Rewilding Britian - increasing biodiversity

[Goatboy]

Mod hat on.
Ladies and gents, this thread is heading off in the realm of politics again.
Please pull it back from there as I don't want to close down what has been, on the whole, an informative and civil conversation.


Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Robson Valley]

I like dewi's concept = less travel instead of making travel quicker.
With just a few logging roads and all the traffic on one east/west highway,
my landscape is very quiet. Even walking noise becomes your enemy.
Moccasins have their merit.

Seems to be some data to suggest that even the oceans now suffer from noise pollution.
As many marine animals communicate and detect sound/vibrations, they get confused.

 

[mrcharly]

Stay safe out there if you are helping. I delivered a canoe to a friend yesterday so she could get to and from her house. Coming down the river, there were places where I could have reached up with a paddle and touched the power lines. If you do come into contact with flood water, Wash hands thoroughly before eating or drinking. It's not clean water.

 

[santaman2000]

Much under-rated land are good sound sodden bogs

Seriously they are. They are biodiverse rich wetlands…..that's the bit that too many exploitative folks forget….wetlands.

Bit much though that the estate who own the land above the town that keeps flooding gets £2.5 million from Natural England, while the folks whose homes and businesses have been devastated in the floods in town, have less than a fifth of that to not only repair and replace, but re-inforce the flood barriers that they have

M

No, I haven't. I'll look out for that though.

I do have Wetlands; Archaeology and Nature Conservation, Eds..Cox, Straker & Taylor, and it's an interesting read.
It's more than surprising just how much of the UK's arable land is former wetland.

M

Flood control likely isn't the only reason to conserve your bogs and wetlands. I suspect they also act as the coastal mangroves here; they don't control the water flow as such, but they do filter it before it goes onward (reducing contaminates)

 

[demographic]

The Carlisle problem shouldn't be a problem if they thought it through... Carlisle is 95ft above sea level and less than 3 miles as the crow flies to the estuary. Several storm drains installed beneath the town, the water gets whisked away and no more flooding in Carlisle. Large capital outlay to begin with, but the savings in property damage alone in the life span of the storm drains...

If only Carlisle had an abandoned railway line that used to be a canal that ran right to the sea... Oh hang on a bit....

 

[santaman2000]

At risk of taking us slightly off topic. With all the floods in the UK at the moment, a picture has been doing the rounds on twitter -

.

Which has been widely shared with comments along the lines of "This is all that is wrong with British house building.".

And it got me thinking.

If we are going to accept that the climate has changed (let's not argue that one here, lets do that over a pint in the pub), and thus accept that we are going to get more flooding, then we need to change the approach we take to building houses.

Building on the site in the above picture with traditional British house designs like the big development companies favour is a disaster waiting to happen.

But, if we change the way we build are houses, that land can be used to house people. Where perhaps it might not be suitable to many other uses.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina people looked at the houses that had been destroyed and set about how to build a better house. One that can withstand the high winds of the deep south, and yet also stay dry when the waters rise. They came up with this:

It's raised up on stilts that provide a parking space for your car, or somewhere to sit out of the sun when it's not flooding. Yet when the water rises, you park the car else where (or just accept you're gonna lose it...), and your house stays high and dry. These homes are also designed to withstand flying debris and high winds.

An alternative approach is one used by the Dutch.

They build their homes with a basement that is an empty concrete box, rather than a foundation. They then moor the house to a post driven deep into the ground (Dutch geology means this can be upto 30m deep). When the waters rise, so does the house. it floats up and down with the waters, staying in place because of the post.

You can see the flotation basement and the central post that keeps the house in place but allows vertical movement.

Simple designs that allow us to work with the floods, not against them.

Now can you imagine the local authority planning committee approving either design? or of developers like Bovis homes paying out to build such homes?

And so volunteers as well as members of the emergency services are out risking their lives to help those hit by the floods.

Sorry, wanted to get that off my chest.

J

Homes on stilts aren't a new thing here along the Gulf Coast; they've been around for well over a century TBH. Here's a few pix of my cousin's house in Waveland, Mississippi back on the 4th of July.

Here's one taken more recently with the Christmas wreath up:

The parking area and support poles are hidden by the latticework.


Here are several examples of beach houses in the Navarre, Florida area:

I'm over 59 years old and these type houses were common along the beach since my parents were little kids. Not really new at all.

 

[dewi]

If only Carlisle had an abandoned railway line that used to be a canal that ran right to the sea... Oh hang on a bit....

Whereabouts is that?

 

[Toddy]

Crannogs, lacustrian, riverine and esturine. Common in Scotland at one time. Until King James called them the 'hoosis of ill intent men' and decreed that no more were to be built and those that survived unroofed. Enough of them survived until the retreat from Culloden when they were used as bolt holes by a few fugitives.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/437130707556301213/

I know that we have sound dating for them at least 5,000 years old.

Our peat bogs rather do the opposite of your mangrove swamps. Our drinking waters often come from the upland moors; the peat bogs. The only thing polluting them is the rain…..that's usually come from 2,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean air.
My drinking water comes from the Daer reservoir up on the Lanark moors and until it was treated to remove it, after heavy rain the water came through whisky coloured with the peat.

M

 

[dewi]

Never seen those before M... why were they built like that? Fishing platform? Defensive position?

 

[boatman]

The Carlisle canal/railway route seems a good idea, see the the Jubilee River, Maidenhead, Berkshire for a way of engineering a solution to floods.

 

[Goatboy]

How many new housing builds have you passed that are standing in water? Way too many and then folks wonder why there is flooding. Land space is so tight that we're building where we shouldn't. Like the big new high school they built in Stirling. Right smack in the flood plane and within a couple of years it started to crack & sink.
Also up at Comrie where the flood defense wasn't maintained and the whole are became inundated.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Toddy]

Never seen those before M... why were they built like that? Fishing platform? Defensive position?

They were homes. They're clean homes despite the mud onshore. They are always found adjacent to good farmland. No midges offshore either They are also found in the waters….the main roads of the past. Remember that until the Jacobite uprisings there were very, very, few roads here, but masses of waterways. Most things moved by water.
The crannogs are prominent, so probably status too. Your family is doing well enough to be able to spend the labour and materials to build such a comfortable home.
Eventually the build up of debris and decaying timbers makes artificial islands. Technically those are the crannogs and the house on top is a roundhouse.
They are sometimes seen as defensive but there are no defensive bastions, walls or anything else. Just that offshore (and domesticated animals were offshore too at times) everything is safe from wolves and bears, as well as making things difficult for two legged pests. No midden heaps, no stench of manure or human excrement, no midges, no mice or rats either if you're careful about the causeway

M

 

[dewi]

They were homes. They're clean homes despite the mud onshore. They are always found adjacent to good farmland. No midges offshore either They are also found in the waters….the main roads of the past. Remember that until the Jacobite uprisings there were very, very, few roads here, but masses of waterways. Most things moved by water.
The crannogs are prominent, so probably status too. Your family is doing well enough to be able to spend the labour and materials to build such a comfortable home.
Eventually the build up of debris and decaying timbers makes artificial islands. Technically those are the crannogs and the house on top is a roundhouse.
They are sometimes seen as defensive but there are no defensive bastions, walls or anything else. Just that offshore (and domesticated animals were offshore too at times) everything is safe from wolves and bears, as well as making things difficult for two legged pests. No midden heaps, no stench of manure or human excrement, no midges, no mice or rats either if you're careful about the causeway

M

Are there any still in existance? Or recreated?

 

[santaman2000]

Crannogs, lacustrian, riverine and esturine. Common in Scotland at one time. Until King James called them the 'hoosis of ill intent men' and decreed that no more were to be built and those that survived unroofed. Enough of them survived until the retreat from Culloden when they were used as bolt holes by a few fugitives.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/437130707556301213/

I know that we have sound dating for them at least 5,000 years old.

Our peat bogs rather do the opposite of your mangrove swamps. Our drinking waters often come from the upland moors; the peat bogs. The only thing polluting them is the rain…..that's usually come from 2,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean air.
My drinking water comes from the Daer reservoir up on the Lanark moors and until it was treated to remove it, after heavy rain the water came through whisky coloured with the peat.

M

Interesdting. My comment wasn't regarding drinking water though. rather the mangroves filter silt and other natural and man-made pollution before the freshwater drainage enters the bays (brackish or saltwater areas)

 

[Toddy]

That's why I commented that ours was the other way around. Our peat bogs are generally clean water, they don't trap pollution unless it's come in with the rain, though they do hold carbon, etc.,
They don't filter out silt, they grow over everything. Brilliant for preservation of archaeology though

In a way they are at the start and your mangrove swamps are at the end. The UK used to have (still does in some areas, like the Broads) masses of reed beds and eel grass beds, and those do act a bit like your swamps.

M

 

[Toddy]

Are there any still in existance? Or recreated?

Yes, there's one on Loch Tay and it's a brilliant place to spend time
It's an amazing structure, it's a huge experimental archaeological build and on-going experiment

http://www.crannog.co.uk

M

 

[dewi]

Yes, there's one on Loch Tay and it's a brilliant place to spend time
It's an amazing structure, it's a huge experimental archaeological build and on-going experiment

http://www.crannog.co.uk

M

I would love to visit it... may have to give my other half a day or so, she's been poorly since Boxing Day... but if she's up for it as well, just need to find a local camping spot for the bell tent... and the whole family can have a gander.

Structures like that fascinate me... especially the techniques used for load bearing. Do the archaeologists remain onsite during the season that you know of M?

 

[Toddy]

The couple who built it, Dr Nick Dixon and Dr Barrie Andrian are still very much involved in the running of the Crannog Centre.
It's a really good place to visit but if you're travelling a distance then see if you can time (and mind and book in advance) your visit to coincide with one of the evening concerts on the Crannog too. Visit during the day, away and have dinner someplace and come back in the evening. The atmosphere inside sitting round the fire in the evening is something very special

Camping ? have a look at Comriecroft. It's a favourite, and much recommended, eco camp site of the Scottish bushcrafters.
http://www.comriecroft.com/sleep/eco-camping.html
and it's not far from the Crannog centre.

M

 

[dewi]

The couple who built it, Dr Nick Dixon and Dr Barrie Andrian are still very much involved in the running of the Crannog Centre.
It's a really good place to visit but if you're travelling a distance then see if you can time (and mind and book in advance) your visit to coincide with one of the evening concerts on the Crannog too. Visit during the day, away and have dinner someplace and come back in the evening. The atmosphere inside sitting round the fire in the evening is something very special

Camping ? have a look at Comriecroft. It's a favourite, and much recommended, eco camp site of the Scottish bushcrafters.
http://www.comriecroft.com/sleep/eco-camping.html
and it's not far from the Crannog centre.

M

I like the looks of that camp site!

I'd very much like to talk to the couple who built it... that would be amazing if they are about. I just have to persuade my other half... she favours the west coast of Scotland, north west of Fort William... but I reckon she'll be just as happy up that way.

Thank you M You're a star... I reckon I've sorted our family holiday for 2016

 

[santaman2000]

That's why I commented that ours was the other way around. Our peat bogs are generally clean water, they don't trap pollution unless it's come in with the rain, though they do hold carbon, etc.,
They don't filter out silt, they grow over everything. Brilliant for preservation of archaeology though

In a way they are at the start and your mangrove swamps are at the end. The UK used to have (still does in some areas, like the Broads) masses of reed beds and eel grass beds, and those do act a bit like your swamps.

M

Thanks Mary. That comparison of them being opposite ends of the drainage system makes perfect sense! However the mangroves aren't swamps; swamps are freshwater and are upstream of the coastal mangroves (said mangroves are brackish if not completely seawater and estuarian) although some people do incorrectly refer to them as swamps.

That said, I'd think that the bogs would be even higher on importance. After all, being at the most upstream poit they should influence everything downstream one would think.