There are times at UWNR when it feels healthy, fecund and full of nature…. frogs abound in the lake in their 10s; the jays kick out their rattling alarm call; the barn owl creeps out onto her balcony, as the blue light of dusk gathers and the roe deer gingerly walks across the meadow, in front of the barn. It looks vibrant….
Our recent visit to north-eastern Portugal (and the Faia Brava rewilding project) made me reconsider the baseline of what a healthy ecosystem looks & feels like. Near the upper reaches of the Douro River the land is gently farmed, free from chemicals, by people who cohabit sensitively with nature. Marginal bits of land are left to go – here we might even call it rewilding. Food supply chains are local – people eat what they grow…it is fresh, seasonal and delicious. (For the record…. allotment style land management is highly productive, producing between 20-35 tons of food per hectare. Agri-chemical intensive systems produce between 3.5 – 8 tons per hectare. (Ref; Goulson, Dave, Silent Earth, 2021)).
North eastern Portugal
According to our wonderful ecologist & guide (more on him in a minute), hunting is low key and strictly for the pot. We are back to the weird, annual, ritualistic slaughter of (approx. 20 million!) semi-domestic ‘game’ birds. The shooters kill, but don’t eat everything they kill - perhaps they can’t eat these animals, they being too toxic? The folk of north eastern Portugal would find this perverse…at best.
It wasn’t just the numbers of species that was really striking in this part of Portugal, it was the numbers of individuals (i.e. overall abundance), that struck us profoundly. We encountered otter scat on every 3rd or 4th rock, it full of pink crustacea shell; massive flocks of starling in every dense thicket; so many hen harriers I stopped gawping; kingfishers flashing up the river valley we walked, in a constant procession; dippers bobbing and diving as we rounded each bend; fresh water clams the size of my fist; multiple species of bats each evening in their 10s; and daily flying high on hot thermals, Griffin Vultures with wingspans just under 3 meters…I think 2.75 to be precise. The list goes on and on and includes wonders like mongoose, Iberian turtle, hobby, wryneck, and peregrine. And wonderful woodlarks! When I was a kid we had bellbirds in the bush, on our dairy farm in New Zealand – their resonant notes, which carried through the dense subtropical flora, sounded like small bells being delicately struck. Even as a 10-year-old, they halted me in my tracks. The woodlark call has elements of the New Zealand bellbird call and hearing this often, I was transported back to another time and hemisphere….
We hadn’t experienced nature this vibrant, since our spring visits to eastern Poland and central Romania. So, my baseline of what a vibrant and healthy ecosystem is, is in need of revision. The UK has a challenge to restore our battered fauna and flora. The Natural History Museum (NHM) recently published research, which supports this. We live (in the UK) in one of the most nature depleted places on the planet - in fact, we are in the bottom 10% when it comes to biodiversity intactness. The NHM report stated that our nature has depleted by 50% since the industrial revolution. The IUNC has been reporting these data for some years….
Just as the ink was drying on this shocking report, Tory MPs voted to allow toxic discharges into UK rivers. There were 400,000 of these discharges last year. (They sort of u-turned on this, after significant pressure). Another two mind-numbing numbers; using EU water quality tests, the UK has only 1 designated bathing river, France has 420. (Ref; BBC).
Nature in the UK is screaming.
Back to Faia Brava & north-eastern Portugal. We spent an amazing day with Paulo (ecologist and guide) who works for the Faia Brava rewilding project. It is approx. 1000 hectares and is grazed by native horses and cattle. The former are relatively docile, but the latter clearly not. They resembling Spanish fighting bulls – all muscle, energy and speed. The wildlife highlight of the day with Paulo was watching the 12 resident Griffin Vultures riding the thermals over the crags, which tower over the river valley. The day kicked off with light cloud cover and cool temperatures – these vast birds only showed themselves once we hit temperatures in the low-20’s (Celsius). They are truly mesmerizing to watch, flying with such ease and grace.
Faia Brava
Native horses Faia Brava
A key feature of this project is that it is member owned. 700 people all share in the ownership of Faia Brava and contributing as little as Euro20, buys annual membership. A bargain! One of the tropes about rewilding projects in the UK, is that they are exclusively a thing for wealthy elites. This innovative model shifts that and positively turns that narrative upside down.
Paulo our wonder ecologist guide….
The very big and emerging news from UWNR; the early results from Harry’s dissertation research. Many of you know and / or have met Harry – a recap; he first came to UWNR as a 15-year-old, has been a feature ever since and inspired by his time at the land he started a degree in Ecology and Conservation Land Management at Aberystwyth University. As I have alluded to, Harry is doing his final year dissertation on UWNR. The research topic; what effect does conservation hedge laying have on invertebrate numbers. Hedges of different ages (i.e., those laid 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 years ago) were investigated to ascertain any differences in species numbers and overall abundance. So far, so exciting…. the hedges which I conservation hedge laid 5 years ago not only have more species, but the levels of abundance are greater. Interestingly the dominant invertebrate – spiders! Can’t wait for more detailed results from Harry. Perhaps we can say; Rewilding works!!!!
John Muir Award presentation. These are among the very best days at UWNR. Annie received her Explorer award this week….HUGE CONGRATULATIONS!
On our way north through Spain we spent a couple of days in Segovia and we came across this….they knew back then where this would all end….