I MUST GET THIS OFF MY CHEST!

 

 I Must Get This Off My Chest!

The current passion for the Environment, Re-wilding, Flower-rich Meadows, Pollinators and other such evocative terms, gives rise to a huge amount of muddled thinking and downright piffle sometimes.

I don’t doubt a great many people are in theory supportive of these ideals, but are misled and confused by woolly talk and often incorrect information by obviously inexperienced journalists even calling themselves ‘from our science correspondent’ and  their reports presumably edited by equally inexperienced staff. A complicated network of different aims and concepts tend to be lumped together in one over-simplified bundle.

I have just read that the crowds gathered on a patch of grass in Bristol a year ago to hear a rallying cry from Greta Thunberg trampled the grass into a muddy morass. Over £20,000 was raised very quickly from a mortified public with the stated aim ” To create Wild-flower Meadows at the site in the hope of attracting more pollinators such as bees and insects.” Good! Two buzz-words in one sentence! The claim went on “The Meadow will contain species native to the UK such as Strawberry Clover, Cowslip, White Campion, and Tufted Vetch, as well as bright flowering species such as Common Poppy, Cornflower and Yellow Rattle.” I skeptically ask is this the right place for anything other than hard-wearing amenity grass? When the suggested plants grow enough to flower, there will be cries to cut it short for picnicking and playing. The suggested species include a bizarre mix of a largely maritime turf plant (Strawberry Clover) , hedgerows (Tufted Vetch) and annuals of disturbed ground (White Campion, Common Poppy and Cornflower) These last will disappear when the establishing turf closes over.

A year on, I’d be interested to know what has actually happened to that beaten-up patch of Bristolian grass.

Seeds suppliers frequently sell to a well-meaning public, “Wildflower seeds mixes” and sure enough, the customer is rewarded with a colourful show usually comprising poppies, cornflowers, often corn cockle, corn marigold, and various white-flowered daisy species. Then as this sown area closes over with grasses in the following year, the flower show dwindles. Perhaps there are a few dog daisies and knapweeds as these are perennials which don’t flower their first year, but the main splendid colour show of the previous year has gone; the customer is disappointed and wonders where he has gone wrong, not realizing that his seeds mix is largely of showy annuals, and not necessarily even all British natives or even of British provenance.

A typical 'Wildflower seeds mix' sold by a reputable company, claiming this was a mix of 'native wildflowers'.

 

Corn Cockle, one of the species in the above mix. This highly poisonous plant is extinct in the wild in the UK! It was a very troublesome arable weed in the past because it has a large seed which was difficult to clean out from harvested corn.

 

A few years ago, in response to figures quoting Cornwall’s wooded cover to be a mere 10% compared to a national 13% (and a European  up to 35%) the County Council announced a ‘Forest for Cornwall’ scheme whereby in ten years some ‘ 8000 hectares will be planted in Cornwall to address this shortfall.’ The stated thinking is to ‘increase all forms of canopy cover throughout Cornwall whilst strengthening the protection of our existing backbone of trees, woodlands and hedgerows as part of Cornwall Council’s response to Climate Change, and striving towards Cornwall becoming Carbon Neutral.’ There is a pledge to ‘place the right trees in the right places for the right purposes’

Brave words! The planting of these trees seems to be an ad hoc arrangement of planting by all sorts of groups, individuals or community-led projects.  Where will all these trees come from? Who will advise on the species?  And their local appropriateness to the site?  Is the site appropriate or is an existing already good habitat being replaced by a tree-planting scheme in order to tick a politically-correct box? Who will plant theses trees and maintain them in their vulnerable early stages?

In 2019 amid great fanfare with flags and bunting, local schoolchildren and the town mayor in all his finery had a Grand Opening of a nearby town’s contribution to the Forest for Cornwall.

The Grand Launch. It's a pity so much public goodwill is to an extent frittered by not really getting to the point.

  

In summer 2020 we went to have a look at it. A biggish area of amenity grassland in the middle of a big residential area and very popular with dog walkers and others, now has several small areas fenced with chestnut paling and containing a mix of deciduous trees. They were on the big side (and more expensive) for successful planting but had more visual impact I suppose. However a significant number were failing or struggling. Different plantings included Copper Beech, Hornbeam, Grey Alder, several  foreign Birch species and most bizarre, a Gingko!  The Copper Beech and the various foreign Birch species belong in a more ornamental ‘gardened’ setting. Grey Alder ( a native of. Eastern Europe) is a favourite and very successful amenity species, Hornbeam does not grow naturally in Cornwall but only as an introduction and Gingko that famous Chinese tree, almost extinct in its own country is grown in the UK as an exotic novelty. There are also a number of Oaks, doing very well but of a variety I have never seen in Britain so I wonder exactly who suggested this collection of trees and where they came from.  There wasn’t much attention paid to the County Council’s stated aim of ‘the right tree’. All the enclosures were heavily mulched with tree bark which successfully prevented the growth of much ground flora but was hosting great tufts of the dread honey fungus! This venture cost  a considerable sum.  But rather than a source of civic pride the whole misbegotten scheme should be a cause for mortification for money spent on an unsatisfactory scheme which could have been so much more true to the spirit of the stated aims.  At present, Covid has prevented a return visit.

 Meanwhile the Forest for Cornwall Newsletter still seems to have nothing new to add to the 2019 tree-planting scheme mentioned above, except the planting of a ‘Wildflower Meadow’ near Padstow.  Another pledge is to create more woodland habitats along the A30 in parts of Cornwall. However as far as I have seen,  as soon as any substantial tree and shrub cover along this road develops, it is cleared!

Countryfile a couple of nights ago was deploring again the every-widening disconnect between children and the natural world and pleading for more natural history education in schools. Fine words but where are the teachers who know anything about Natural History? The Nature Tables? The walks? The countryside these days seems to be regarded as a hostile environment with all sorts of Health & Safety  hazards, E coli and a host of things waiting to get us.

There is much talk of the wish of youngsters inflamed by Thunberg-style rallies and protests, driving a political change, and millions of well-meaning words and wishes about Climate Change and Sustainability are churned out, but the real disconnect lies in the simple basics of looking at nature, learning to name. It’s easy enough to talk about abstract issues.....