#rewilding britain

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Could elk return to Britain? A UK charity, Rewilding Britain, has said restoring keystone species such as beaver, elk and bison is crucial to bringing nature back to life in the UK. Reintroducing missing species could help repair natural systems and benefit wildlife, people and climate, it said, as it announced the latest round of funding for rewilding initiatives

Geoffrey Oddie

[aquitainequeen]

Rewilding Britain: 12 projects giving nature a boost

As a new documentary reminds us, the UK is one of the world’s most nature depleted nations. These projects are aiming to turn the tide

As a new documentary reminds us, the UK is one of the world’s most nature depleted nations. These projects are aiming to turn the tide

For what will perhaps be his last on-location documentary series, veteran broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has turned his attention to the wildlife found on home turf, the British Isles. 

As television goes, Wild Isles is a triumph, presenting viewers with an intimate portrait of iconic species and glorious panoramas of cherished landscapes. But behind the cinematic scenes is a story of decline. “Though rich in places,” warns Attenborough, “Britain as a whole is one of the most nature-depleted places in the world.”

From habitat loss to sewage discharge, pesticide use to poor land management, the reasons for the decline are many and varied. But across the country, grassroots groups are rallying to turn the tide. Here are some of the projects looking to make Britain a wild isle again.  

Read more from Positive News!

[intelligentliving]

The Best Way to Restore Forests Is To Let The Trees Plant Themselves

Ecosystems have been growing themselves for hundreds of millions of years, and forests that plant themselves are better and most diverse. That’s why a group of environmental advocates in the UK from a charity called Rewilding Britain say we should let nature do its thing instead of manually mass-planting trees....

[orcinus-ocean]

And this is what’s called natural. This is what’s trumpeted by the Scottish tourist board as “Come and see, beautiful wild Scotland!” It’s what’s promoted in Hollywood movies like Braveheart, these vast, treeless, rolling hills. How wonderful is it. It’s a ruined landscape. It’s a wrecked ecosystem.

People used to live here. There’s no way people could live there now. There is nothing to support them. And what’s happened in Scotland is directly comparable to what’s happened in many other parts of the world.

The people that lived in this landscape were forcibly removed. In North America, they were put in reservations, in Australia, the aboriginals ended up in the slums of the cities. In Scotland, the people were forced off the land, and many of them emigrated.

Deer numbers have more than doubled in the past 35 years, and more and more deer are concentrated in ever tinier pockets of woodland. So guess what happens? Every tree gets eaten. Every seedling for 200 years has suffered the fate of that one there, eaten to death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpLP7Dnbedw

[orcinus-ocean]

Rewilding Britain with horses. They are still very small in number and important ecosystem engineers, but eventually, with no predators, the British will be faced with the same situation as in America and Australia, where Mustangs and Brumbies are overpopulated and have to be culled (shot in large numbers).

This is great, but they need predators, if humans won’t eat them.

[orcinus-ocean]

Talks of introducing lynx to Scotland, and about the newly established population in Germany. They could be a good “stepping stone” species to more controversial animals like wolves and bears, as they are extremely shy, pose no threat to humans and hardly ever take livestock.

But of course, farmers (that are destroying the landscape with their economical and environmental black hole called sheep) are complaining that the lynx MIGHT be trouble.

If we in rich, western countries can’t even take in a few lynxes or wolves, what right do we have to tell poor people in India and Africa to stop killing tigers and lions, that are actually endangering their livelihoods?

If we’re burning and tearing down the countryside, what moral high ground do we have to tell people in Brazil and Indonesia to stop chopping down rainforest?

They are destroying their eco systems, while many places in the west are already destroyed for centuries. And we won’t allow them to recover.

[caymannewsservice]

Return to nature can fight climate change

Return to nature can fight climate change

(CNS): A new report by the action group Rewilding Britain found that restoring nature on a big scale can help address the global climate emergency. In the reportthe charity demonstrates how changing the way rural land is managed can be as effective as high-tech solutions for removing carbon from the atmosphere. The activists estimate that six million hectares of regenerated woodland, peatland and…

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[suevincent]

Brown Bear

Another erstwhile resident of Britain is the Brown Bear. It figures in many of our legends and folktales and it is for the bear that the legendary King Arthur was named.  These lumbering giants still roamed our land until around a thousand years ago, when overhunting and the horrific but popular ‘sport’ of bear baiting finally rendered them extinct in Britain. Along with meat and fur, one of the…

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