87. On Rewilding

Dearly Beloved,

Rewilding is now fashionable. It is attempt to recreate the natural condition of nature before man intervened. It is mostly associated with just letting go and allowing plants and animals to repopulate as far as they are able. That sounds all very simple but the reality is often more complex and requires a lot of work. The first problem is that the climax biotope in much of Europe is woodland or forest. England and Scotland could clearly do with more woodland and much of the moorland was indeed once woodland. So woodland is straight forward although you may have to cut out unwanted tree species. 

If however you want to produce a riverside meadow things are much more complicated, if only because the price of success is continual vigilance and a lot of cutting of self- planted would-be trees so that the climax woodland does not re-establish itself. A herd of deer is needed to do that naturally but may not arrive when needed. Furthermore you may develop a meadow but it may be full of unwanted species of plant. That is because there are many, highly fecund and self-spreading plants which will displace the species you wish to encourage. These unwanted plants are mainly garden escapes which benighted individuals have introduced into wild spaces. Some spread by their own efforts. We have in our field in France a real problem with Michaelmas daisies which are an American species, but the river carries the seed onto our would-be meadow (along with acorns, walnuts and Robenia) when it floods in winter. Our neighbours ground has extensive, dark and otherwise lifeless clumps of such daises. The only positive is the autumnal flowering of the daisies which butterflies and other insects love but the brief period for which they flower does not justify sustaining them. On the other hand getting rid of them once established requires all the strategies available, digging and pulling out the roots, cutting with a machine and the discreet use of herbicide.

To rewild properly you really need a large area. It is tempting, and we have been tempted, to let dying trees stay in post to support nesting woodpeckers and to let ivy produce a diverse vertical habitat as it climbs the trees and supports a humming diversity of flying insects which feed on the flower nectar in its season. The problem is that the ivy will eventually overcome the tree entirely, and although it is not parasitic, it will eventually block out the light from the trees upon which it climbs, and those trees will die. Nothing is better for wildlife, insects, bats and birds than a tall rotting tree. Unfortunately they cannot be near spaces used by humans because they are liable to fall in an unpredictable direction at an unpredictable moment upon those hapless humans. We recently had such a tree, it was a mass of woodpecker nesting and foraging holes and had even supported a nesting black woodpecker just two years ago, but it grew between our garden wall and a public right of way. Eventually we decided to have it cut down for reasons of safety, but not only was it expensive because of the expertise needed, it was dangerous to the artisans who executed the task, requiring all his skill and expertise to cut and fell it in the right place.

One of the unexpected benefits of cutting the tree trunk was getting to know the woodcutter (Élagueur) Laurent and his wife Sarah who had had to run from the trunk as it fell. Sarah Molein is the World Champion for Pirogue (that is a canoe or kayak with an outrigger). That is one of the pleasures of rewilding and living in this area of France where artisan neighbours are also world champion athletes.

Peace and Love,

Paul.


Our Wood Cutting Team: World Champion Sarah Moleine in her French National Canoe Kit with husband Laurant after the end of the 23rd Marathon of the Dordogne-Périgord Canoë-Kayak 2022.

The Author of these Dearly Beloved Letters with wife Josephine coming to a halt after completing the same 32 km.  Marathon --  but in a rather slower time...





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