Month: Jul 2020

Radiate boundless love towards the entire world.

— Siddhārtha Gautama

It’s strange that there are no really ancient yew trees in Ireland.

There are a handful that are reckoned to be 700 to 800 years old, but that’s not really ancient for a tree with a life-expectancy in millennia rather than centuries. But the age of most yew trees tends to be based on educated guesses rather than scientific data. When they’re ancient they are invariably hollow, which makes it impossible to extract cores from them and count the annual rings. Anyway, to my knowledge very few cores have been taken from living Irish trees.

Take the yew that grows in the cloisters of Muckross Abbey near Killarney. It’s always assumed that the tree was planted by the Franciscans when they built the abbey in 1448, giving it an age of over 550 years. It’s much more likely the abbey was built around a tree that was already mature and well-established, making this tree a lot older. There’s plenty of evidence that in earlier times ecclesiastical sites were chosen on the basis that an old yew tree grew there. There are Anglo-Saxon churches in parts of southern England where archaeological evidence has shown that the tree was there before the church. Some of these churches are up to 1,200 years old and the trees are still alive. Choosing to build an abbey round a yew tree is one of many examples of the Christianisation of a much older pagan belief. There is quite a bit of evidence in folklore and mythology indicating that yews were venerated.

They are our largest native evergreen and, when they grow in mixed woodland, the shade they cast and the toxins they secrete in their root systems create an open clearing — the ideal place for a ceremony. Our ancestors also seem to have been impressed by the fact that they remained green and vibrant when all the other large trees had succumbed to winter. They became associated with victory over death. But we also have hard evidence, from bog wood and studies of fossil pollen, that they were once much more widespread than they are today. And the probable reason for their decline is that they were persecuted. Yew foliage is quite poisonous to livestock (and humans) and, while we may have revered yew trees, over the millennia we have shown that we revere cattle and horses even more. There is an ancient yew tree still growing in the Scottish borders and there’s a legend that Pontius Pilate once sat under it. It’s unlikely but not impossible. The tree was certainly mature 2000 years ago and Pontius Pilate, as a Roman civil servant, served on the border between England and Scotland before he was posted to the Holy Land.

Reference https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/outdoors/dick-warner/yew-trees-are-ancient-friends-247610.html

Wild bison will roam British woodland for the first time in more than 6,000 years when they are reintroduced in Kent

1. Bison are being introduced to Blean Woods in Kent to restore an ancient habitat
2. They will be enclosed despite being ‘peaceful’ and not posing a threat to humans
3. European bison are the closest relative to steppe bison that once roamed the UK
4. It is thought European bison grazed here thousands of years ago – but none of their bones have ever been found under British soil
5. However, their bones have turned up under North Sea from nearly 12,000 years ago on Doggerland – the land bridge that connected UK to Europe

Four wild bison will be released into woodland in Kent by spring 2022 as part of a plan to naturally boost Britain’s wildlife habitats.
The European bison will live in a cordoned-off area of Blean Woods near Canterbury, close to the University of Kent campus.

Although they are thought to have grazed here thousands of years ago, no bison bones have ever been found under our soil.

Their bones have, however, turned up under the North Sea from nearly 12,000 years ago on Doggerland – the land bridge that connected the UK to Europe.

The lottery-funded project, led by Kent Wildlife Trust and the Wildwood Trust, aims to use the grazing 6ft-tall beasts, which can weigh up to 1,000kg (2,200lbs) to help rejuvenate the native woodlands.

It is known as an ‘ecosystem engineer’ because of its ability to create and improve habitats for other species.

European bison – the continent’s largest land mammal – is the closest living relative to ancient steppe bison that once roamed Britain, becoming extinct at the end of the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago.

The enormous animals are largely peaceful and live on a diet of grasses and other forms of vegetation.

They are not dangerous animals and only manifest aggression in response to prolonged disturbance at close range, according to a 2018 study.

Despite being peaceful, the closely-knit herd will be introduced into a fenced enclosure away from public footpaths.

They will be within a wider 500 hectare (1,200 acre) patch of land which will also use other grazing animals such as Konik ponies to create varied and healthy habitat.

It will be the first time bison have been introduced to a nature reserve to help woodland thrive in the UK.

‘The partners in this project have long dreamt of restoring the true wild woodlands that have been missing from England for too long,’ said Paul Whitfield, Director General of Wildwood Trust.

‘This will allow people to experience nature in a way they haven’t before, connecting them back to the natural world around them in a deeper and more meaningful way.’

The UK project will likely initially involve four bison who are already acquainted with one another to ensure the herd is a tight group.

The animals will be introduced from a wild population from other similar projects in Europe, according to the Kent Wildlife Trust.

Similar projects across the continent since 2000 have already seen the successfully reintroduced in Poland, Romania and the Netherlands.

Bison are particularly useful as a form of natural environment control because of the unique way in which they graze.

They prefer bark to other parts of plants and trees, which is the opposite to many other large herbivores.

They fell trees by rubbing up against them and then eat the bark, creating areas of space and light in the woods.

It also benefits a range of smaller animals and plants by providing trees which turn into deadwood, offering food and habitat for insects, small mammals and plants.

Bison have shaggy coats and can often be seen rolling around in dry patches of land, a habit called dust bathing.

The practice helps them rid themselves of parasites while simultaneously removing moulting fur.

In Blean Woods, dust bathing would be good for lizards, burrowing wasps and rare arable weeds, while bark stripping would create standing deadwood that benefits fungi and insects such as stag beetles, conservationists say.

Due to their large size and strength, they also create corridors through densely vegetated patches, which joins various swathes of lands and prevents populations of smaller animals from becoming isolated.

Clearing paths also provides more light to the woodland floor which helps plants grow.

‘Without an animal like bison these functions are missing in woodlands, and this project aims to restore those functions,’ a Kent Wildlife Trust spokesperson told MailOnline.

The project is funded by £1,125,000 from the People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund, created to help realise good causes, over a two-year period.

Kent Wildlife Trust owns several woods in the Blean area, one of the largest areas of surviving ancient woodland in England.

It will be responsible for the overall management of the project, including the installation of maintenance of infrastructure, such as fencing.
‘Using missing keystone species like bison to restore natural processes to habitats is the key to creating bio-abundance in our landscape,’ said Paul Hadaway, director of Conservation at Kent Wildlife Trust.

A HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN BISON

European bison previously roamed throughout western, central and south eastern Europe.

Their range originally extended eastward across Europe to the Volga River and the Caucasus Mountains.

The animals are known to historically populate Poland and Belarus, but other countries that are home to the European bison include Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine.

European bison – the continent’s largest land mammal – is the closest living relative to ancient steppe bison that once roamed Britain, becoming extinct at the end of the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago.

After the Ice Age, man hunted the bison so intensively that it was forced into the most remote corners of Europe.

Although European bison are believed to have grazed in Britain thousands of years ago, no bison bones have ever been found under our soil.

Their bones have, however, turned up under the North Sea from nearly 12,000 years ago on Doggerland – the land bridge that connected the UK to Europe.

European bison (Bison bonasus) went extinct in the wild mainly due to hunting, but habitat degradation and competition with livestock also played a part.

In Europe it became extinct in the wild after World War I.

Occupying German troops killed 600 of the European bison in the Białowieża Forest for sport, meat, hides and horns.

By 1927, the species had been lost from the wild entirely and only 54 individuals survived in European zoos.

Between 1920 and 1928 there were no single European bison in the Białowieża Forest.

The European bison was successfully reintroduced in the Białowieża Forest in 1929 from the animals kept in zoos.

The first two bisons were released into nature to the Białowieża Forest in 1952 and by 1964 more than 100 existed.

Since then there have been re-introductions to forests in Belarus, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, the Ukraine, Romania and Slovakia.

Up until now, zoos and wildlife parks have helped save the European bison from extinction, including at Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie, Highland, Scotland.

The European bison closely resembles their North American cousin but is considered a separate species.

The European bison’s dense coat is dark to golden brown in colour and is less bushy than that of the American bison.

Both sexes have short horns that project outwards and then curve upwards.

European bison prefer a woodland habitat where they live in small herds browsing on leaves and other vegetation.

Reference https://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/bison-to-be-introduced-to-kent-woodland-230138/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/09/wild-bison-reintroduced-15000-years-part-groundbreaking-rewilding/amp/

Located near Polegate, Abbot’s Wood is a great place for a stroll at any time of year, with walking trails, a medieval lake, play area, barbecues and picnic tables.

This ancient woodland is teeming with wildlife. Dormice live in the woodland understory and the extensive network of paths is home to nearly thirty species of butterfly, including the rare pearl-bordered fritillary. In early spring, the extraordinary song of the nightingale can be heard and summer evenings could reward you with encounters with bats, glow worms and the sound of the elusive nightjar.