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Only a few decades ago, before the advent of time-consuming technologies such as laptops and phones, getting out and enjoying nature was a thing of normality. Although many young people wouldn’t have considered it in that way, they were exploring the countryside and discovering the environment for themselves, which is what’s important.
In my view and that of many others, technology is the greatest factor that has caused the young people of this millennium to become sheltered from nature. Eyes just cannot be peeled from screens; young people are more often than not interacting with their phone or device rather than the natural world. Quality time needs to be spent away from one’s phones or tablets, however that so rarely happens.
Another major reason for the decline in young people making connections to the natural world is over-protective parents. It is clear that there is a difference between the parenting styles of the 20th century to those of the 21st; as the years have progressed so has the reluctance of parents to let their children explore on their own. This has in many cases restricted children’s opportunities to get out and discover.
Ironically, phone technology allows today’s parents to keep a closer tab on their children by means of messaging and trackers. And children who are allowed to roam outside will roam outside. Young people have a natural tendency for exploration, and together with fascinating discoveries such as a bird’s nest or a badger sett, this can cement an interest. This interest will then stay with them, stimulating them to make positive changes later in life for the benefit of our planet.
Exploration allows young people to understand the world around them and build a better connection with nature.
The lack of opportuities for people to positively influence the environment is the aspect that most worries me in the recent decline in young people interested in wildlife. The more people are on their screens the less they can explore, and the less they can learn about how amazing nature can be. Without them realising how fascinating the natural world is, they feel no urge to protect it.
Therefore, I believe that the priority of people interested in the conservation of nature and the environment should be educating the youth of today. They need to be taught the weird and wonderful ways of wildlife so that they can see that nature really should be conserved. Obviously young people are the future of this planet; the future of this planet lies in their hands. We don’t want to see the environment neglected and disrespected in the decades to come, so we need to make it in the best interest of the next generation to preserve it.
But what can we do to help? We need to ensure that young people are inspired to cherish the world around them. We need to make sure that they are motivated to protect all living things no matter how seemingly insignificant they might be. We need to get them off their screens and instead we need to get them outside and exploring!
Posted on October 23, 2017 by jiainmac	in Conservation, The Natural World, Wildlife	• Tagged conservation, Environment, nature, wildlife, Youth Nature Movement • 1 Comment
For centuries botanists have been collecting specimens of the plants they observe. If done correctly, botanical specimens can last for a very long time. For example, the Angela Marmont Centre at the Natural History Museum has specimens collected by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Specimens can be very useful in documenting regional variation and how a species has changed over time.
Last weekend I was out with the South-east branch of the British Bryological Society recording mosses and liverworts at Devil’s Dyke, north of Brighton. As is often the case, however, one of the highlights of this field trip was in fact not to do with the subject of our search! Once we had passed through a section of Ash woodland on our walk we came to a lovely crystal-clear chalk pond. Despite few bryophytes around the pond’s edges the pond was full of life, including several water plants. Most common was the Ivy-leaved Duckweed, Lemna trisulca, and there were also a few Potamogeton natans plants as well. However what really caught our eye was a very beautiful looking pondweed with a lovely texture and colour that was unfamiliar to me but not for the other members. They identified the pondweed as Groenlandia densa, otherwise known as the Opposite-leaved Pondweed.
Groenlandia densa is not a very common species and is sadly declining in Britain. This is mostly due to urbanisation, and therefore it is missing from the vast majority of London. It has also declined due to a factor known as eutrophication which is the presence of excessive nutrients in a water body. This is most commonly caused by run-off from the nearby land, and it creates a dense growth of plant life which can potentially displace species that cannot compete. Due to this decline, it was suggested that I collect a piece of the pondweed, in case it becomes a very rare species and little material for herbariums could be found without damaging a population.
It is easy for anyone to start preparing plant specimens; little specialist equipment is needed. This is all that is needed for a beginner to make a good quality specimen:
Lay out the specimen on half of a full double page spread of newspaper in a way that should show as many features as possible.
Add some more sheets of newspaper to the top and bottom of the folded newspaper with the specimen inside.
Leave the specimen until it is sufficiently dry and flat, this could take a few weeks or only a few days, but don’t overdo it and don’t leave it for too short a period.
Once the specimen is ready carefully take it out from the newspaper and lay it out on your piece of card making sure that it shows the necessary features. Remember to leave room for a label!
Using PVA glue or any other glue recommended by botanists, stick the specimen down on the card. PVA glue dries clear so don’t worry too much if you get some on the card where you don’t want it.
Fill in a label. Ideally the label should show as much information about the plant as possible: species; family; collection number; locality (grid reference, name of site, nearest town, county etc.); habitat; collector’s name; date of collection; and also note down features of the plant that may have been lost in the drying process.
Finally, and optionally, you could also attach a small paper envelope to the specimen containing dried fruit/seeds that would have been ruined in the pressing process.
And there you have your specimen! This is what my pondweed looked like before and after collecting, pressing and mounting:
This is not the only specimen I have so far collected. At the beginning of the summer, as part of my interest to record the slightly trickier-to-identify species, I collected a couple of Bramble (Rubus) species. These were the first specimens I collected and I was quite pleased with the result. However, they weren’t good enough. After I had dropped them off at the Angela Marmont Centre at the Natural History Museum, Dr David Allen kindly looked at them for me. Unfortunately they were lacking some necessary features vital in identification, such as a section of the first year growth. Using his advice, I went out recently and collected a specimen of a particularly late-flowering Bramble, and this was the result:
This shall hopefully even further aid identification and maybe contribute to the understanding of this poorly known group.
Many groups are overlooked, because they are tricky to identify or they are too small or they need specialist equipment to collect. Some examples are dandelions, a nightmare of identification; desmids, microscopic algae; and parasitic wasps, also very difficult to identify. This results in these groups being little-known as few people are willing to try to find and identify them. This leads to under recording of species that are probably common, creating deceptive data. One of my aims is to try and master these very difficult groups and hopefully make a difference.
Posted on October 28, 2016 by jiainmac	in Biological Recording, Conservation, Wildlife	• Tagged botany, brighton, collections, conservation, identification, museums, NHM, plants, pondweed, urbanisation, writing • 4 Comments
Yesterday I arrived back from a week-long trip to the Lake District, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The landscape of the Lake District, with all the fells and lakes, is absolutely stunning, but so is the wildlife. In this post I will be writing about 2 of the fish that we saw on our trip, out of the 4 new species I have so far added to my Pan-species list. I am very pleased with the addition of these new species as it raises my fish list from only 7 to 11. Despite this still meagre total, I am very proud to say that following my trip I now have the 2 rarest fish in the British Isles on my list, the Schelly and the Vendace!
The Schelly is a very rare fish , being endemic to the United Kingdom and even Cumbria. In fact it is only found in four lakes worldwide, Red Tarn, Haweswater, Brotherswater and Ullswater, and is classified as endangered. The combined area of those lakes forms the species’ area of occupancy, which is a tiny total of 20 km². That’s equivalent to half the size of Portsmouth!
During our trip to the Lake District we visited two of the lakes where the fish lives, Haweswater and Ullswater. In Haweswater, the population has been in decline unlike the other 3 lakes where the population is stable. According to the website of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Redlist, which assesses species trends etc. and assigns them a category such as endangered or vulnerable, the two main reasons for the decline of the Schelly from the reservoir is water abstraction and predation from the humble cormorant. Water abstraction is the taking of water, permanently or temporarily, from a water body. The fact that Haweswater is a reservoir means that water abstraction is often practised, and this process can harm the environment. The good news is that conservation actions are taking place to conserve the Schelly, namely reducing water abstraction in Haweswater and taking control measures on Cormorants, according to the IUCN website.
Now, the Vendace is the rarest fish in Britain. As a native species, confined to only two lakes globally, both in the Lake District, and introduced to one more in Scotland. The combined area of the two lakes where it is found in the Lake District is just 9.9 square km, making its native distribution area 10 times smaller than Paris! The Vendace used to be found in two further lakes, both in Scotland, however both populations were extirpated due to eutrophication. Eutrophication is the excessive abundance of nutrients in the water of a lake which causes very dense growth of plants. Eutrophication is often due to run-off from the surrounding land.
The main threats to the population of Vendace is the Ruffe, an introduced fish which feeds on the eggs of the Vendace. However, the Ruffe has only been introduced to Lake Bassenthwaite, not Derwentwater, the other lake in which it inhabits. Luckily there aren’t any clear threats to the population in Derwentwater, and fishing of this species has been banned. The Bassenthwaite population of this species even seems to be increasing. The species was declared locally extinct in Bassenthwaite in 2008 after the last fish had been recorded in 2001, but had been rediscovered a few years ago. It is possible that the fish found in Bassenthwaite come from the Derwentwater population and had travelled down the river from Derwentwater to Bassenthwaite.
The introduced population in Scotland, in Loch Skene, is doing very well, with a larger population than Derwentwater. The precise figure is nearly 10 times more Vendace per hectare than in Derwentwater, which is excellent! The species was introduced to Loch Skene when the population in Bassenthwaite Lake was seen to be very unstable due to the severe decrease in the habitat quality in the lake. This is a very good example of a successful conservation action.
I’m very pleased to have had the privilege to have seen these two fish as they are both in danger of extinction. Before I visited the lakes where these two fish are found I had no idea either of them even existed. Rare species like this are usually extremely poorly known by the general public and they don’t get the publicity that they deserve as they aren’t all that impressive, like tigers or pandas. However, just because they aren’t impressive it doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve to be saved from extinction. I think we should raise more awareness for these not very well known species in order to conserve them for future generations to cherish and enjoy.
Posted on July 23, 2016 by jiainmac	in Conservation, The Natural World, Wildlife, Wildlife Holidays	• Tagged conservation, cumbria, fish, iucn, lake district, schelly, vendace • 2 Comments
Some people might think that the Fox is an unusual choice as something my grandchildren might not be able to see. They are so common they can even be found in cities, right? But they’re wrong. Foxes can be found in today’s cities, but what about the cities in half a century? The only reason Foxes hang on in cities is because there are spaces for them to shelter and there is lots of food to be found on the street. But cities will develop – that’s inevitable. Cities will become neater, leaving no shelter. Cities will become cleaner, leaving no food. That’s another habitat lost.
I am incredibly lucky to have foxes breeding in my quiet village. This year for the first time I have seen cubs, three of them, run past my living room window while I’m watching Countryfile, so young and full of life. But as all cubs do, they’ll grow older and have to fend for themselves away from their parents’ territory. But dispersing is like an assault course – they have to cross road after road before they reach unoccupied suitable habitat.
Even though there will be much less suitable habitat in the future and fewer Foxes will survive to adulthood, there is still some hope left. Our Fox family has chosen an excellent place to live as there’s lots of food on offer. A house down the road feeds them chicken and we often see a Fox trot past the window, looking content and with a huge chicken breast in its mouth. However, I wouldn’t advise feeding Foxes, especially if you have limited time. If you start feeding them they will come to depend on you, but sooner or later you’ll be absent for a long period of time or even move house, leaving no food for the Foxes. A way you can help though, is by being careful when driving in the evening. Our Foxes come out at anytime after 8pm, sometimes earlier. Drive slower, always watch the road and if it is dark then put your headlights on as soon as the sun sets.
Posted on July 10, 2015 by jiainmac	in Garden Wildlife, Mammals, What My Grandkids Might Not Be Able To See	• Tagged cities, conservation, countryfile, driving, Fox, grandkids, heritage, night time, Red Fox, the future, Vulpes vulpes • 2 Comments