AN ENGLISH IDYLL?

With all the urgent problems that face our World, I totally understand those who, equally urgently, want us all to do something dramatic, and NOW. It is not surprising that some of them take me to task at times for urging caution, which I sometimes do, especially in the context of the introduction of apex predators, like the lynx (see below). This is often because of my concern about the possible extinction of the capercaillie, one of the birds that really does deserve that over-used word; ‘iconic’. But I am very concerned about many other ground-nesting birds, especially, at the moment, the curlew.

I recently read “ Goshawk Summer” by James Aldred, which is the diary of ‘an extraordinary season’ in the New Forest. It is, of course, not just about goshawks, and towards the end of it, there is reference to the curlews which nest in the heaths and mires of the Forest. He asks a friend how they fared ‘last year’, which was 2019. The shattering answer? “ Forty six pairs attempted nesting and three chicks flew the Forest”. The painful reality of local extinction looms ever closer, which is why I am so often urging caution; here the lynx is not necessarily the potential problem, but I worry that the ‘relocation’ of pine martens, which some southern conservation bodies are talking about, might here just tip the fragile balance, and the New Forest curlews be no more.

‘Conservationists’ used to talk about ‘the Precautionary Principle’ and ‘Getting the habitat right FIRST’, phrases which I seem to hear less nowadays. ‘Rewilders’ sometimes use a more urgent vocabulary, but they should perhaps all remember that Knepp, one of the major proponents of the idea, simply decided to let nature take its course, over time……….quite a lot of time! And the results, of course, have been spectacular. While intervening can have beneficial results, we should always remember that nature, left to its own devices, can achieve remarkable transformations.

During James Aldred’s lockdown summer, we took to kayaking, and found a beautiful place not far from home. It was clearly a canalised waterway, altered significantly when the Sussex Ouse, of which it is a tributary, was turned into a navigable river. Glynde Reach is mostly straight-sided, but since it was so recreated, nature has taken over. The day we discovered it, its natural beauty took our breath away. The banks are, in places, lined with willows; at others, wild roses cascade down to the water’s edge, and yellow waterlilies extend across its calm surface. Dragonflies and damselflies danced that day among the white umbellifers, and warblers called incessantly. It was hot, and I went for a quick swim. I dried off on the bank while we ate our sandwiches, and we watched a grass snake weave its way between the lilypads. It was, indeed, idyllic.

But this ‘story’ has two parts……..

That wonderful day, we did not know that in 2019, the waters of Glynde Reach had been tested; its ecological status was defined as “poor”, and its chemical status as “fail’. As there are only a few villages and farmland along its length, the reasons for this poor status could really only be runoff from the fields, or pollution from the villages. More recently, in September 2022, it was reported that “100,000 fish were estimated to have been killed in Glynde Reach due to ‘catastrophic’ oxygen levels”. And this year, “ there was a major discharge of sewage pollution into the Glynde Reach upstream of Glynde village on Wednesday, June 21”. (It is important to note that this dreadful discharge could not have been the result of a violent downpour; Sussex had been short of rain for weeks).

This is the reality behind our English idyll………….

And today, it is reported: “ Tories urge Sunak to rein in green pledges after by-election carnage”.

Need I say more?