALSH
Bestselling author Tom Cox grew up thinking beavers were extinct in Britain. Then a small population appeared near him. With Devon Wildlife Trust’s help, he went for a look
26 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 28
I
did not travel to the River Otter, in east Devon, expecting to see wild beavers. Just to be within 100 yards of them and see their teeth marks on the trees would have been exciting enough for me. But as dusk fell, my friend Sarah and I, with Stephen from the Devon Wildlife Trust made our way quietly along the bank of the river we heard a loud splash. About 20 seconds later, two otters dipped past us at speed. They had a rattled look about them, like thugs who’d picked the wrong target. The size of the initial splash, Stephen said, suggested the
commotion was about more than just otters. A larger animal had been involved: perhaps a dog, perhaps a beaver. Nobody knows exactly how beavers first appeared on the River Otter, but sightings began in 2008. Not long afterwards, Devon’s new beavers began to breed. The government then decided to have them removed from the river. Fortunately, the Devon Wildlife Trust opposed this removal and managed to get a licence for them to live on the river for five years and their effect on the landscape to be monitored. There are
epiphany now thought to be around 20 beavers. People were wild camping near the river as Stephen, Sarah and I walked along its bank. The 1980s anthem ‘Golden Brown’ by The Stranglers tinkled through the trees from a portable stereo near their tent just downstream. I worried that The Stranglers might alienate the beavers but as Stephen,
I worried that The Stranglers might alienate the beavers
Sarah and I stood quietly in a dark spot under an ash tree and waited for the song to finish, almost exactly on cue with its final bars, a beaver of not dissimilar colour to the one celebrated by The Stranglers swam out from the opposite bank. It was more serene than I imagined, far more serene than the otters we’d just seen, but when it climbed out onto a small sandbank just upstream and began scratching itself that serenity quickly vanished. “It looks like a giant tea cosy,” said Sarah, accurately. Beavers are vegetarians, and – contrary to what you might have read in
CS Lewis – not the kind who sneakily eat fish as well. They were last seen in Britain some time in the 16th Century. The thickness of their pelts and the fact that their castor sacs (scent glands) contained castoreum, which was used as a tincture in perfume, meant they were hunted to extinction. You don’t hear people wanting a perfume that smells of castor sacs these days so you’d hope that, were beavers to return to the UK they’d have an easier time. Their ability to fell trees and build dams could also have a positive effect, slowing floods, and creating wildlife-friendly pools and bogs.
Could this become a common sight again? Devon Wildlife Trust believes there is a strong ecological case
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 29
SPECIES SPOTLIGHT After a grooming session this one swam 15 yards upstream and began to munch loudly through a bank of Himalayan balsam. I thought of my mum, who’d had problems with balsam in her garden, and pictured me and the beaver ringing the doorbell on her birthday, and me telling the beaver to hide behind the hedge, just to make the occasion that bit more special. Whereas otters live in holts, beavers live in lodges. This is one of many things I love about beavers. It tells you what you need to know about them straight away: they’re a bit fancy, but not too fancy. This particular beaver’s lodge had been built in the bank of the river directly opposite us, amidst the roots of overhanging trees. Spotters from Devon Wildlife Trust had thought that there were three kits living with this beaver and her far more publicity-shy male
friend – but six days after my visit a resident of the local village took a photo which clearly showed five kits. Having seen this, I drove back that evening and, after sitting on the bank for very little time at all, I saw two kits swimming out, following the exact same route that their mum had the previous week, climbing the bank and chomping on the balsam, albeit with considerably less volume. After a quarter of an hour a dog walker called David arrived. David has been watching the beavers for over three years, since before their presence was even revealed in the news. “The male never comes out,” he said. “The female’s
very casual now, though. I held a branch of willow in the water for her not long ago and she started to chew it.” Stephen said the adult beavers were around the size of a cocker spaniel but, looking at David’s cocker spaniel, Willow, I decided this was an underestimation. The adult female beaver looked a fair match on the scales for his labrador, Bracken. As darkness fell and the kits returned to the lodge, David and I walked back along the river in the direction of my car. David, who clearly had more finely tuned hearing than me, stopped abruptly every minute or two to investigate a distant splash or a rustle in the reeds. I had to remind myself not to get complacent about this: in less than a week I had seen three examples of an animal that, just a few years ago, I’d assumed I’d never see here in during my lifetime. n
20 YEARS OF BUCKING TRENDS
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Devon...
NICK UPTON/NATUREPL
In 2011, with the help of Devon Wildlife Trust, two beavers were released into a fenced enclosure in the Tamar headwaters. Their activities and effects were studied closely (see box, right)
28 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 30
She began to munch loudly on Himalayan balsam
The beaver effect These three maps span five years of the Tamar beaver study. Their three hectare enclosure consisted of culm grassland encroached by willow, birch and gorse, with a trickle of a stream. The beavers quickly felled trees and built dams to create the deep water they prefer. Within a year there were eight ponds with a combined area of 900m2. The knock-on effects (see graphs below) were remarkable.
Lodge
Fence Watercourse Pond
2012
New pond
Marshy area
MIKE SYMES
2016
Foraging channels
More wildlife
600 500 Frog spawn clumps on site
From mosses to invertebrates to bats, a wider range of species used the site once the beavers had got to work. Particularly impressive was the dramatic yearly increase in frog spawn clumps.
400 300 200 100 2011
Slower flow
2012
2013
2015
2016
Flow in and out of beaver site 00
Flow (m3/sec)
0.12
Scientists measured flows into and out of the beaver enclosure. The results showed how the dams and ponds hold water back. Across a catchment, beavers might be able to stop floods being so severe.
Less pollution
■ Above the site ■ Below the site
0.10 0.08 0.06
10
■ Rainfall ■ Flow above site ■ Flow below site
20 30
0.04
40
0.02
50
3.45pm
4.15pm
4.45pm
200
4
0.1
100
2
0.1
0
Sediment
Mg/litre
Mg/litre
Intensively managed farmland above the site produced soil, nitrogen and phosphate runoff. As the water slowed through the ponds, a high proportion of these pollutants were filtered out.
2014
0
Nitrogen
Rainfall (mm/hour)
One of the dams made by the Tamar beavers
Dam
0
Phosphate
SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 31
ELLIOTT M, BLYTHE C, BRAZIER R, BURGESS P, KING S, PUTTOCK A, TURNER C, (2016) BEAVERS – NATURE’S WATER ENGINEERS. DEVON WILDLIFE TRUST
Tom Cox is a writer and cat lover. His books include Bring me the head of Sergio Garcia and the Sunday Times top ten bestseller The Good, The Bad and The Furry @cox_tom
2011
Mg/litre
The beginning of a beaver dam
Matt Gooch Broads Warden at Carlton & Oulton Marshes
S
uffolk Wildlife Trust’s vision to create 1,000 acres of nature reserve in the Broads National Park has inspired extraordinary generosity from people near and far. A donation from the Edward and Ivy Rose Hood Memorial Fund helped us reach £500,000 − half way to our £1 million fundraising target. Mr & Mrs Hood lived in Oulton Broad, close to Carlton & Oulton Marshes. A founder member of Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Lowestoft Group and the Broads Society Southern Rivers Committee, Battersea-born Ivy was a keen naturalist with a real love of the marshes near her home. After Ted died last year, aged 94,
the Edward and Ivy Rose Hood Memorial Fund, chose to celebrate their lives by contributing to the Trust’s Broads reserve purchase. Barbara Hood, Mr Hood’s sister-in-law, who described the couple as true “Broads people” and stalwarts of the Lowestoft community, said Ivy and Ted “would be thrilled to bits to think they were supporting the purchase of the nature reserve.” Carlton Marshes reserve volunteer Ricky Cone, who became friends with Ted following Ivy’s death in 1995, said the gift was a fitting tribute to the couple’s rich and varied life. “Whenever I visit the marshes I will think of him. I will sit down somewhere on the marshes and Ted will be there with me.”
To find out more about how a gift in your Will could help Suffolk’s wildlife, please contact Christine Luxton on 01473 890089
Ted and Ivy Hood
Thanks to legacy gifts we have already received and our approaches to funders like the Heritage Lottery Fund, the impact of the donation from the Edward and Ivy Rose Hood Memorial Fund – and indeed every donation we receive – will be tripled.
Together we can reach £1 million. Please give whatever you can Suffolk Wildlife Trust Brooke House Ashbocking Ipswich IP6 9JY info@suffolkwildlifetrust.org
PDonate online suffolkwildlifetrust.org PDonate by phone 01473 890089 PDonate by cheque, payable to Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Registered charity no 262777
suffolkwildlifetrust.org
JOHN FERGUSON
Half way to £1 million