Biodiversity Net Gain & River Pollution

Welcome to Inkcap Journal, a newsletter about nature and conservation in Britain. This is the Friday digest, rounding up all the week's news, science, reports, comment and more.

National news

Net gain | The government has released a consultation on biodiversity net gain, which will shape how nature is incorporated into future developments. The requirement for biodiversity net gain was established in the new Environment Act, and will become mandatory two years after the legislation received Royal Assent, but the details have yet to be finalised. The consultation will help to shape forthcoming secondary legislation, “covering areas from potential exemptions through to the reporting, evaluation, and monitoring of biodiversity net gain,” explains a blog by Natural England. The government has also announced £4m in funding to help Local Planning Authorities to prepare for biodiversity net gain. A blog in BusinessGreen asks whether the proposed rules can deliver on their promise.

Pollution | The Environment Agency has told staff to ignore reports of low-level pollution events because it does not have the funding to investigate them, according to a leaked internal report. The briefing, issued to staff in November, follows many years of cuts for the agency. The news has elicited outrage from river groups and NGOs, who say it is essential that the agency takes robust action in all cases of pollution if rivers are to be restored to a healthy condition. Mark Lloyd, the chief executive of the Rivers Trust, called the news an “appalling scandal”. He said: “The vast majority of incidents are in lower categories, and they are what cause the death of rivers by a thousand cuts.” ENDS broke the story, with the Guardian and Big Issue also covering the news.

Lynx | The Wildlife Trusts wants to put lynx back into the UK before the end of the decade, according to its chief executive, Craig Bennett. In an interview with the i, he likened their absence from the countryside to “if Shakespeare was missing from our culture – it’s an impoverished ecosystem if those species are not there”. The return of the lynx, he argues, could help to keep deer numbers under control, allowing trees to regenerate. Possible places for reintroduction include “parts of northern England, parts of the east of England, say around Thetford, and potentially, although probably less likely, parts of the south-west,” he said. For more on lynx reintroduction, check out our recent feature on the plan to return them to a Norfolk estate.

In other news:

• Protein from gorse bushes could feed millions of people, reports the Guardian.
• The Crown Estate is investing over £12m in new research to help protect the marine environment.
• Internal emails from NatureScot suggest there is “no strategy” to tackle the decline of natural sites, reports the Herald.
• A new species of deepwater soft coral has been discovered in the seas to the west of Scotland.

Across the country

Norfolk | Plans for a massive poultry farm near Attleborough have been met with strong resistance by locals, with some voicing fears that the farm’s lighting will damage the area’s clear view of the night sky. The Breckland Astronomical Society is among more than 300 respondents who have raised objections to the plans. The Society’s observatory is around two miles from the proposed site, and they have registered the area as a ‘dark sky discovery site’. Other objections include the proximity of the farm to Swangey Fen, a site of special scientific interest that is home to species such as red kite, otter and red deer. The Great Ellingham Parish Council has objected to the plans ‘in the strongest possible terms’, citing environment, ecology, groundwater, pollution and landscape in its objection. The Eastern Daily Press reported the story.

London | The Horniman Museum and Gardens has begun planting a 300-metre-square micro-forest to create new habitats for wildlife in the city. The micro-forest will sit between the gardens and the A205 South Circular, protecting them from noise and air pollution. Some 25 species of tree and shrub have been carefully selected, prioritising those that can cope with an increase in temperature and decrease in rainfall. Errol Fernandes, head of horticulture at the Horniman Institute, hopes the project will inspire change and demonstrate the importance of creating new habitat in cities: “Planting trees is an investment in the future health of our community, our cities and our planet,” he said.

New Forest | Conservationists have warned that the New Forest is being damaged by recreational activities despite widespread publicity campaigns, reports the BBC. Issues reported by the New Forest Association include dog fouling, off-route cycling, feeding of livestock and wild camping – with more than 2,700 breaches of forest bye-laws over a six-week period. Cyclists are posing a particular issue; a petition has been started to ban all electric bikes in the New Forest due to concerns that they are destroying the woodland’s ‘fragile environment’, according to Hampshire Live. Those objecting say that e-bikes damage pathways in the national park, pose dangers to ground nesting birds, walkers and horse riders, and are not conducive to ‘the quiet appreciation of nature’. However, those in favour argue that e-bikes allow greater access for the elderly and those with health issues.

Elsewhere:

• Oxford University has received £10m to set up a new nature recovery centre, focusing on landscapes including the Scottish Highlands.
• Network Rail has been told to improve its biodiversity plans for a new station in Cambridge, reports the New Civil Engineer.
• Vandals have damaged more than 30 trees planted by Jersey Trees for Life, reports the BBC.
• Derelict stables at a secret location in Sussex will be revamped to provide a home for greater horseshoe bats, reports the Guardian.
• A solar farm the size of more than 88 football pitches could be built on green belt land in Hertfordshire, reports the Guardian.
• National Highways have launched a public consultation on their proposals for a dual carriageway south of Arundel – something which the Sussex Wildlife Trust has been campaigning against for years.
• Joe Davis of the Rutland Wildlife Trust made an amazing discovery at a local reservoir: the fossilised remains of Britain’s largest ichthyosaur.
• Gardens at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show will feature planet-friendly designs, reports the Guardian.
• Children have fallen sick after swimming in the River Wharfe, England's only designated river bathing spot, reports the Telegraph.

Reports

Water | The Environmental Audit Committee has released a damning report into the state of England’s rivers. The waterways are a “chemical cocktail” of sewage, agricultural waste and plastic, the report says. Water companies are partly to blame for dumping untreated sewage on a regular basis; while farm slurry and fertiliser is choking rivers with algal blooms. You can read the entire litany of ecological horrors in the full report. The BBC and the Guardian covered the findings. Separately, another parliamentary committee, the Public Accounts Committee, published a report into the government’s Environmental Land Management Scheme, designed to replace EU agricultural subsidies. The findings were also damning; it concluded that the scheme appears “beset with many of the same issues that have undermined ambitious Government programmes in recent years”. However, Defra responded by saying that the analysis was out-of-date, and failed to acknowledge details that have been published in recent months. The Guardian covered the findings.

Journalism | The annual report by the Reuters Institute on media trends and predictions for the upcoming year includes a section on the challenges of reporting climate change. The report states that “despite mounting scientific evidence that the world is close to a tipping point … publishers say it is hard to engage audience interest – and this in turn makes it difficult to make the case for further investment.” Other barriers identified include the slow nature of developments, the depressing outlook, and the complex nature of the story with no easy solutions. Only a third of journalists think coverage of climate change is good enough, with another third classing it as ‘poor’. Reuters predicts that developments in 2022 will include more scientific expertise in newsrooms, constructive and accessible coverage, joint initiatives to tackle the issue, and increased debate over impartial reporting.

Farming | A report from the Nature Friendly Farming Network compares devolved and UK government targets for climate and nature, alongside an overview of farming and land use policy across the country. The report is part of the Network’s Rethink Farming campaign, and includes practical steps on how to start and progress farming for climate action. It explores how on-farm habitats can act as nature-based solutions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while also supporting farm businesses in becoming more resilient against climate change. The introduction to the report states that, despite the uncertainty farmers currently face, “what remains absolute is the positive role that agriculture can play in helping achieve the UK’s climate ambitions – but only when farming and land use is part of the solution.”

Science

Red squirrels | Current strategies to conserve red squirrels are likely to undermine the species’ future survival, according to a paper by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast and St Andrews University. Existing schemes promote the planting of non-native conifer trees to help red squirrels survive in Northern Ireland, but the study shows that, instead, native predators in native woodland are key for the animals to thrive. The researchers used camera traps to survey more than 700 sites across Northern Ireland over a five-year period, monitoring red squirrels, grey squirrels and pine martens. Dr Joshua Twining, lead author from Queen’s, said that red squirrel populations are seeing the benefits of the return of the pine marten in UK and Ireland, but that current national conservation strategies that favour non-native plantations are likely to have the “opposite impact to what is needed”. The study was featured by the British Ecological Society, and covered by the Guardian, the Telegraph and the BBC.  

Flooding | Semi-natural broadleaf woodland can significantly reduce flooding caused by rainfall, and should be considered more widely as a method for natural flood management, according to a study in Hydrological Processes. The study, which took place around Haweswater Reservoir in the Lake District, measured streamflow in nine small upland catchment areas during 28 storm events, comparing the woodland areas with pasture of varied grazing intensity. Researchers found that the woodland reduced peak flow by 23-60% and run-off by 30-60% compared with pasture – a clear indication of its benefits. “These differences in flood response are partly explained by more permeable woodland soils, 11–20 times greater than pasture soil,” according to the study. Among the authors was Lee Schofield, site manager of RSPB Haweswater, whom we interviewed last year, and whose book on Lake District conservation comes out next month.

Food | High-income nations could achieve a “double climate dividend” if populations swapped from a meat- to a plant-based diet, according to a study published in Nature Food. This would reduce the greenhouse gases produced by direct agricultural emissions, while the return of natural vegetation on the resulting spared land would increase carbon sequestration. Or, as the BBC put it: “One hundred billion tons of carbon dioxide could be removed from the air by the end of the century through veggie diets plus rewilding farmland.” Carbon Brief has an in-depth summary of the study.

Driftwood

Salmon | The Sunday Times has a deeply researched feature, accompanied by amazing photographs, on the demise of wild salmon netting – a gruelling industry that once formed the bedrock of communities around the Scottish coast. The Scottish government enacted a moratorium on the practice in 2016, in the face of dwindling salmon numbers, which has left the old practitioners in a difficult situation. They argue that they’ve been made to bear the brunt of a problem that is much more complicated. “There’s a huge amount of cultural knowledge, indigenous knowledge, ecological knowledge, all wrapped up in these guys,” says Magnus Davidson of the University of the Highlands and Islands. “Even removing the debate around the ecological impact and the salmon numbers, we should be caring. We could still deeply mourn the loss of this industry.”

Rewilding | Last week, we covered the government’s latest raft of announcements on its post-Brexit plans for agricultural subsidies, including the news that farmers would be paid for what is essentially rewilding through the Landscape Recovery scheme. There was more reaction to that this week. Daily Mail columnist Janet Street-Porter was decidedly not a fan, labelling rewilding as a “fad for Carrie’s rich pals”. She writes: “The best custodians of our countryside are farmers, all the evidence exists that government interference usually results in devastation and destruction.” However, the scheme received a warmer welcome from the Exmoor Pony Society – the breed is often used in rewilding and conservation grazing projects – and WildEast, a rewilding project based in the East of England.

Sheep | The Herald has a short piece on the seaweed-eating sheep of North Ronaldsay, and how they could help to tackle climate change. The James Hutton Institute has been researching what the sheep tell us about a seaweed diet for over a decade, writes Vicky Allan – it is possible that seaweed supplements could help to reduce methane emissions from other animals. “Distinct in so many ways, the flock shows we may find answers for the future in old and very local practices; why, in this frequently monocultural world, they are so worth preserving.”

Further reading:

• The conservationist Jane Kemp, who helped to reestablish red squirrels in Wensleydale, has died aged 92, reports the Northern Echo.
• Muirburn is good for the ecosystem, writes Tim Baynes, who is moorland director at Scottish Land & Estates.

Happy days

Rainforest | In an episode of Rick Stein’s Cornwall, aired on the BBC, the chef visits an ambitious rewilding project on Bodmin Moor – a farm belonging to the explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison. His son, Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, is attempting to restore the former range of the ancient temperate rainforest that once existed on this land. The project, called Cabilla Cornwall, is featured on the Rewilding Britain website.