60. Oliver Rackham, 1986, The History of the Countryside, JM Dent and Sons, London.
61. Wilson, ‘Could we live with reintroduced large carnivores in the UK?’; Panaman, ‘Wolves are returning’.
62. Erlend B. Nilsen et al, 2007, ‘Wolf reintroduction to Scotland: public attitudes and consequences for red deer management’, Proceedings of the Royal Society–B, vol. 274, no. 1612, pp. 995–1003, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2006.0369.
63. Ibid.
64. D. P. J. Kuijper, 2011, ‘Lack of natural control mechanisms increases wildlife–forestry conflict in managed temperate European forest systems’, European Journal of Forest Research, vol. 130, no. 6, pp. 895–909, doi: 10.1007/s10342-011-0523-3.
65. Dan Puplett, 2008, ‘Our once and future fauna’, ECOS, vol. 29, pp. 4–17.
66. Laura R. Prugh et al, 2009, ‘The rise of the Mesopredator’, BioScience, vol. 59, no. 9, pp. 779–91.
67. Nilsen et al, ‘Wolf reintroduction to Scotland’.
68. R. D. S. Jenkinson, 1983, ‘The recent history of Northern Lynx (Lynx lynx Linne) in the British Isles’, Quaternary Newsletter, vol. 41, pp. 1–7. Cited in David A. Hetherington, Tom C. Lord and Roger M. Jacobi, 2006, ‘New evidence for the occurrence of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in medieval Britain’, Journal of Quaternary Science, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 3–8, doi: 10.1002/jqs.960.
69. Hetherington, Lord and Jacobi, ‘New evidence for the occurrence of Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in medieval Britain’.
70. http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/geraint.jones/rhydychen.org/about.welsh/pais-dinogad.html
71. Darren Devine, 12 October 2005, ‘Was Welsh poet right about lynx legend?’, Western Mail, www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/tm_objectid=16238211&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=was-welsh-poet-right-about-lynx-legend–name_page.html
72. David Hetherington, 2010, ‘The lynx’, in Terry O’Connor and Naomi Sykes (eds.), Extinctions and Invasions: A Social History of British Fauna, Windgather Press, Oxford.
73. Wilson, ‘Could we live with reintroduced large carnivores in the UK?’.
74. David Hetherington, 13 July 2010, ‘The potential for restoring Eurasian lynx to Scotland’, presentation at Rewilding Europe and the Return of Predators. Symposium convened by the Zoological Society of London.
75. U. Breitenmoser et al, 2000, The Action Plan for the Conservation of the Eurasian Lynx (Lynx Lynx) in Europe, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, France, Nature and Environmental Series No. 112. Cited by David Hetherington et al, 2008, ‘A potential habitat network for the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx in Scotland’, Mammal Review, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 285–303.
76. David Hetherington, 2006, ‘The lynx in Britain’s past, present and future’, ECOS, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 66–74.
77. Hetherington et al, ‘A potential habitat network for the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx in Scotland’.
78. Hetherington, ‘The potential for restoring Eurasian lynx to Scotland’.
8. A WORK OF HOPE
*1 Zimov et al maintain that ‘boreal forest expanded northward at the end of the Pleistocene into areas that had been predominantly steppe, presumably in response to climatic warming’.46 Elsewhere Zimov writes: ‘In the southern steppes, the situation is different. There, the warmer soil allows for more rapid decomposition of plant litter even in the absence of herbivores.’47
*2 William Ripple and Blaire Van Valkenburgh caution that the populations of large herbivores are likely to have been low, as they were suppressed by predators and subject to trophic cascades. This could have made it easy for humans to have driven them to extinction.52
†3 Again, it is worth bearing the alternative hypothesis in mind: that the herbivores could have been tipped into extinction easily, as their numbers were low. If people deprived other predators of their largest prey, those predators would have been forced to kill smaller animals (as wolves in Alaska do when hunters have reduced the moose population). This might have created a powerful knock-on effect, as extinctions cascaded down the food chain.
*4 Zimov and colleagues now argue that because the steppes are drier than mossy tundra, they are less likely to generate and release methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Being paler, they also absorb less heat.59 But these effects will be at least in part counteracted by the effect he documented in 1995: moss insulates the soil much more effectively than grass, preventing the permafrost from thawing and releasing the methane and carbon dioxide it contains. It is not clear at this stage which effect will dominate.
1. Bryony Coles, 2006, Beavers in Britain’s Past, Oxbow Books and WARP, Oxford.
2. Oliver Rackham, 1986, The History of the Countryside, JM Dent and Sons, London.
3. Derek Yalden, 1999, The History of British Mammals, T and AD Poyser, London.
4. Ibid.
5. The Cairngorm Reindeer Herd, various dates, www.cairngormreindeer.co.uk/
6. R. Coard and A. T. Chamberlain, 1999, ‘The nature and timing of faunal change in the British Isles across the Pleistocene/Holocene transition’, The Holocene, 9, p. 372, doi: 10.1191/095968399672435429; Yalden, British Mammals.
7. BIAZA, 2012, ‘Eelmoor Marsh Conservation Project’, www.biaza.org.uk/conservation/conservation-projects/eelmoor-marsh-conservation-project/
8. Yalden, British Mammals.
9. David Hetherington, 2010, ‘The lynx’, in Terry O’Connor and Naomi Sykes (eds.), Extinctions and Invasions: A Social History of British Fauna, Windgather Press, Oxford.
10. Rackham, History of the Countryside.
11. Ibid.
12. The Mammal Society, 2011, www.mammal.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=250&Itemid=283
13. Ibid.
14. Yalden, British Mammals.
15. Mary C. Stiner, 2004, ‘Comparative ecology and taphonomy of spotted hyenas, humans, and wolves in Pleistocene Italy’, Revue de Paléobiologie, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 771–85.
16. Dick Mol, John de Vos and Johannes van der Plicht, 2007, ‘The presence and extinction of Elephas antiquus Falconer and Cautley, 1847, in Europe’, Quaternary International, vols. 169–70, pp. 149–53.
17. Yalden, British Mammals.
18. Ibid.
19. No author given, 18 July 2005, ‘Plan to bring grey whales back to Britain’, Daily Telegraph, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1494286/Plan-to-bring-grey-whales-back-to-Britain.html
20. Yalden, British Mammals.
21. J. R. Waldman, 2000, ‘Restoring Acipenser sturio L., 1758 in Europe: lessons from the Acipenser oxyrinchus Mitchill, 1815 experience in North America’, Boletín, Instituto Español de Oceanografía, vol. 16, pp. 237–44.
22. Jörn Gessner et al, 2006, ‘Remediation measures for the Baltic sturgeon: status review and perspectives’, Journal of Applied Ichthyology, vol. 22, issue supplement s1, pp. 23–31, doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0426.2007.00925.x; F. Kirschbaum and J. Gessner, 2000, ‘Re-establishment programme for Acipenser sturio L. 1758: the German approach’, Boletín, Instituto Español de Oceanografía, vol. 16, pp. 149–56.
23. P. Williot et al, 2009, ‘Acipenser sturio recovery research actions in France’, in Biology, Conservation and Sustainable Development of Sturgeons, Fish & Fisheries Series, vol. 29, III, pp. 247–63, Springer, Germany, doi: 10.1007/978-1-4020–8437-9_15.
24. Mull Magic, 2012. ‘White-tailed eagles on the Isle of Mull’, www.white-tailed-sea-eagle.co.uk/
25. British Birds, 1 August 2010, ‘White-tailed eagle reintroduction grounded’, www.britishbirds.co.uk/news-and-comment/white-tailed-eagle-reintroduction-grounded
26. Dyfi Osprey Project, 2011, ‘History of British ospreys’, www.dyfiosprey-project.com/history-of-british-ospreys
27. Tim Melling, Steve Dudley and Paul Doherty, 2008, ‘The eagle owl in Britain’, British Birds, vol. 101, pp. 478–90.
28. D. W. Yalden and U. Albarella, 2009, The History of British Birds, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
29. Ibid.
30. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 2012, Goshawk, www.rspb.org
.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/goshawk/index.aspx
31. Forestry Commission, 2012, Capercaillie, www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/capercaillie
32. Trees for Life, 1999, Species Profile: Capercaillie, www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.capercaillie.html
33. Clive Hambler and Susan M. Canney, 2013 (2nd edition, read in galley proof), Conservation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
34. Wildlife Extra, 2007, ‘Great Bustards in the UK’, www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/bw-greatbustards.html
35. Andrew Stanbury and the UK Crane Working Group, 1 August 2011, ‘The changing status of the common crane in the UK’, www.britishbirds.co.uk/articles/the-changing-status-of-the-common-crane-in-the-uk
36. Peter Taylor, 2011, ‘Big birds in the UK: the reintroduction of iconic species’, ECOS, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 74–80.
37. Yalden and Albarella, British Birds.
38. BBC News, 23 April 2004, ‘Storks set to end 600-year wait’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/3653171.stm
39. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 2012, ‘Something to stork about!’, www.rspb.org.uk/community/wildlife/b/wildlife/archive/2012/04/26/something-to-stork-about.aspx
40. Yalden and Albarella, British Birds.
41. Natural England, 12 September 2011, ‘Breeding spoonbills return to Holkham’, www.naturalengland.org.uk/about_us/news/2011/120911.aspx
42. Natural England, 21 November 2012, by email.
43. Yalden and Albarella, British Birds.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. See S. A. Zimov et al, 1995, ‘Steppe–tundra transition: a herbivore-driven biome shift at the end of the Pleistocene’, The American Naturalist, vol. 146, no. 5, pp. 765–94.
47. See S. A. Zimov, 2005, ‘Pleistocene Park: return of the mammoth’s ecosystem’, Science, vol. 308, pp. 796–8, doi: 10.1126/science. 1113442.
48. www.riverbluffcave.com/gallery/rec_id/104/type/1
49. Nancy Sisinyak, no date given, ‘The biggest bear . . . ever’, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=232&issue_id=41
50. San Diego Zoo, April 2009, Extinct Teratorn, Teratornithidae, http://library.sandiegozoo.org/factsheets/_extinct/teratorn/teratorn.htm
51. For example, Paul S. Martin, 2005, Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America, University of California Press, Berkeley; F. L. Koch and A. D. Barnosky, 2006, ‘Late Quaternary extinctions: state of the debate’, Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, vol. 37, pp. 215–50.
52. See William J. Ripple and Blaire Van Valkenburgh, 2010, ‘Linking top-down forces to the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions’, BioScience, vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 516–26, doi: 10.1525/bio.2010.60.7.7.
53. See Ripple and Van Valkenburgh, ‘Linking top-down forces’.
54. Josh Donlan et al, 2005, ‘Re-wilding North America’, Nature, vol. 436, pp. 913–14, doi: 10.1038/436913a; Tim Caro, 2007, ‘The Pleistocene re-wilding gambit’, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 281–3, doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2007.03.001.
55. Dustin R. Rubenstein et al, 2006, ‘Pleistocene Park: does re-wilding North America represent sound conservation for the 21st century?’, Biological Conservation, vol. 132, pp. 232–8, doi: 10.1016/j.biocon. 2006.04.003.
56. Peter Taylor, 2009, ‘Re-wilding the grazers: obstacles to the “wild” in wildlife management’, British Wildlife, vol. 51, no. 5 (special supplement), pp. 50–55.
57. Pleistocene Park, various dates, www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/
58. Zimov, ‘Pleistocene Park’.
59. www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/background/
60. Zimov et al, ‘Steppe-tundra transition’.
61. Mike D’Aguillo, 2008, ‘Recreating a wooly mammoth’, http://sites.google.com/site/mikesbiowebpage/mammoth-recreation-project; Nicholas Wade, 9 November 2008, ‘Regenerating a mammoth for $10 million’, New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/science/20mammoth.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
62. Global Invasive Species Database, 2012, ‘Clarias batrachus’, www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=62&fr=1&sts=sss&lang=EN
63. Global Invasive Species Database, 2012, ‘Rhinella marina (= Bufo marinus)’, www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=113&fr=1&sts=sss&lang=EN
64. John Vidal, 20 May 2008, ‘From stowaway to supersize predator: the mice eating rare seabirds alive’, Guardian, www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/20/wildlife.endangeredspecies
65. Offwell Woodland & Wildlife Trust, 2011, ‘The value of different tree species for invertebrates and lichens’. Data extracted from C. E. J. Kennedy and T. R. E. Southwood, 1984, ‘The number of species of insects associated with British trees: a re-analysis’, Journal of Animal Ecology, vol. 53, pp. 455–78, www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/woodland_manage/tree_value.htm
66. Christopher D. Preston, David A. Pearman and Allan R. Hall, 2004, ‘Archaeophytes in Britain’, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 145, pp. 257–94.
67. Jagjit Singh et al, 1994, ‘The search for wild dry rot fungus (Serpula lacrymans) in the Himalayas’, Journal of the Institute of Wood Science, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 411–12.
68. Preston, Pearman and Hall, ‘Archaeophytes in Britain’.
69. Ibid.
70. Christine M. Cheffings and Lynne Farrell (eds.), 2005, ‘Species Status No. 7’, The Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/pub05_speciesstatusvpredlist3_web.pdf
71. Plantlife, 2011, Pheasant’s-eye, www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants/plant_species/pheasants-eye
72. Yalden, British Mammals.
73. Book V, 12, cited by Yalden, British Mammals.
74. Forestry Commission, 29 July 2008, ‘Goshawks are stars of the show at Haldon!’, www.forestry.gov.uk/newsreel.nsf/WebPressReleases/0163369508A2CD738025748800522E10; Rob Coope, 2007, ‘A preliminary investigation of the food and feeding behaviour of pine martens in productive forestry from an analysis of the contents of their scats collected in Inchnacardoch forest, Fort Augustus’, Scottish Forestry, vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 3–15.
75. Yalden, British Mammals.
76. P. Salo et al, 2008, ‘Risk induced by a native top predator reduces alien mink movements’, Journal of Animal Ecology, vol. 77, no. 6, pp. 1092–8, doi: 10.1111/j.1365–2656.2008.01430.x.
77. Guy Hand, October 2000, ‘Planting on barren ground’, Trees for Life, www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.guyhand.html
78. Dan Puplett, no date given, ‘Dead wood’, Trees for Life, www.treesforlife.org.uk/forest/ecological/deadwood.html
79. Alan Watson Featherstone, 2001, ‘The wild heart of the Highlands’, Trees for Life, www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.wildheart.html
80. Ibid.
9. SHEEPWRECKED
*1 The National Ecosystem Assessment states that ‘agricultural land occupied some 1.64 million ha or 79% of Wales in 2008’ and that ‘crops now account for only 3% of the agricultural land area’.15
†2 Most of the animals farmed are sheep, whose major product is meat. There are also over 1 million cattle.16 These are split almost evenly between dairy and beef,17 but the male calves from both industries are reared for beef.
*3 This covers conservation work, wildlife tourism, other jobs which would not exist were it not for wildlife, and academic and commercial research and consultancy.
*4 These conditions apply to Pillar 1 subsidies, which account for the majority of farm payments.
*5 The Forestry Commission publishes maps which show where tree planting is and is not eligible for grants. It is beginning to ease the rules a little following widespread complaints about its discouragement of upland planting.
*6 In 2011 the Forestry Commission published a map showing where grants will be issued for planting woodland. Almost all the upland areas of Wales, including most of the Cambrian Mountains, were marked red, meaning that no planting would be sanctioned there.40
†7 �
�This has had a detrimental effect on the ranker and peaty podzol soils, with degraded areas containing significantly less carbon and nitrogen, means of 5% C and 0.4% N in comparison with 24–27% C and 1.1–1.4% N in intact heathland ecosystems at the same site.’41
*8 Not only does the soil beneath woodland lock up more carbon than the soil beneath grass, but the trees also store more carbon above the surface: broadly speaking, trees are pillars of wet carbon. Sheep and cattle produce large quantities of methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas. The tractors and quad bikes farmers use consume fossil fuels.
†9 ‘The average annual cost of damage from flooding in England is estimated at more than £1 billion.’45 The figure for Wales is, or was, £262 million. This is likely to have risen as a result of the floods in 2012.46
1. Woodland Trust, 2012, UK Woodland Facts, www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/news-media/fact-file/Pages/uk-woodland-facts.aspx#.Tp7vU3LDD9o
2. Thomas More, Utopia, chapter 22.
3. David Williams, 1952, ‘Rhyfel y Sais Bach: an enclosure riot on Mynydd Bach’, Journal of the Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society, vol. 2, nos. 1–4.
4. National Library of Wales, 2004, ‘Life on the land: land ownership’, http://digidol.llgc.org.uk/METS/XAM00001/ardd?locale=en
5. In evidence submitted to the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, 16 February 2011, ‘Farming in the uplands’, Third Report of Session 2010–11, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmenvfru/556/556.pdf
6. Statistics for Wales, 2011, Agricultural Small Area Statistics for Wales, 2002 to 2010. SB 75/2011, http://wales.gov.uk/docs/statistics/2011/110728sb752011en.pdf
7. UK National Ecosystem Assessment (2011), chap. 20, fig. 20.8, ‘Short-term abundance of widespread breeding birds in Wales 1994–2009’, http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org/Resources/tabid/82/Default.aspx
8. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Cymru, 2009, Submission to Rural Development Sub-Committee Inquiry into the future of the uplands in Wales, http://www.assemblywales.org/6_rspb_formatted.pdf
9. UK National Ecosystem Assessment, chap. 20, fig. 20.16, ‘Condition of a) riverine species, and b) riverine habitats in special areas of conservation in Wales’, http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org/Resources/tabid/82/Default.aspx
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