#642: Wildfires

Wildfires are breaking out across Europe.

It's not clear whether most of them started by natural causes.

A report from the House of Lords.

Wildfires are a natural phenomenon and an essential process in some ecosystems. However, around the world climate change, demographic changes and shifts in land use are altering their frequency and severity.

In the UK, natural wildfires, for example those sparked following lightning strikes, are rare and most wildfires are the result of human action. The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), which represents fire and rescue services (FRS) across the UK (44 in England, three in Wales and one each in Scotland and Northern Ireland), notes that most wildfires nationally originate from human activity such as:

• littering (from improper disposal of a cigarette to dropping litter such as reflective items and glass bottles that then start a fire)
• unattended fires (campfires, bonfires and barbecues left unattended or not fully extinguished)
• deliberate fire-setting
• controlled burning used to manage land that then gets out of control

There is no single definition of what constitutes a wildfire in the UK, with different definitions used by government agencies, the media and FRS. 

The UK government used to define a wildfire as any “unplanned and uncontrolled fire(s) in the natural environment”, but now defines the term to mean an “uncontrolled fire that burns vegetation, such as grass, heather, woodland, crops and scrubland”.

The NFCC maintains that not all outdoor fires are wildfires. Instead, it defines a wildfire as “any uncontrolled vegetation fire which requires a decision, or action, regarding suppression”. In addition, the NFCC specifies that a wildfire will meet one or more of the following criteria:

• involves a geographical area of at least one hectare (10,000 square metres)
• has a sustained flame length of more than 1.5 metres
• requires a committed resource of at least four FRS appliances/resources
• requires resources to be committed for at least six hours
• presents a serious threat to life, environment, property and infrastructure

One of the most heartbreaking ones, was relatively local to me, and an area I know well: Dunwich Heath which borders Minsmere RSPB reserve.

A fundraiser shows the depth of feeling for this landscape.

"This beautiful purple landscape, once filled with the sound of warblers and skylarks and people enjoying a walk through the heather, is now unrecognisable."

Hilary McGrady, director-general of the National Trust

#594: UK Species

The Natural History Museum has a page on the UK's species.

The museum is working on bringing all of the standard reference names for all species of flora and fauna in the UK, together in one place.

Over 70,000 species of animals, plants, fungi and single-celled organisms are found in the UK.

A SEARCH function is available for this inventory.

#446: Doggerland

Doggerland is the name given to an area which is now submerged beneath the North Sea. 

The higher sections of the land are known as Dogger Bank: a fishing ground.

The National Geographic has explored the area.

At the end of the last ice age, Britain formed the northwest corner of an icy continent. Warming climate exposed a vast continental shelf for humans to inhabit. Further warming and rising seas gradually flooded low-lying lands. Some 8,200 years ago, a catastrophic release of water from a North American glacial lake and a tsunami from a submarine landslide off Norway inundated whatever remained of Doggerland.

There have been many items dredged up by trawlers from this area, or found on beaches along North Sea coasts. Doggerland was home to Mesolithic peoples.

Origin of the name:

Doggerland was named by University of Exeter archaeologist Bryony Coles in the 1990s after the Dogger Bank, a stretch of seabed in the North Sea in turn named after the 17th century “Dogger” fishing boats that sailed there

From Archaeology.Org.

The floor of the North Sea is now recognized as the largest well-preserved prehistoric archaeological landscape in the world. It would have been a paradise for the bands of hunter-gatherers who followed the retreating ice sheets into the region to settle there. They, however, were not Doggerland’s first inhabitants. Millennia prior to their arrival, the North Sea basin had belonged to Neanderthals, who lived there for hundreds of thousands of years. During the last Ice Age, between roughly 125,000 and 15,000 years ago, Doggerland was part of the cold and dry mammoth steppe. Because vast quantities of water were trapped in glacial ice sheets, the North Sea was around 450 feet lower than it is today. It was a mostly treeless, grassy plain that attracted mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses as well as herds of reindeer, horses, and aurochs.

This would be a potential case study for the proposed theme on landscape change.

#268: Nature has rights - or not...

Another new low from the UK government from a week or so ago, which I've just got round to posting here... there've been quite a few other related stories as well.

This Guardian article has been retweeted a number of times over the last few days, with the same sort of response from a great many environmental organisations and campaigners.

“It’s paradoxical because it recognises rights for non-human entities like corporations but denies them to non-human living beings. It’s contradictory because, while rhetorically acknowledging different cultures and Indigenous worldviews, it nevertheless imposes the western understanding of rights and law,”

Robert MacFarlane has written on the fact that rivers were recognised as being a living thing, and Patrick Barkham has also written for The Guardian on this theme.

#263: Giants are flourishing

An interesting story on the BBC today about the giant redwooods that were planted in a number of locations to add to arboretums or woodlands in the grounds of stately homes, and which are now flourishing in the UK's climate. 

They were brought over by the Victorians, along with a range of other plants which were introduced at this time to ornamental gardens.

It was interesting to see that there are now more of the trees here in the UK than are left in California. 

As they are no older than 160 years, does that make them part of our natural history now? They are non-native species of course.

The research article also refers to the carbon sequestration potential of the trees.

Disney, Mathias et al. (2023). Data for: UK redwoods terrestrial laser scanner point clouds [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ttdz08m3n

Giant redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum) are some of the UK’s largest trees, despite only being introduced in the mid-19th century. Given recent interest in planting redwoods in the UK, partly due to their carbon sequestration potential and also their undoubted public appeal, an understanding of their viability is important.

#153: The UK in 100 Seconds

The UK in 100 seconds from Friends of the Earth on Vimeo.

The UK in 100 Seconds was conceived by Daniel Raven Ellison.

It’s difficult to get a picture of what the United Kingdom really looks like. Imaginations and assumptions can distort decisions that affect our lives. We often hear the idea that there is simply no more room in the country. In reality, just six per cent of the UK is built on.

‘The UK in 100 Seconds’ is a provocative and thought provoking film that rearranges the United Kingdom’s land into 32 categories and divides them over 100 seconds. Each second equates to 1% of what the country looks like from the air.

Made by guerrilla geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison and filmmaker Jack Smith, the film was made by travelling from Tongue in the north of Scotland to the New Forest in the south of England. Each second of the film covers roughly one metre of Raven-Ellison’s walk through moorland and peat bogs, down a runway and over a dump.

Made in collaboration with Friends of the Earth, the film gives an honest reflection of what land looks like and how it is used in the United Kingdom and raises some challenging questions. A major inspiration for Raven-Ellison making the film is the amount of space that is used for feeding livestock and the question – what if we made more space for nature?

More details on the film here.

The narration is by Benjamin Zephaniah.

A second film focussed on the UK's National Parks in 100 Seconds, with narration by Cerys Matthews.

And a third focussed on the Netherlands.

#139: Lydford Gorge: temperate rainforests

A news report from the BBC explores the UK's few temperate rainforests. I have mentioned Guy Shrubsole's book before - a copy is in my Natural History library and will be featured on the blog as well and in the reading lists we are making.

The story looks at Lydford Gorge in Devon, a place I've visited a few times over the years.

A reminder of the need to protect what we have. There are some particularly rare lichens in the woods, including one in Somerset which is the only known location where it is found.

The article says:

Lichens are a particularly unusual class of organisms found in temperate rainforests.

The plant-like living things are made up of fungi growing in association with other life forms, such as algae. There are more than 2,000 species in Britain and Ireland alone, many of which are found in temperate rainforests,

The horsehair lichen Bryoria smithii is known at only two rainforest sites in Britain and Arthonia thoriana, a rare comma lichen, is not known anywhere else in the world other than at Horner Wood in Somerset. 

Temperate rainforests are made up of oak, birch, ash, pine and hazel woodland, but the ash trees are suffering from ash dieback.

#64: Natural History Reading List #4: Flora Britannica

This is a very sizeable book, which was published in 1996, after five years of effort.

You will find copies in second-hand book shops if you are fortunate. Used copies are also available online.

This is an essential addition to any departmental library for those teaching the new specification because of its focus.

It is a remarkable piece of work by Richard Mabey, supported by Common Ground (see blogpost about this organisation).

It covers the natural and naturalised plants of England, Scotland and Wales. 

It is a cultural book rather than a purely botanical ID guide. It looks at the role of wild plants in social life, arts, custom and landscape. These are all areas which are going to be in the draft specification I would imagine, and so this could be said to be one of the key sources for information and details on a range of areas for the new specification.

Also check out his rather smaller book: 'A Good Parcel of English Soil' on his childhood in what is now called Metroland and how nature reclaimed areas which people had left alone.

There are sections on a whole range of plants and trees, including vernacular names and specific locations. 

Weeds are included, as well as plants close to the sea, fruit and familiar plants, plants on common land, and plants in watery locations.

If one of the purposes of the new specification is for young people to know more about the plants they see in hedgerows and gardens on the way to school, this is going to be valuable.

If we take one example of a plant: the stinging nettle. We can learn a lot from the entry in the book for this plant.

This is apparently a plant that many young people can't identify.

Growing up in the 1960s and 70s in Yorkshire, with woods and common on the doorstep we were very familiar with this plant. It tends to grow close to human settlement and prefers woodland glades or river banks. It likes soils rich in phosphate, which tend to be those where domesticated animals have grazed and manured, or through burning, dumping of refuse or in graveyards. Straight away reading this we can see some human-nature relationships e.g. they are found in ruined crofts in Scotland despite the occupants leaving hundreds of years ago, and also on the sites of Romano-British villages.

The nettle family is called Urticaceae.

Its vernacular names including Devil's plaything, Hokey-pokey and Jinny nettle.

It causes a rash if touched (urticaria) and has given its name to a whole range of places including Nettlecombe in Dorset, for example, home to a Field Studies Council centre.

This gave me an idea straight away of using the gazetteer in Digimap for Schools to find which plants/trees/animals have the most places named after them, or which include the plant/tree/animal in their name.

They are a source / ingredient for food and ale, and were used as a subsistence food during the Irish Potato Famine, and the Second World War.

There are nettle eating competitions (don't try that at school) and some use the stings to ward off inflammation, and also restore circulation. They are also used to make fibres, and military clothing has previously been made from the thread. They can also be used to make a dye.

Image: Book cover - Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license

Nettle: https://www.pngall.com/nettle-png/download/111768

#49: You're invited to a different kind of 'Stag Do'

One of the resources that I am putting together is something on oppoertunities to get involved in Citizen Science. There are quite a few of these spread through the year, and teachers could perhaps create a 'loyalty card' which allows students to earn points through engagement with them.

Wildlife charity, the People’s Trust for Endangered Species’ (PTES) is looking for volunteers across Britain for its annual ‘Great Stag Hunt’ survey, to discover where endangered stag beetles are living and where they most need help.

Stag beetles were once widespread but due to habitat loss they’re now declining and have even become extinct in some parts of Britain and Western Europe. To prevent that from further happening PTES is calling for nature lovers, families, and individuals to help this summer by recording all sightings of male and female stag beetles, and their larvae (large, white grubs), online at:

  www.ptes.org/gsh

Stag beetles are easy to spot – they’re the UK’s largest land beetles and the males are instantly recognisable with their antler like jaws. From late May into July these iconic insects emerge from the ground in search of mates, and are usually spotted flying around gardens, parks and allotments on warm summer evenings. They can also be seen on walls and warm tarmac surfaces in urban areas, and in other green spaces too such as woodland edges, hedgerows and traditional orchards.

Laura Bower, Conservation Officer at PTES says: “Last year almost 10,000 sightings were recorded by thousands of volunteers, giving us a real insight into where their range is, which is crucial for the species’ long-term survival. More help is always needed though, so whether you’re out in the garden, dog walking in a local park, on the school run or even walking to the pub, keep your eyes peeled for these beautiful beetles and tell us about any you see. You don’t need to be a beetle expert or have taken part before, as PTES has a free ‘beetle ID’ guide to help anyone new to the survey to help them tell the differences between stag beetles and other insects.”

To take part in the Great Stag Hunt 2023, for top tips on creating the perfect log pile, or to find out more about stag beetles, please visit: stagbeetles.ptes.org