![M. Holland [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5) or CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://markavery.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/400px-George_Osborne_0437.jpg)
A little while ago the UK economy lost its triple-A rating credit rating. Would you say that the UK has a triple-A rating on its ecology?
What are the striking gains and losses of wildlife that you have noticed in your life?
Do you feel better off or worse off, from an ecological point of view?
[registration_form]
When I first moved to Dorset 30 years ago, there were 30 colonies of Pearl-bordered Fritillary, now there are none. Lack of woodland management and even-aged post war plantings to blame. Now attention turns to Small Pearls which are down to 2 colonies. And this in our richest butterfly county. BC has now geared up its work and is focussing on other counties to make sure they don’t get same fate!
Definitely a game of two parts: Better where there has been action for conservation, far worse in the wider countryside – the creeping attrition is terrifying.
Plantlife report that during this Queen’s reign we have lost 10 species of wildflower from this country. Butterfly Conservation report that we have seen 72% declines in our butterflies in the last ten years. Buglife report 15% (4,500 species) of all our invertebrates are under threat and some, like the short-haired bumblebee and the Essex emerald moth, have already gone extinct. The RSPB and BTO have recorded losses of 44 million birds from our countryside since 1966 (total population down from 210 million birds to 166 million) and enormous declines in once common species like the lapwing, starling, sparrow, nightingale and cuckoo. Now the biomass of 40 million alien (omnivorous) pheasants in our woods and fields is greater than the weight of all our native species combined. The hen harrier went extinct and was reintroduced, but is about to be persucuted back into national extinction (one breeding pair left last year). We have one solitary, lonely male golden eagle left, hopelessly displaying for a mate each spring in the Lake District’s empty skies.
All these losses have occurred on an island already impoverished by hundreds of years of persecution which have seen the removal of species still found throughout mainland Europe today; animals like the beaver, wild boar, lynx, pine marten, wolf and bear, leaving our ecosystem dangerously unbalanced and overrun with deer.
So I’d say that we deserve an ecological rating equivalent to the current credit rating of Greece or Cyprus. Luckily we have the “greenest government ever” who recognise the importance of the environment in maintaining our physical and mental well-being and so are acting decisively to halt the declines to our embattled natural heritage.
Or not.
Picture looks brighter north of the border though:
http://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/2013-wildlife-crime-conference-paul-wheelhouse-environment-minister/
Can we vote for England to be run by the Scottish Governement?
Hugh – that’s a great comment. Many thanks!
Nearly on-topic: re-posted from Buglife – hope link works
http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/toxins/Neonic_FINAL.pdf
“Can we vote for England to be run by the Scottish Governement?” (sic)
We were run by scottish labour MPs from 1997 to 2010 – the only time I have been ashamed to be British and that’s going some considering the handbagging toe-sucking expectant mother-chaining something of the night slimeball era which preceded it but at least we were spared the Welsh Windbag although in the fullness of time we did send Prescott to Kyoto so no-one could legitimately lay subsequent claim to be the greenest ever, ever.
Filbert – my man
I really do hope you feel much better after that outburst – brilliant – I have copied and pasted for my next anti-Labour blog on this Political Horse Racing blog
“We were run by scottish labour MPs from 1997 to 2010 – the only time I have been ashamed to be British and that’s going some considering the handbagging toe-sucking expectant mother-chaining something of the night slimeball era which preceded it but at least we were spared the Welsh Windbag although in the fullness of time we did send Prescott to Kyoto so no-one could legitimately lay subsequent claim to be the greenest ever, ever”
Just checking Filbert – best wishes
It was anti-the-other-lot until “era”
Hello Mark, in more than sixty years of looking at wildlife and their habitats it is clear that both are declining faster now than they have ever done. The rush to “boost the economy” means that any laws and regulations set up to “protect the countryside” are ignored. Roads and buildings are constructed from a map of the area and there is no consideration to anything else. This government are treating this country as if we are still in the 1930s, when it was thought that you can build your way out of a recession. I wonder if that idea came from the construction industry. It seems the present government are at a loss what to do. They can shout and bluster but they will not take any heed of good advice. I think that the increase of wildlife in our gardens is not due to the increase in wildlife but the decrease in wild habitats. The government department charged with protecting our countryside seem more concerned with protecting agriculture alone. That agriculture is important is not under question. What this country needs is a department that can join agriculture and our environment in a positive way for all. Defra have failed to deliver this. Developers are given a free hand to work on a blank canvas. This means any site used for “development” is completely destroyed. Why the need for “business parks.” Is it just so britain can claim back some of our money from the EEC? The claim is that jobs are created but this is probably not so. When firms re-locate to the next new business park their employees have to move with them or loose their jobs. This country is in a sorry state and this is reflected on wildlife. Healthy wildlife means healthy country. Will anyone listen? I have seen no improvement. Thanks for raising the issue.
Hugh Webster’s comment is the best comment I’ve ever read on this blog.
Many thanks Hugh.
You’ve summed up the current situation very well indeed, even though you’ve lowered my mood!
Come back spring and come back summer and come back my swifts….
I need a lift.
Thanks Doug – although sorry if I darkened your mood.
It doesn’t pay to be negative all the time and there are some good news stories out there too. I just heard on the radio from the BBC’s correspondent in Cyprus that he’s seeing swifts heading north, flying over all the bank bail out protesters. So spring is on the way!
Visiting a beautiful 13th C church near Forde Abbey in Dorset yesterday I was surprised to see a memorial for a man said to have died of ‘apoplexy’ – I hadn’t realised it was once a medical diagnosis ! Whatever our differences in view, I do fervently hope that such a fate does not befall Filbert or Trimbush – whilst i got some of the gist of their exchange it did become quite incomprehensible !
And whilst there may occasionally be political slants to this blog, its perhaps timely to remember it’s a wildlife, not a political blog and if you need reminding of that just check out the farmland & woodland bird indexes, and, even worse the butterfly indexes. Sadly, their stubbornly downward trends show no favour for whichever political colour you support, all are as bad as each other.
What surprises me about headstone epitaphs is the number of people who have died of falling asleep because I fall asleep at least once a day and even more if Mrs C is watching Miss Marple again and I haven’t managed to die yet although I wouldn’t mind dying of a cerebral apoplexy in my sleep since it would be painless and I would neither expect nor know anything about it although I should ask my Dad what is was like when he had one in his car in Tesco’s carpark in Wisbech but he died but no matter I certainly wouldn’t have to be irritated to death again by the incompetent complacent greedy cowardly self-serving self-righteous tunnel-visioned smug apologies for human beings that pollute my environs daily and in the matter of politicisation of a blog which stands up for nature the fact is that this worthy cause is frequently politicised by none other than the by the kindly chap who generously provides this splendid facility although on more than one occasion I have suspected him of trolling his own blog, look.
Filbert – no trolling by me.
Nor me.
I feel more connected to the countryside from my built-up-urban enviroment then under Labour. This has been achieved because thanks to “new” planning regulations little plots of land get brought and a thousand or so houses get built on it, so now I have grey concrete corridors that I walk/creep along unoticed out into the countryside akin to to how hedgerows work for nature. Soon as more of these little plots are snapped up, developed on the sooner I will be able to walk from John O’Groats to Lands End and not even have to see any cows or sheep and keep my lovely white trainers squeaky clean.
Hugh Webster says it for me too. It is a stunningly good summary of the situation. Perhaps all readers of this blog should copy and paste it into an email to their MP?
I agree Hugh’s depressing comment hits the nail on the head and does the “greenest ever” government care, quite simply NO. If there’s no profit in it or it cannot be shot or chased with hounds it’s irrelevant to them. I see I’m going to suffer another three years of 1% rises to help pay for the mess the Bankers got us into. Funny then when Europe wants to curb their bonuses who objects! talk about looking after your own.
I feel worse off for sure. Just around my house the decline is easy to see. About 5 years ago I sat in my garden surveying the wildlife in the RSPB’s annual summer count and I could see plenty of swifts and house martins and swallows. Last summer there were just 8 swifts and a handful of swallows, the house martins have not been seen for a few years now. How many swifts will there be this year? The decline in butterflies is only too evident despite our best efforts to help them. The local bat population is now virtually non existent and the Barn Owl that we saw with young a couple of years ago has disappeared from the area.
I feel very angry with the government and DEFRA, they just don’t get it do they!?
Have you sent Owen Paterson a copy of your excellent book? I finished reading tonight and will try to encourage others to read it. Chapter 10 was particularly thought provoking and challenging.
Aptly summarised by Hugh W above.
Hedgerows, dewponds, ‘cornfield weeds’, songbirds, raptors and wilderness of quality which has not suffered anthromorphical development for private (often foreign) profit subsidised by the public purse (we do the same with banks). Lowland raised mires still intact and not ravaged or plundered for their peat and marketed by corporate interest as essential for gardeners.
We have a colour blind government, perhaps because they have manicured lawns which is why they use selective or erroneous terms like “greenest government ever”? Like Nero, ‘fiddling’ whilst the planet burns, lest we forget and future generations do not forgive? Then the so called guardians have long since lost their muzzle and now act as developers lapdogs. If we are to cull badgers and deer, then why not & when the Houses of Parliament (shall we say by at least a third from each) 650 + 800+ seats)?
I’d love to see more of grass roots conservation and building critical mass and challenging rather than championing mitigation or building biodiversity, but sadly I’m a realist.
I don’t think die hard Tories really believe their greenest ever tag. Apart from a Red Kite drifting over Kensington today it all looked pretty bleak to me today. There are dedicated, knowledgable naturalists in every county with no-backing whatsoever from Westminster. The powers that be really couldn’t care less