What will Brexit mean for Nature?

I am not sure where to begin with this post, but it feels right to have a stab at it. There is little doubt that EU Directives have been some of the strongest protection for species and habitats over the past few decades, and it’s also no secret that the Conservative government has been keen to minimise ‘red tape’ for economic development, by putting in place a presumption in favour of development in the local planning system. We now have the NPPF the National Planning Policy Framework, which swept away reams of details planning guidance, policy statements and advice, in favour of more general broad brush ‘biodiversity duty’ which, to put it crudely, leaves it to the discretion of local authority planning departments. So this is my first worry for Nature…protected areas and species.

First, what happens to Natura 2000?  – that Europe-wide network of designated areas given statutory conservation protection for their valuable wildlife habitats? Without EU legislation to require it, will the UK government uphold the conservation designations which are enshrined in European law? Special Protection Areas for Birds (SPAs) are European designations, for instance the North York Moors is designated an SPA for the populations of Merlin and Golden Plover it supports. Fortunately the North York Mors is also a National Park, which gives another strong UK based level of environmental protection. Special Areas of Conservation (SAC’s) are another EU designation, for instance the River Derwent is an SAC for its riparian habitats with key aquatic mammals and fish. Will this stand once we have parted company with Europe?

A second issue of EU legislation: Will the Water Framework Directive be abandoned – that challenging goal for raising the ecological status of all our rivers, streams and water bodies – including reduction of aquatic pollution, sediment inputs from land, removing barriers to fish migration on rivers etc. It has steered and dominated major aspects of the Environment Agency and DEFRA’s work relating to rivers and their catchments. Indeed the Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) which has been embedded in aspects of DEFRA work on land management was a logical extension of the need to improve water quality and water level management of our river systems.

Thirdly and this is a big one, there is the matter of European subsidies for rural development, agriculture, forestry etc, including the Natural England flagship agri-environment scheme, Countryside Stewardship, on which the ink is barely dry from a major shake-up and re-organisation of farming subsidies for environmental benefits, including provision for pollinators, climate change mitigation, ecosystem services, carbon management, catchment sensitive farming methods, farmland biodiversity under Pillar II of the Common Agricultral Policy – the so called Greening of the CAP. It is up to the individual EU nation states to design their own schemes for prioritising and disseminating the subsidies for Agri-Environment work, and Countryside Stewardship – and its forbears including ELS/HLS -is our nations version. But the money ultimately comes from central European funds, and surely this is going to be a major headache for Natural England who are just bedding in the new CS scheme and working on only their second round of annual applications this summer.

Whati is without doubt is that there a major work to do both by government departments and by conservation organisations large and small to make sure that Nature does not get a raw deal out of  Brexit.   In one sense you could say that interest rates and currency flops can recover, but if natural habitats get ‘done over’ once in many cases it will be for good.

Bugs, botany and birds at the balancing pond

Taylor Way Balancing Pond

Paid a quick visit this week to one of the two constructed balancing ponds on the Scarborough Business Park, Taylor Way, just off the road down to the Waste Recovery Centre at Seamer Carr. Its not open to the public (although the larger pond to the east has a right of way down one side and is certainly visited by some people who know it’s there.) I was keen to see how the meadow planting mix has established and see if anything interesting was about on a sunny morning. Now I’m not much of an entomology specialist and my botany is fair to middling but I snapped a few nice things with my phone for the record.

 

Red=Tailed Bumble bee on Common Hogweed

 

 

 

I enjoyed seeing lots of bumblebees out, mostly red-tailed. Among the other innumerable insects buzzing about the meadow margins of the pond were moths, craneflies and froghoppers (‘spittlebugs’) galore. Some Common Blue and Blue-Tailed Damselflies were active around the perimeter path (though my attempts to photograph them were all but thwarted as they are so flighty).

Yellow Rattle, a native meadow flower, often included in seed mixes for restoring wildflower-rich meadows due to its hemiparasitic habits.

Yellow Rattle was in the seed mix used by the developer and is good for reducing the vigour of the grasses in meadow sites due to its hemiparasitic nature, attaching to the roots below ground and tapping into the spoils of the grasses’ photosynthesis. A good mix of other flower species were present including Birdsfoot Trefoil, Black Medick, Knapweeds, Buttercups, Ribwort Plantain and Red Clover.

Ragged Robin, a native wildflower of marsh ground, here included in a seed mix for the margins of the pond

 

It is pleasing to see lots of Ragged Robin among the meadow flowers. This wildflower likes marshy ground and in the low spots which fill up in the wetter months there was quite a show. The name comes from the dissected petals giving a raggedy appearance. It is actually related to the Campion and ‘catch-fly’ family.

The call of a Curlew nearby piqued my interest and disturbed me from my Ragged Robin reverie, then looking up and listening a little more attentively I heard a pair of Oystercatchers which appeared to be hanging around on one of the undeveloped vacant plots to the north of Taylor Way. They were actually on the roof of a shipping container and at first I even wondered if they could choose to nest on there, safe from the depredations of foxes. These sparsely vegetated plots have been quite attractive to other waders including Lapwing in the few years since they were cleared for future development and left largely undisturbed since then, save for the occasional dog walker and some unsightly fly-tipping around the periphery. How ironic that sites cleared of topsoil and vegetation in anticipation of development can end up attracting a good range of biodiversity in their denuded state.

The site is not a public space, rather a water body to balance out run-off from the business park, with some designed-in ecological enhancements. However I’m sure the developers Caddick’s would be open to permitting visits by local naturalists to this and the larger pond to the east for ecological recording.