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Wildlife Update
Revival of the Earth House
From the Herald on Sunday 16th December 2001
The dream home of the future could be a glorified mud hut, according to the latest research by the Scottish Executive -- and it would be beautiful. A new environmental report by the Executive's central research unit urges Scotland to rediscover the lost art of 'earth building' because it would cut pollution and waste. Earth was the main material used in the construction of buildings in Scotland until the eighteenth century. Today, amazingly, half a million people in the United Kingdom still live in houses made with soil, along with a third of the world's population. Although earth building mostly died out in the 19th century, it is now experiencing a revival. A small group of architects and builders in Scotland are now involved in 'earth construction', linked to similar movements in Europe.
As part of the drive to make the construction industry more environmentally sustainable, the Executive commissioned two experts, Becky Little and Tom Morton, to investigate . Their report, Building With Earth In Scotland: Innovative Design And Sustainability, was posted on the Executive's website without announcement at the end of last week. 'Earth is suitable for modern construction. It can be used in many different ways in buildings, including load-bearing walls, thermal and acoustic insulation, finishes to walls and floors,' the report states . 'It can be both durable and beautiful.' Soil improves the quality of indoor air, as well as reducing the amount of building waste and carbon dioxide emissions. The use of earth also has the potential to help rural communities because it could be extracted and treated locally. 'A new earth construction industry in Scotland could have relevance for both rurally based economies that are in need of diversification, and for national priorities that promote sustainable rural development,' the report argues.
In countries such as France, Holland, New Zealand, Australia and the United States, earth materials are increasingly regarded as mainstream. In Germany the market for such materials was worth £60 million in 2000 and is increasing by 20% a year, while the rest of the construction sector stands still. But in Britain there have only been a few modern examples of earth building. These include a visitor facility at Rowardennan in the proposed Loch Lomond National Park, and the Eden Project tourist attraction in Cornwall.
The Executive report suggests a series of measures designed to boost earth building in Scotland. They include demonstration projects to illustrate best practice, more public funding, the introduction of standards and the easing of market constraints on earth materials. 'There is a realistic economic case to be made for the development of earth construction in Scotland ,' the report concludes.
Major construction companies like Barratt and the Walker Group were reluctant to be drawn on the prospect of modern mud huts on Friday. But the idea did receive a cautious welcome from environmentalists. Dr Richard Dixon, head of research for Friends of the Earth. 'While it may not be appropriate in every circumstance, the increased use of earth in building construction has the potential to reduce many environmental impacts and should not be dismissed out of hand.'
Survey finds secret species of the ocean
From the Sunday Herald, 2nd December 2001
It is, as one marine scientist observed, 'an arachnophobe's nightmare'. It is also a home for rare whales and weird fish, the breeding ground for two-and-a- half million seabirds and the silt in which dozens of previously unknown crustacea secrete themselves. The wild, deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean, north and west of Scotland, are at last giving up their secrets. A unique and comprehensive report to be published this week reveals that the vast and apparently desolate expanse of sea known by the oil companies as the 'Atlantic Frontier' is, in fact, teeming with wildlife. Ironically, the discoveries -- made by scientists, funded by £5 m illion of oil money -- may make it more difficult to exploit the region's oil and gas. Companies like BP, Shell, ChevronTexaco and Conoco have been exploring the area in the hope that it might replace the North Sea as Britain's main source of oil.
Among the animals found are giant, furry bigger and more diverse the further down you go,' said Dr Graham Bird, a marine biologist from Middlesex. 'Some of them are the size of dinner plates. I think they are pretty creepy but I'm a bit of an arachnophobe myself.' Bird has discovered 48 species of small crustacea on the seabed, which are completely new to science. Known as tanaids, their eggs are carried in pouches by the females . They are only up to five millimetres long and burrow into the silt in tiny pods. 'They look like nail clippings from a distance,' said Bird, 'though under the microscope they are fascinating.' Other researchers from Cornell University in the US have discovered dramatic new evidence on the habits and whereabouts of whales. Humpback whales, previously thought to be rare summer visitors to the Atlantic Frontier, have been recorded singing in the area during the winter. Extraordinarily, the songs were picked up by an array of US naval spy stations installed on the seabed off the north and west coasts of Britain and Ireland during the cold war. According to John Hartley, an environmental consultant who used to work for the oil industry, 'It was a very exciting discovery'. The underwater 'hydrophones' have also detected the presence of blue whales, the largest animals on earth. These rare leviathans of the deep have not been seen in the North Atlantic for many years.
Scientists co-ordinated by the British government's Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) have also recorded visual sightings of beaked whales, which were not known to frequent the area, and there have been scores of sightings of minke whales all round the coast of Scotland and north east England. The latest findings are contained in a scientific report by the Atlantic Frontier Environmental Network (AFEN), a coalition of 14 oil companies and government scientists set up in 1995. It is being published at a major conference on Managing The Resources Of The Atlantic Margin being held at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh on Tuesday and Wednesday. 'All of this information is helping to guide exploration and development by the oil industry,' said Mark Tasker, JNCC's Head of Marine Advice. 'If this is done properly, there is no reason why it should have any major effect on the environment, but we must be careful.'
The oil industry promises that it will extract oil 'sustainably' from the Atlantic Frontier. Over 200 exploratory wells have been drilled, two BP fields are in production - Schiehallion and Foinaven - and a third - Clair - is due to come on stream by the end of 2004. Gill Bishop, the environmental scientist from Conoco in Aberdeen who chairs AFEN, pointed out that so far there had not been any other major finds, and she stressed that the oil industry had reduced its impact on the environment over the years by making fewer discharges . 'It is very clear development can go hand in hand with sustainability, ' she said. But Chris Berry, a consultant to WWF (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund), argued that oil exploration should be prevented in certain environmentally important areas. WWF was calling for a new Oceans Act to provide a strategic framework for sustainable development at sea. The burning of oil extracted from the sea was already causing global warming that could be contributing to disturbing changes in the oceanic currents, which threaten the environment, he said. 'This new study has revealed amazing things about the diversity of wildlife in the sea that we didn't have a clue about five years ago.' Tasker also warned of the damage being done by the fishing industry. Stocks of deep- water fish had been depleted, while trawlers had destroyed seabed coral formations known as the Darwin Mounds, and ploughed deep-water sponge communities into the sediment. 'The next challenge for governmental regulators must be to reduce these effects to a minimum,' he said.
21st March 2001
A dispute is festering between the Forestry Commission and the Scottish Executive about the future and safety of the capercaillie. The Scottish Executive gave the threatened bird the highest level of legal protection, but then allowed the Forestry Commission to grant an estate owner on Royal Deeside permission to cut down 77 hectares of trees on land bordering a capercaillie breeding ground near Balmoral. The area of woodland involved is the Invercauld Estate, owned by a trust. The felling took place shortly before the new regulations came into effect. The new legislation means that anyone disturbing a capercaillie lek (nesting site) faces a fine of up to £5000 and 6 months imprisonment.
A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds pointed out "While the government is desperately trying to save the capercaillie, the Forestry Commission is failing in its duty to revies tree-felling licences, sometimes granted many years earlier. We appreciate the need for estates to make money by harvesting their timber, but when one arm of the government is acting against the interests of another, then that is crazy!"
The capercaillie, largest member of the grouse family and once prolific in Scotland's native pine forests, was hunted to extiction in the 18th century. It was successfully reintroduced from Scandinavia during the 19th century, but numbers have dwindled rapidly over the past 30 years, due to hunting and loss of habitat. There are currently estimated to be less than 1000 of the birds left.
2nd December 2000
PROF CALLS BSE 'THE ENGLISH DISEASE'
Leading Scots food expert Professor Hugh Pennington, professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen, has branded BSE "an English disease." In a massive boost for the Scottish beef industry, he says Scotland has the safest herd in Europe. In the wake of BSE panic on the continent, he said the UK was "at least five years" ahead of the rest of Europe in tackling the health risk. "All the safeguards brought in over the last five years have made our herds the safest," said Professor Pennington. "BSE has been essentially an English disease. It started in England and Scotland has had relatively few cases. In my view the Scottish herd is the safest in Europe and the number of animals with BSE in the UK is only a fraction of what it used to be."
However, the professor refused to be drawn on the level of CJD - the human form of mad cow disease - that may occur in future. He said: "Nobody knows how many cases there will be. But there have been 87 cases in the UK since 1995 and the trend is still upwards. I don't think we have reached the peak yet, but who knows what that peak will be?"
Recently, Prof Pennington revealed that nearly one in 10 Scottish cattle have the E-Coli 0157 bug, which killed at least 20 people in Lanarkshire. He believes that all cattle will at one time be infected with E-Coli 0157 - but with proper cooking and hygiene, there is no risk to humans.
23rd November 2000
A quarter of Scotland should be covered in trees by the middle of this century if the first forestry strategy, launched yesterday, goes to plan. Rhona Brankin, the deputy minister for rural development, who launched the strategy in Pitlochry, said forestry employs over 10,000 people, while woods and forests are one of our biggest recreational resources with 22 million day visits each year. More can be achieved by maximising value through providing high-tech wood-processing industries, planting and managing more diverse woods and forests, producing more native trees - 37,500 acres of native woodland by 2003 - and tackling problems such as high deer numbers. It is also planned to increase community involvement in forest ownership and management, provide woodland recreation opportunities near towns and increase forestry’s contribution to tourism.
"This strategy is designed not only to produce timber for Scottish industry, but also to enhance the quality and value of the Scottish landscape," said Ms Brankin. "This vision fits well with our wider vision for rural Scotland". Alasdair Laing, chairman of the Scottish Landowners’ Federation’s forestry committee, said: "New woods are needed and existing woods need management. Good establishment and management stem from a return on effort and money invested. The crucial factor is that the mechanisms for delivery of the strategy recognise this fact. Given a suitable framework for delivering the strategy, the SLF will co-operate to the utmost in making it work." But he said landowners and foresters would expect the executive not only to add detail to a plan which fell short of being an actual delivery mechanism, but also to support this with resources for the roads, processing capacity, and incentives necessary to appropriate development of the industry.
However the strategy was attacked by Edinburgh-based Reforesting Scotland, which aims to restore natural woodland habitats and has helped communities take over forests. It claimed: "There is serious concern that the strategy will do little to help provide jobs in rural Scotland, and that its centralising approach will, indeed, accelerate the trend towards rural depopulation."
14th August 2000
Beavers may soon be seen in the wild again in Scotland, 400 years after they were hunted to extinction. A female and two males imported from Poland were yesterday introduced to a wildlife park after spending 6 months in quarantine. Conservationists at the Auchingarroch Wildlife Centre in Perthshire hope to breed from the beavers and the offspring will, in turn, be set free.
The project may result in more beavers being raised in captivity for release into the wild. Sites under consideration include Loch Tummel on Tayside, and on the west coast.
Beavers were once common, but their soft pelts and meat were highly prized, and they died out in the early 1600's. Despite repopulation schemes across Europe, attempts to reintroduce them in Scotland failed after objections from foreign land-owners over alleged potential damage to woodland and fish stocks.
6th September 2000
Scottish Natural Heritage is now financing a seven year trial which will see the timid creatures reintroduced to Scotland's rivers and woodlands in the next few years. Private sponsorship is being sought by the government agency to assist in the programme, £150,000 being the figure required. Following the successful reintroduction of red kites and the white-tailed sea eagle, £250,000 was set aside to cover the bulk of the costs, but further money is required to see the programme to fruition. A suitable woodland habitat is currently being sought in the north of Scotland.
A Leading conservationist unveiled plans on 17th July which could see packs of wolves running wild in the Highlands. Derek Gow, a wildlife expert born in Dundee, is working on a breeding programme at the Wildwood Centre in Kent. He is set to contact Scottish landowners and conservation bodies outlining his views. "The wolves are a spirit of the wilderness and would flourish in the Highlands," he said. "But the first stage of any project like this is to educate people. Reintroduction of wolves is obviously a very emotive subject. Wolves have had a very bad press - but they aren’t dangerous to people. They are shy, but highly social and very intelligent. I firmly believe there will be a day when public desire to see the wolf roaming its natural domain will see the reintroduction of the species to the Highlands," he said.
Mr Gow, who is involved in reintroducing other less controversial species says he knows he faces opposition from landowners and official conservation bodies. Spearheading his campaign to raise public awareness of the wolf are the two cubs, Nadja and Mishka. Both are being hand reared after their den at the conservation centre was flooded and they are perfectly tame. They will be taken around schools and colleges to show what wolves are like. Mr Gow claimed the world’s attitude to the wolf is changing. He said: "Wolves are now flourishing in the south of France after arriving from Italy and Germany also has some, which are thought to have come from Russia. I studied how they are treated in Poland. Some have electronic tags and are monitored as they cross the country. They go through built-up areas and apart from grabbing the odd goat don’t seem to cause a problem. "Scotland is traditionally more open to European ideas than England. So this is another one I feel we can adopt. Also Europeans are very keen to tell people in places like India they should look after tigers. Tigers are a real danger, they are killers. Rather than be threatened by wolves, people will actually be lucky to see one."
A spokesman for Scottish Natural Heritage said he could not envisage a scenario where the public would back the reintroduction of wolves into the wilderness. "Unlike natural parks in America, ours have people living and working on them. The SNH would not consider introducing any carnivorous species without the support of the people who would be affected," he said.
In 1993, 14 wolves were released into Yellowstone Park in the United States as part of a $400,000 project to reintroduce the species to the wild. The last pair had been exterminated in 1926. Although their introduction saw a legal challenge by landowners, their presence is now tolerated. According to park officials, the wolves have not been disturbed by the attention of tourists. Since their release, the number of animals has grown to about 120. Under the scheme, farmers who have incurred the loss of livestock are compensated. So far $27,000 has been paid out.
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