A Wilder Future for the Uplands

Unleashing the Power of Nature to Recover & Restore the Countryside

Thought of the week is slightly different this week because over the last few days I have been at a conference, in Sheffield, about the uplands. Listening to many passionate speakers debate the state of the uplands and what needs to be done to restore them. 

https://www.ukeconet.org/wilder-future-for-the-uplands.html

My interest in this conference is that there are many hoverflies that rely on the uplands, for either all or some of their lifecycle. A lot of the tribes Sericomyia are known to be strongly associated with this habitat, particularly the Yellow-barred Peat (Sericoymia silentis) and Yellow-girdled Fleckwing (Dasysyrphus tricinctus) both found recently in my urban garden to which I raised a question, why they were there?

Anyway, here are some thoughts and sound bites I took from this conference.

Apologies in advance if I have mis-quoted any of the speakers, these are just my takeaway thoughts, ideas, questions, and important points. Some of these relate to thoughts about hoverflies and some don’t.

Day 1:

Prof. Ian Rotherham discussed his new book ‘Shadows, Ghost and Lost woodlands’.

Ian got me wondering that we often talk about plants being indicators of lost woodlands, but could hoverflies be indicators too?

He discussed a phrase ‘pulses in the landscape’ – not totally sure I understood it, one to reflect on, I guess.

A phrase I will certainly take away ‘love your scrub and bogs’ absolutely Ian, so many hoverflies spotted on scrub and bogs, so I do love them. Maybe I will get a t-shirt made up with that slogan.

Andrew Weatherall (RSPB) – Towards Ancient Woodland Protection.

Only 2.8% of England is ancient woodland which is not good enough.

He referenced a paper which stated it takes 80-160 years for woodland creation sites to develop biodiverse vegetation and characteristics of ancient woodland.

This just shows restoration done today will not be seen in my lifetime, but it is important that we do something now for the future. Wouldn’t it be great if the Aspen Hoverfly (Hammerschmidtia ferruginea) could be found in England.

Luke Steer – Upland wood pasture in the Lake District – looking after the historic environment.

Used LIDAR technology to conclude that 40% of enclosed land with a gradient >10% is suitable for wood pasture. He calculated that there is 40,402 ha of such land available in the Lake District for wood pasture. What an opportunity.

A take home message from his talk was that - ‘Animals [Hoverflies?] go where the food is good, and they are comfortable.’ I wonder when a female hoverfly is laying her eggs how selective she is? Any hoverfly that I capture and release, rarely goes back to the same flower I captured it on, even when gently placed upon it.

Robin Gray (Forestry Commission) & Alison Fleming (Research Box) – Creating new wooded landscapes, how do we communicate change.

A point I took from their talk is that landscapes are more than just the visual aspects of how things look, it is also about the cultural, social and ecological elements of a place.

With any form of restoration, we should consider choosing species in light of climate change.

‘The edge is where the magic is’. I couldn’t agree more the edge of a woodland as often been some of my best hoverfly hotspots.

Mark Avery - Author of Inglorious and other books – The badly valued Uplands.

He discussed that it's difficult to make money in the uplands and the state should own more land. Bring in into public use for the public good.

My thought is this - who do we give that land to, whom do we trust to manage it for the benefit of all?

Day 2:

Mary Colwell – author of Curlew Moon – Curlews in the uplands: What is their future?

I agree with her that there is no better sound than the call of a curlew, but it’s sad if true that they are only thriving on grouse moors.

Kate Hanley (RSPB) – Dove Stone site case study in the Peak District.

She didn’t think focusing on one species makes a sustainable upland landscape. I could not agree more, what about the little guys, the inverts, the hoverflies.

We need to restore ecological processes at all levels of the trophic ecosystem.

This will take time and no doubt needs monitoring to decide if changes are having an impact. I am reminded of a video I watched recently by Bill Sutherland - Why most conservation projects fail to learn - https://youtu.be/qa6Ewt-W5mU?si=_vjnb0pQeE7Qw1Xx

James Fenton – The wagons are rolling – Bandwagon after Bandwagon, Destroying the Highland landscape.

I wonder if you agree or disagree with these ten ecological principles? Love to hear from you in the comments below.

Martin Redman – What is Wild? – The philosophy and lessons of rewilding a small hill farm in Derbyshire for 22 years and building a business around it.

I sat next to Martin on day 1, top guy, he came up with probably the best statement of the day, well his son did. ‘We are not rewilding to some place in the past we are wilding for the future’

Penny Anderson – Wilder uplands: tortoise or hare?

I was reminded that if hoverflies are going to colonise some of these new restored sites in the uplands we must consider:

·         How far species can travel?

·         How are they dispersed/how far can they move?

·         Species are they at edge of their range?

In Summary

How I would love to see the uplands, buzzing with hoverflies, but this will only be possible if ecological processes and environments are created where all creatures can exist in our overpopulated island the UK.

The 2 days certainly left me with lots to think about, hopefully if you have read this far you have too.

We are in a biodiversity crisis so it’s great that we have these experts give up their time to come explain their success and failures in the hope that we can strive for a better upland.

I have been going to a few of these conferences over the years and what was encouraging was that for the first time there were speakers from the National Trust, RSPB, Forestry Commission as well as the new kids on the block which include nature writers, Rewilding Britain and Research Box, even a gamekeeper.

Let us keep talking folks, I am sure the solutions are out there.

Let us make the UK great for hoverflies and turn species decline to species growth.