Two blog entries in a day... but this one won't wait. We have just witnessed the destruction of a field boundary opposite our meadow... on the opposite side of the Aigronne. The shrubs were ripped up and deposited on the river bank... right on top of the last remaining clump of fritillaries around here!!
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| This was some of the patch in 2004 |
These fritillaries are not yet out
[see this Days on the Claise post], fortunately, so may well be protected by the dumped bushes from the old hedge line. But yet another wildlife corridor destroyed.... OK, the hedge was in a terrible state... gappy and dying... why? Because they will insist on "trimming" their hedges with tractor mounted flails on a long arm... because it is quicker and cheaper than hand cutting with a billhook. The flail method leads to disease... which then creates gaps in the hedge... which soon means that the hedge is worthless as a boundary... so it gets removed.
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One of our patches the same year... but not seen them here for around two years.
We think the coypus have had them. |
But dumping it into a gap beside the river, whilst convenient for the farmer [or contractor?] is no substitute for proper management.
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| In the same place, but on the riverbank in 2004 were these Purple Toothwort |
The destruction of wildlife corridors leads to isolation of species and their eventual disappearance. All along the Aigronne at the moment, there is a mass clearance of all the old trees.... especially the poplars... and we will be blogging about this in the next few days and explaining why the way it is currently being done is a bad way of proceeding if it is to benefit wildlife.
If it is just being done for the fisher folk is is a sad thing.
