Rewilding- Part One

Last month I went to a talk at the University of Leeds all about rewilding in the UK. The talks were given by George Monbiot and Alan Watson-Featherson.

George described how although there are many upland reserves in the UK, they are only maintained to have the lowest level of biodiversity. This is because many years ago, someone decided that heather and scrub should cover most of the land despite the fact that forests would have historically covered these areas. To prevent the regrowth of the forests, sheep were used to over graze the land along with burning and cutting. George found that this is a problem all over the country as in lowlands there are few trees, but, in the uplands, where they would naturally be more, there are even less.

Lynx's roaming the UK

I have been dreaming of Lynx's being reintroduced back into the UK for around 4 years since I first heard about the project and the fact that it maybe come a reality in the not to distant future is really exciting.

The Lynx Trust UK wants to find out what the public's view on the matter is, before taking the idea to Natural England and Scottish Natural Heritage to ask permission to release between 4-6 collared individuals as a trial to into the wild. The released animals will then be fitted with GPS collars and closely studied to see how their activities effect the local environment.