The Newsletter for Broadland Tree Wardens
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Broadsheet The Magazine for Broadland Tree Wardens Issue 177 – June 2019 0 We are on the Edge Broadsheet We are on the Edge The Monthly Magazine for Broadland Tree Wardens ROADSHEET has been as vocal as it possibly can within Issue 177 – June 2019 the constraints under which it is published. Leading B authorities such as David Attenborough and the world’s Inside this issue leading scientists have voiced dire warnings, but we have We are on the Edge - Editorial 1 failed to respond. Now, we are no longer approaching the Human Impacts Push Forests to Brink 4 tipping point for our planet but instead we stand on the Climate Change has Contributed to precipice. Droughts Since 1900 5 time and when it shrinks, so does room for Amazon Tree Loss Could Bring 1.45°C A few years ago, a team of re- nature. A third of the world’s land, the Local Rise 6 searchers in Europe wanted to find report finds, is currently reserved for Tree Council Responds to Climate the answer to the simple question: agriculture or livestock. Around 100 Change Committee Report 7 How long would it take for million hectares or about 2.47 acres of Hedgelink Response to Climate evolution to replace the 300 tropical forest disappeared between 1980 Change Committee Report 7 mammal species that have gone and 2000. 2. Direct exploitation of organisms. In other Government Delivers New £10m Fund extinct since the last ice age to Plant Over 130,000 Urban Trees 8 words hunting and poaching. 130,000 years ago? That is in the 3. Climate change, which increases A Tree-mendous Challenge 9 time humans have walked the hardships for species in so many ways, Hunting Overlooked in Climate earth. The answer? It would take 3 from the polar bears in the Arctic losing ice Mitigation Efforts 11 to hunt upon to the fact that when ocean to 7 million years for evolution to Report OPM Caterpillar Sightings 11 waters warm, they cannot hold as much generate 300 new species. oxygen or sustain as much life. Regional Tree Warden Forum 2019 12 Humans have been around for about 4. Pollution. Think about the huge amount of Proposed Car Park Threatens Ancient 200,000 years. That’s a blink of an eye in terms plastic that enters the ocean every year. Woodland 12 of the age of the planet. Nevertheless, in that 5. Invasive alien species. Due to a Ash Dieback Could Kill 95% of Trees 13 time, we have caused damage that may well globalised world, species from one last longer than our species itself. Now, the continent can move to another, where Natural Capital 14 implications of a new, separate, sweeping they don’t have natural predators, and The Oldest Human-Planted Tree 15 report from the United Nations surely cannot be dominate the environment. Trees' Social Networks are Mapped 16 ignored. The lesson? The damage we do to To solve the biodiversity crisis, it’s going to biodiversity in our lifetimes may never really be take more than the actions of individuals, the Wildcats and Pine Hoverflies at Risk 17 undone. report indicates. It’s going to take countries American Skunk Cabbage 18 In May, the UN’s Intergovernmental deciding to set aside more room for nature, in Scotland’s Oldest Tree Will Live on 19 Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and the form of protected areas. It’s going to take Ecosystem Services released a summary of an lessening the load of plastic pollution on our eBay Furniture and Ancient Longhorn upcoming 1,500-page report on the state of seas. It’s going to take addressing climate Beetle 20 biodiversity on Earth. The report has 145 change and its various inputs. It’s going to take Changes at Broadland District Council 20 authors from 50 countries, and it sums up about policies that more strongly police the import of Dr Jo’s Corner – “What’s a Tree?” 21 15,000 scientific papers on the threats against invasive species. life in the age of humans. It means protecting indigenous Bid to Weaken Amazon Protection 21 The report’s findings are stark. It finds that communities, who use their land in a more Dates for your Diaries 22 species of all kinds — mammals, birds, sustainable way. It’s going to take innovation: Our Latest Recruit 22 amphibians, insects, plants, marine life, How can we feed the increasing number of terrestrial life — are disappearing at a rate “tens humans in the world, without converting more Current Works to Trees Subject to a to hundreds times higher than the average over forests to farmlands? Tree Preservation Order and Section the last 10 million years” due to human activity. In short, it’s a monumental task. As it 211 Notifications for Works to Trees In all, it warns, as many as 1 million species stands, the report states “goals for conserving Within Conservation Areas 23 are now at risk of extinction if we don’t act to and sustainably using nature and achieving save them; that number includes 40% of all sustainability cannot be met by current This Month’s Cover Picture amphibian species, 33% of corals, and around trajectories.” If anything, the problems are 10% of insects. It amounts to a biodiversity accelerating. The Porcupine Tree. A huge bristlecone crisis that spans the globe and threatens every In 2020, the UN is convening a global pine (Pinus longaeva) in Schulman Grove, ecosystem. The results echo much of what we conference in China to set new decade-long Inyo County in USA. This incredible tree is already know: Life on Earth is in peril. goals to preserve biodiversity. around 5,000 years of age, outdating the Earlier this year, the World Wide Fund for So what do we lose when we lose species? pyramids by at least 1,000 years. Nature (WWF) released its biennial Living Each species’ genetic code is like the sheet Planet Report, a global assessment of the music of a symphony, each letter of its DNA a Broadsheet is written and published by health of animal populations all over the world. musical note, written, rewritten, edited, and John Fleetwood, They found that the average vertebrate reshaped over millions of years. Losing these Freethorpe and Wickhampton Tree Warden. population — that is, the average size of any species is like losing a great work of art, or a 4 Oakhill, Brundall, NR13 5AQ. given species population in the organisation’s tremendous library. The death of a species is Home 01603 716297 database, whether it has 10,000 individuals or the death of a tremendous amount of natural Mobile 07555 535741 10 million — has declined 60% since 1970. history. Nature is a slow author; humans kill with E-mail [email protected] Why do we have this biodiversity crisis? vicious efficiency. It is circulated free of charge to Broadland The new report breaks it down into five main When we lose species, we lose access to Tree Wardens, parish and town councils, factors, but the presence of humanity looms learning about their biology. Last year, scientists parish meetings and other interested parties. over them all and you’ll see that while the discovered that a rare species of corn Any views expressed are not necessarily biodiversity crisis is related to, and fuelled by, essentially makes its own fertilizer. It’s possible those of the Broadland Tree Warden Network. the climate crisis, it’s also distinct from it. that biologists will figure out how to add this trait 1. Changes in land and sea use. The area of to other plants, boosting their productivity while All copyrights are acknowledged. the world that’s been unaltered and lessening the need for chemical fertilizer, which untouched by humans is shrinking all the is hugely polluting. If that species had gone 1 extinct, we wouldn’t have access to this Henry wrote “Our AGM is important as we will Jon Stokes from the Tree Council then potential biological tool. When we lose species, be deciding our future direction, whether we fold spoke about Ash Dieback and went on to we lose out in finding potential drugs made by up, or join Broadland, or continue as we are but explain how Tree Wardens fit in with the nature that could help cure human diseases. with more purpose.” Government plan to plant 3 billion trees to Furthermore, we lose out on the rich I was most concerned to read that a combat global warming before speaking about ecosystems those species help sustain. What “merger” was still on the cards as, personally, “Natural Capital” and using public money for happens when pollinators like bees die off? It the longer time has gone on the more problems public good. I have included an article on means flowering plants don’t produce new I could see. Not least of all, I cannot see that 91 Natural Capital in this edition of Broadsheet as seeds. South Norfolk Wardens joining our 35 would be we all need to be aware of it. The biodiversity crisis also means we’re a merger. We operate totally differently and are I then bought those attending up to date with potentially setting ourselves up for a food crisis. funded completely differently so my fear was the latest news from PAG, my reason for Increasingly, the world’s diet is homogeneous. that it would be a takeover. attending, and asked them to let me know if “Fewer and fewer varieties and breeds of plants Anyway, just 20 Tree Wardens turned up for there are any matters they would like PAG to and animals are being cultivated, raised, traded the meeting which I found quite disappointing.