Owen Paterson - Flogging the Country to Death!

Developers can build on nature reserves - if they 'offset' the damage elsewhere, says Government review

Today marks one of the darkest days in the history of the UK, where our natural world is concerned. Owen Paterson has, in effect given the green light for bulldozers to demolish our most diverse and unique wildlife habitats throughout the country.
When something is classified as a nature reserve, you would imagine and hope that it has been recognised as an area of significant importance and will therefore be protected? However, under Mr. Paterson's upcoming schemes we could see these tranquil and unique areas destroyed, to make way for development.

He goes on to say that this is OK as long as the damage is "offset" by creating similar habitats elsewhere.
So, what I would like to know and I expect you are asking yourself the same question; "how is it possible to re-create habitats that have taken centuries to mature and become established?"
Has he given any thought to this at all and I now wonder if he even knows what the word mitigation means?

Some of our most vulnerable wildlife such as the dormouse, great crested newt, water vole and adder can not just be lifted from one area and dumped in a man made equivalent a few miles or so away.
If this man thinks that this is OK and even achievable then he has concreted the fact that he knows very little about our natural world and environment. As he is supposedly our Environment Secretary, surely this proves that he should be replaced immediately before he destroys our wild places.

It will not matter if the targeted reserves are 10 square miles or just 1 square mile, if the chosen area has ancient and unique habitats, these will not be replicated by man overnight and whatever unique wildlife is living within will be lost forever.
If the wildlife is moved to an already established site, this will upset the balance and will lead to the significant loss a of number of the species in question.
Wildlife mitigation should be taken very seriously, especially where vulnerable, fragile species and habitats are involved. Sadly this seems to be something our Environment Secretary is either overlooking or ignoring.

In the Forest of Dean, we are already seeing this on a massive scale, losing one of our most diverse areas to development.
Among other wildlife, Northern United is home to the following species...

Great Crested Newt
Adder
Dormouse
Greater Horseshoe Bat
Lesser Horseshoe Bat

Work has already begun at this site. EU protected bats have already been seen flying for their lives as heavy machinery smashed down the buildings in which they roosted and work is soon to begin on a spine road, paving the way for the entire area to be concreted over.

So don't think your areas are safe for one minuet, as baron land is nothing more than a money making opportunity in their eyes!

We must all stand together to protect our most precious wild places before it is too late.

Telegraph Article - HERE

NORTHERN UNITED

This sight, along with the wildlife will soon be lost forever!

Just some of the prime wildlife habitat, soon to be bulldozed to make way for a road!

EU Protected Great Crested Newts are Present at Northern United

Rob

Oh Deer!

A Fallow & Roe Encounter

The past few nights have been encouraging and although I was actually out tracking wild boar, I did manage some nice fallow deer shots and a fleeting roe encounter.

I did stumble (literally) upon two young male boar sleeping, but before I could raise the camera they were bolting through the forest, weaving through the trees like two torpedoes.
If you have ever seen a wild boar run you will understand that when they take off, they can reach speeds up to 20-25mph within a second or two and in dense woodland, all you can do is watch them fade away into the shadows.
Another encounter was of a sow, but yet again it was of her bum disappearing into some dense plantation. There is no point following as it is too dense and you would just disturb them for no purpose.

Moving on and covering approximately 5 miles in total I did find some handsome fallow bucks, which were a little more accommodating.

I never tire of seeing deer, but there is one species that I adore and that is the roe deer, Britain's true native deer species.
There were 5 in total and although I get a massive buzz every time I see them, I couldn't have picked a worst location as they were right next to a old, half collapsed Forestry fence and the sun was in my face. 
Unfortunately you can't predict when and where you are going to have your encounter, so I made the best of it that I could.

Roe Buck

Here we have forest ecology at work; wild boar diggings deep in the forest. To some, this looks unsightly when it appears on the road verges, but I dare anyone to prove that this is actually bad for the forest?
This activity unearths dormant seeds and cultivates the soil, revitalising and regenerating it after centuries of being compacted.
The wild boar are partly responsible for creating our living landscape, from when they lived wild throughout Britain centuries ago. 

Boar Rooting, Deep in the Forest

And what better than a natural fertiliser! There were absolutely loads of boar turds like this strewn throughout the boar diggings, with most already trodden into the exposed soil.

Ask any farmer what muck spreading does for their land as this is what is naturally happening throughout our forest every year. 

Wild Boar Turds

I couldn't leave you without showing a cute humbug shot!

Oink Oink!

And finally, it may feel like we have missed spring this year, but the signs are still out there!

Spring Lamb

Rob

1st Adder - 2013

Sssssssssnakes!

Found my first adder of 2013 today.
For the details and photograph click HERE

Rob

Decapitated Boar - Update

The Story Unravels 

UKWBT has found out what happened to the headless boar, found in the forest earlier this week.
This animal was found dead by a member of the public with what appeared to be a gun shot wound to the head. It was immediately reported to the Forestry Commission who dispatched a ranger to the site.

As there was no exit wound, with the bullet still believed to be inside, the head was removed and taken away for examination.
The rest of the boar was left as this will be a good source of food for other meat eaters in our forest like foxes and birds of prey etc.

Good to know the Forestry Commission take things like this seriously.

For More Info Click HERE

Rob

Some Pretty Hairy Comments!!!

Below is a link to a recent article in the Citizen Newspaper on wild boar numbers and diggings in the Forest of Dean, with some hair raising comments from a local Councillor!

The below is from a personal perspective only. I will not make assumptions on population numbers as this will only be pure speculation until we have a more accurate estimate in a few months time.

However, I would like to address some of the comments made by Councillor Norman Stephens.

Mr. Stephens says..... 

"A lot of people I speak to are sick and tired of the boar."
Is this a good enough reason to kill wildlife, or ask for it to be killed?

"They turfed up the ground around the Forest Church War Memorial just before Remembrance Day." 
Unfortunately Mr. Stephens, wild animals treat every day the same as the previous, but I am sure that if they did know this they would have indeed shown some respect like us.

"The mess at Beechenhurst is deplorable."
Again, unfortunately they do not look on this area in the same way we do. In fact, as food is eaten at this location daily, they see it as an opportunity and as a source for food.
To them, this "is" the heart of the forest, where they belong.

"Road verges have been wrecked."
The forest has seen a low natural crop of acorns and chestnuts this last season and to survive, like all living creatures the boar have to eat. One reason why they root road verges is because the verges are soft, which makes life easy for them. Is dirt on the side of the road any worse than the huge slab of tarmac snaking for miles throughout the area?
Wild boar are a native species and like it or not they helped sculpt the landscape we see today, many years ago.
Wild boar diggings might look unsightly to some, but the reality is that this activity actually revitalises and regenerates the forest.


Mr. Stephens has asked for the boar to be contained in a secure enclosure within the forest.
Really? And how big should this be; 1, 2, 3, 4 square miles, or more?
Even if this was possible, they would require feeding on a daily basis as their territory would be limited.
Male wild boar would have to be penned in a separate enclosure while the sows weaned their young.
A breach in the fence would see them escape, so this would also need to be monitored on a daily basis.

And finally, the Forest of Dean is not a zoo.

Citizen article HERE


One day, hopefully, we may learn to respect the fact that just because we walk on this planet, it doesn't mean we own it. 
We but only share this earth with billions of other living creatures and what we think and see as right, is actually destroying it.

Wild Boar Sow in the Forest of Dean

A wild boar piglet, learning how to find food

Rob

Horrific Discovery in the Forest

What you are about to see is graphic 

so please be 

WARNED!

On Sunday 24th March, along with my friend and co-founder of UKWBT, Scott Passmore, we took a film crew into the Forest of Dean on the trail of wild boar for an upcoming documentary on this species.

I knew where there were a few sows with piglets and after circling the area for signs we headed into a dense part of the forest, where I knew they would be.
What we found was shocking and horrific!

A wild boar was lying at the bottom of a small tree and as we approached, we were greeted with a sight that sent my emotions over the edge. The poor animal was dead, but what was shocking was that it was missing its head!
My first concern was for the piglets, as they are still dependant on the sows milk. However, I soon realised that this was a male boar, not a sow and even though the sight was gruesome  I was relieved that the piglets hadn't lost their mum and their milk.

The male boar had a open gash to the belly area, exposing his internal organs and the head had been cleanly removed with a very sharp instrument. Probably a machete.

Our first thought was that this fella had been poached and decapitated, but on closer inspection we could not find a gunshot wound anywhere on the body, so this would mean that to drop an animal of this size, it would have been a shot to the head, if indeed he had been shot.
We were then puzzled as to why the head was nowhere to be seen, yet the body with a belly wound had been left. Surely if this animal was poached, the people responsible would have taken the meat?
If they had been disturbed or chased off by other boar, why did they struggle with just the head and for what purpose?

Wild boar sows will not tolerate male boar when they have young as male boar will kill piglets if they are not his, so that he can mate with the sow to keep his own bloodline going.
We came to the conclusion that this male entered the sows territory and with young this caused the sows to attack him, slicing his belly in the process. This wound would have been severe enough to kill him and this is what probably happened.
As for the head, many people walk the forest searching for boar and if someone came across this chap and decided the scull, complete with tusks would make a nice trophy, it wouldn't have taken long to return with a machete and remove the head.

The boar had been dead for a while when the head was removed as there was no blood on the ground around the neck area. Also, the exposed meat in the neck area was fresh and had no odour, yet the open wound on the belly was rotting and smelled awful.

Shocking as it is, at least this lad will now help other wildlife in the area as he is now a source of food for birds of prey and foxes etc.

Of course we could be completely wrong as this lad may have been shot in the head with the offender then going to work removing his head. Poachers usually butcher in the forest as it is easier to get the meat out, rather than drag a 150lb+ carcass out.
If this was the work of a poacher and he was startled or disturbed, he may have left the area to return later.
It wouldn't take long for the meat to spoil and he may have opened the belly on his return only to discover this. Leaving what we found?

Your thoughts are welcome?

PLEASE DO NOT SCROLL DOWN IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH 

Were were greeted with this!

Belly wound. Fight, or a knife? 

Cleanly cut and obviously made by a human!

Rob

Statement

*NOTE* 

Due to manipulation of text used against me, the use of any or all of the wording below may not be used without prior consent from the author Robin Ward.

___________________________________________________

As many of you are already aware and for those of you who don't know; I helped set up and run the following conservation groups.

GlosARG - Gloucestershire Amphibian and Reptile Group 
UKWBT - UK Wild Boar Trust 

I am not one to play tit for tat crap on-line as I value and use my spare time wisely regarding the conservation of our wildlife.
However, due to recent manipulated publications by a certain so called jealous wildlife campaigner who obviously has too much time on his hands, I feel I must make the following perfectly clear.

I, nor any conservation group that I am a member of supports the unnecessary killing of "any" wildlife in the UK.
UKWBT has released the following and this is also GlosARG's stance.

UK Wild Boar Trust Cull Policy

We want to reassure our supporters that UKWBT do NOT support the idea of wild boar, or any other animal, being managed by lethal methods. 

UKWBT will campaign to ensure that if a cull is to be carried out by Land Owners/Forestry Commission, it will only happen if absolutely necessary and on the back of an accurate and/or logical estimation of population numbers.

We strongly believe if UKWBT can negotiate a lower cull target through working with the Land Owners/Forestry Commission on the management of the wild boar, based on our own research into the boar population, this will be a successful commitment to the wild boar and will save the lives of many animals. 

This can also be viewed on the front page of our website HERE

It is such a shame that this one person, with an ego large enough to explode out of his head like a volcano can be so negative and aggressive towards two substantial conservation groups that are obviously doing very well in a very short space of time.

With a prestigious Patron list including Chris Packham, Andy Rouse, Iolo Williams, Zara Boland and Sarah Jane Honeywell, we are obviously pro-active, trusted and committed to the welfare of wildlife in the UK. Sadly something one very small minded person is now trying to damage through pure jealousy.

Further details on our Patrons can be found - HERE

UKWBT and GlosARG will rise above this pettiness and we will succeed where certain others will fail. We will never let anything get us down and we will always put the wildlife first.

I hope you respect and support the work that a few dedicated volunteers are carrying out in the name of wildlife throughout the UK.

Rob