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PROTECTED SPECIES IS A EFFING JOKE!!

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GemmaJF View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GemmaJF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 2012 at 11:24am
Originally posted by Iowarth Iowarth wrote:

Very much in the vein of inappropriate work/advice, I have recently been advised of an instance where someone has been advised (not by a professional consultant/ecologist but none the less a person who the uninformed would regard as being knowledgeable) on EPS mitigation and that person has suggested measures that would not be acceptable to Natural England. That person just doesn't have the experience. They recommended just putting up a fence and doing nothing else. Putting up a fence will just trap the animals inside the development area, and would be unlawful. They has also said that no EPS licence will be required, even though EPS species are found nearby. An EPS licence is required for just putting in the fence!!

It seems astonishing that such a person can give advice on mitigation for protected species when they clearly have neither the knowledge of the species, nor of the legislation.

Apologies for the lack of detail but I have to protect the innocent - which sadly, also protects the guilty!

Chris


Chris I have seen exactly this suggestion and worse, such as mitigation measures should consist solely of a 'finger tip search' before the plant machinery moved in or 'a swathe of cut vegetation would act as a barrier' actually being accepted by NE as appropriate measures. Unhappy Not forgetting that some very clued up person at NE also thought it perfectly OK and raised no objection to transportation of over a 1000 animals from Essex to Wiltshire Angry. Remembering here that a key factor in any mitigation proposal is that the local conservation status of the species shouldn't be lowered Shocked


Edited by GemmaJF - 28 Jun 2012 at 11:52am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote arvensis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 2012 at 2:16pm
I notice two of the examples of enforcement cases were a result of unauthorised action by the guilty parties.        I wonder if there would've been an increased chance of a prosecution regarding the destruction at Allerthorpe if that work was unauthorised?

Mark
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GemmaJF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 2012 at 8:42pm
That is a key question Mark, it seems to me it would be far better if NE took a similar role as they do with developers and kept their distance. 

As it is when things go pear shaped which seems to happen all too often NE are left with just as much egg on their faces as the organisations involved. 

Hence the 'white wash' jibe - sadly though as far as I know that is exactly what has happened on every incident ever reported on here and certainly many more cases I know of that have not been. 

I only bang on about one particular event because any 'bridges' were burnt long ago and it is an interesting case study of how NE were too close to the events to be effective in preventing them.

In fact I would go as far to say that the INDIVIDUAL NE employees I spoke to had absolutely no will to prevent the offences and took the line that nothing would get done at the site if due consideration was given to wildlife legislation. This is why I'm still fuming over it years later, they knew full well the works would contravene the WCA and stood back and did nothing at all.

I know of 30 more cases which were similar across the UK directly involving herps and perhaps a hundred more where it is was very likely works resulted in direct deaths or at the very least a lowering of the conservation status of herps at the site.

I hope MancD realises the scale of the problems we discuss on here, the level of frustration and the effort put in to to try to change things. Perhaps then whilst he is wearing his NE badge he can refrain from advising us there is not much point in group exasperation - I think as a collective group the forum has served us very well in just that role when all else fails. Certainly knowing my experiences were not a one-off event has helped me.

I like Chris hope at least the right people do read the forum. He has better access than me to the stats, but without doubt the threads are read by far more people than actually regularly contribute, so somebody is getting the messages. 


Edited by GemmaJF - 28 Jun 2012 at 8:46pm
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AGILIS View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AGILIS Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jun 2012 at 7:32am
As Gemma mentions, I would imagine there are a lot of people out there who are involved with organisations such as NE that look at this site but they seem to remain silent as if not allowed a opinion on habitat destruction perhaps its the jobs worthy attitude,and dont want to rock the boat in their cosy world.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GemmaJF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jun 2012 at 10:42am
I wouldn't say it is quite that simple Keith (well there might be some jobsworths but not all are like that). 

Many people spend a great deal of time building up relationships with organisations in order to actively help herps. This can be extremely hard work at times and some ill thought out words on a forum could easily undo all that hard work. So I fully understand why many people keep their comments to private discussions. It's good though that there are a few us who are totally irreverent and will speak up. Thumbs Up

I have to say I've never met any that say I've got it all wrong about NE, plenty do read the forums and nod in agreement even if for them it is too risky to speak out. (This includes NE workers who on many occasions have agreed with me that a blatant double standard exists between developers vs wildlife organisations)

In all I just changed my tact in Essex, I now work with those on the ground building relationships, get small but effective things done and avoid the battles with the desk jockeys. Interesting too that very few wardens and site managers in Essex don't know what happened at Backwarden and Danbury Common and the mistakes that were made. See group exasperation has its uses. Big smile


Edited by GemmaJF - 29 Jun 2012 at 10:47am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Madfossa Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jun 2012 at 9:50pm
received this today from CoL  in response to the Rushey Plain incident
if youd like a copy just message me or see rushey plained.


Thank you for your e-mail of 22nd June following up our meeting and your earlier e-mail. We 
have now read the range of comments posted to the website during May, which you pointed 
us to when you first e-mailed on 23rd May. The comments on the website have been 
generated by a first posting that presents an inaccurate picture and implies an indiscriminate 
approach. 

 

The area of work photographed is part of a wood-pasture restoration programme supported 
by Natural England. This work last winter centred around the old Oak and Beech pollards in 
this area that have been or are being killed off by over-shading Birch infill. Every ancient 
pollard in this compartment of the Forest has been mapped and the distribution and health of 
these trees, coupled with information from old OS maps, aerial photos and field visits, inform 
our wood-pasture work. Much of the work involves .haloing. around the old pollards – 
clearing a ring of the competing trees from around them. In addition, we also aim to re-create 
glades and increase edges and lengthen transitions between open and shaded habitats to 
provide/restore a much greater variety of conditions. Such work is aimed at arresting the 
increasing homogeneity of parts of the Forest and declines in its structural diversity and 
openness. Its focus is to restore the Forest‘s complex wood-pasture mosaic from which its 
rich biodiversity springs. 

 

The heathy/grassy areas stretching between Rushey Plain and Sunshine Plain used to be 
larger and better inter-linked than they are today as old OS maps and aerial photos reveal. 
The majority of these grassy areas have been lost over many years, not only due to the 
cessation of pollarding creating a closed woodland canopy but also due to dense secondary 
birch infill shading out the ground flora. The remnants of these glades and corridors can still 
be seen as a sparse Purple Moor-grass ground flora or tall Bracken patches. The glades and 
small open areas that we have opened up around and between Sunshine Plain, Wake Road 
and Rushey Plain since the 1990s have allowed long dormant seed-banks to come to life and 
much scarce heathland flora has re-appeared along with more edge habitats. 

 

To create this variety of habitat the prescription for each task is quite specific. In this case 
work was carried out this last winter to halo Oak pollards and link the areas between them 
and to expand the main heathy glade that was originally re-created by volunteers and staff in 
the 1990s and which has been maintained by active work ever since. This main heathy glade 
itself developed from the re-pollarded area of Hornbeams to the south, which were re-
pollarded in the early 1980s. 

 

It is important to note at this point that the work photographed and discussed on the website 
only involved the felling of Birch, the removal of the felled logs and wood-chippings and 
stump-grinding of selected stumps – using a single access route in and out. There were no 
bulldozers used and no soil was removed or scraped; there was no .planing. of the site. 
Standing and fallen dead wood were carefully left in situ as can be seen from the photograph 
1 below, which is similar to the photograph on the website. 

 

 

 

 

Photograph 1 – the new glade creating an extension northwards from the main glade at 
Rushey Plain. This photo shows the long-fallen dead wood retained in its original positions. 

 

To create this new glade we felled a 2-acre area of dense Birch infill in order to recreate the 
conditions for the recovery of a heathy, wood-pasture mosaic. The ground flora within this 
area was very sparse due to the lack of sunlight reaching the woodland floor and consisted 
mainly of thin patches of bracken, bramble and purple moor grass. Therefore, the lack of 
ground vegetation in the photos posted on the website is not due to the ground flora having 
been mechanically scraped away but due to the former shade suppression by the closed 
woodland canopy. No work was carried out within the already established grassy glade. 

 

The works at this site are identical to the recent works at Sunshine Plain extending the 
heathland by birch removal and stump grinding. Again, the ground flora within this area was 
also very sparse due to former shade suppression and initially looked very bare compared to 
the rest of Sunshine Plain but it is now beginning to establish itself, thereby extending this 
valuable habitat and allowing colonisation by scarce species of heathland flora that otherwise 
would be doomed to ever decreasing pockets and eventual loss. 

 

The photographs below are taken from the north of the new glade at Rushey Plain. The first 
photograph Photo 2) shows the type of Birch infill that has been felled with its shady 
conditions, leaf litter layer and Bracken. The second photograph (Photo 3) is a few paces 
further south from Photo 2, at the north edge of the newly-created glade. It shows the 
Bracken layer and litter and it also shows the =framework‘ of Oak pollards and standards 
around which the work of Birch felling has been carried out. 

Photograph 2 – a few metres in to the north of the newly-created glade, showing the type of 
Birch infill of the original wood—pasture habitat that has been felled to create the glade. 

 

Photograph 3 – a few metres south from the position of Photo 2, this shows the new glade 
from the north, with its Oaks pollards, retained fallen dead wood/trees and bracken layer. 

 

The older grassy glade to the south of the new glade, created by volunteers in the 1990s, has 
become a fantastic example of a mosaic of habitats ideal for many species including reptiles, 
rare saproxylic insects, many other invertebrates and scarce, declining flora. It has provided 
damp, heathy habitat, a threatened resource in the Forest and allowed new, young pollards to 
be created as a successor generation to the ancient trees. The new glade extends this area and 
as the brackeny and grassy vegetation develops will provide part of the structural variety of 
the mosaic upon which a large range of specialised biodiversity has depended and which 
makes Epping Forest outstanding. 

 

In the context of the above, the comments on the website are unwarranted. Unfortunately, 
some of your comments, including references to .napalming. and prosecution, are highly 
inappropriate and offensive. Given that this type of work in wooded areas significantly 
changes the outlook and reference points of the site, creating many new ones such as the Oak 
pollards that have now been revealed, it initially could create disorientation and make it 
difficult to recognise where you are within it. Therefore, I am left to wonder whether this has 
caused a certain amount of confusion and the expressed concern. 

 

 

Andy Froud 

Acting Senior Ecologist 

Conservators of Epping Forest 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GemmaJF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jun 2012 at 11:34pm
Can you ask Andy Froud, to forward me all the results of the  pre-works reptile surveys?

I would be most interested as the Essex County Recorder for Reptiles and Amphibians in the information and the consideration given to reptiles during the works. Reptile surveys were of course carried out considering this is a known hot spot for several widespread species?


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AGILIS Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Jul 2012 at 4:31pm
,Interesting thing can visit sites along the roadside within   local urbanised areas and see more animals,where once upon a time you would only see this on the heaths when colonies were abundant not any more they are either wiped out or hiding from dog walkers or golf club heather cutting machinery and every Tom Dick and Harry who have now included heath land into recreational fun parks, its not only about animals its also about the loss of natural tranquil heath areas Yes not just herps suffering its the whole of our heathlands that are being F*****d up,,and its good by to the England I knew . Keith

Edited by AGILIS - 01 Jul 2012 at 4:42pm
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