This Special Edition Looks at ‘The Big Picture’ in Bristol and has been written in collaboration with BCC officers.
Many animals and native plants have been in decline across the planet. Bristol is one small piece in a vast jigsaw puzzle, but it is our piece.
Ecological Emergency
Bristol was the first city in England to declare an Ecological Emergency. This was done in February 2020 followed by The One City Ecological Emergency Strategy developed by many organisations on behalf of the One City Environment Board with a forward by Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol; Ian Barrett, Chief Exec of Avon Wildlife Trust and Savita Willmott, Chief Exec of the Natural History Consortium.
The Strategy document set out four key goals:
- Space for nature: at least 30% of land in Bristol to be managed for the benefit of wildlife by 2030.
- Pesticides: reduce the use of pesticides in Bristol by at least 50% by 2030.
- Pollution: 100% of Bristol’s waterways to have excellent water quality which supports healthy wildlife by 2030.
- Our wider footprint: people and businesses to reduce consumption of products that undermine the health of wildlife and ecosystems around the world.
Bristol City Council published its Ecological Emergency Action Plan in September 2021 setting out actions being taken by the council to meet these goals.
Other organisations, including Avon Wildlife Trust, also began to publish action plans in 2021. AWT’s Bringing Wildlife Back proposed:
- Nature’s Recovery: protecting, creating and connecting wilder landscapes where wildlife and people thrive.
- Empowering People: inspiring and resourcing people to take action for wildlife.
- Nature Based Solutions: unlocking nature to tackle the climate crisis.
The Wildlife Groups’ proposals include having a fully functioning, community led and organised Wildlife Group in every Bristol neighbourhood by the end of 2022. Community action seems to be around two foci. One is neighbourhood networks which is the strong point of the Wildlife Groups. The other is around particular species or groups of species. Some of these have existed for many years and include groups focusing on otters, bats, butterflies&moths, amphibians&reptiles and hedgehogs. These two types of organisation are increasingly collaborating with each other.
The documents above can be seen on the relevant website or we’ll send you a copy, if you ask.
One City Ecological Working Groups
In 2021 two working groups were established to take forward two of the One City Ecological Emergency Strategy actions. 1. Analysis of Bristol’s ecological networks and 2. establishing a Bristol Wildlife Index.
Representatives on the groups included Bristol City Council (BCC), Avon Wildlife Trust (AWT), Bristol and Avon Rivers Trust (BART), Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre (BRERC) and both the University of Bristol (UoB) and the University of the West of England (UWE). Both groups are nearing the end of their initial activity and are currently reviewing how best to restructure themselves to ensure they are effective going forward.
Bristol’s emerging Wildlife Groups were represented on the Index Working Party and will continue to be involved as a key community interest on the new merged working group. Details later.
Ecological Networks
This is basically about developing a computer based mapping system. How well does the ecological network work? Where are the potential wildlife areas (parks, allotments, gardens etc)? What are they like now (woodland, flower meadow, football pitch, etc)? What creatures and plants are to be found in these spaces in 2022? Which areas are in danger of flooding. Might flooding risk be diminished by creating new wetlands which would also support plants and animals? Where are there buildings that are adapting to wildlife with green roofs or swift bricks? Better information should lead to better and more joined up decisions.
Of course, things will change over time. Some spaces may be developed for housing or human food growing or play. Others may receive wildlife improvements such as ponds, additional trees and hedges. The mapping system needs to be easily adaptable and easy to understand to take this into account. When will we reach and surpass the One City aim of 30% of Bristol managed for wildlife?
Of key importance too is the identification of links between green spaces. Wildlife friendliness requires a network, not just isolated green islands in an urban sea. The new mapping system will keep track of these links as they change, hopefully for the better, over the next decades.
This has been very technical work funded in the initial stage with £5K from Natural England and match-funded by Bristol City Council. It’s important to get it right and Bristol seems to be leading the way in this field. Work is not yet completed, but it is hoped that the system will be available to the public, ie us, by the Autumn of this year.
Bristol Wildlife Index
The Index is to provide a measure of the state of nature in Bristol and specifically to measure progress against the One City Plan target of doubling the abundance of wildlife in Bristol by 2044 compared to 2018.
There are potentially thousands of plants, fungi and animals that could be monitored. We have fairly reliable data on some of these, but for most species it’s just a rough estimate at best. Only by careful data collection will we know if wildlife is going up or down and in what way and where.
Will it be lots more pigeons, but no more finches? If we manage to clean up our rivers will that be good for fish, kingfishers and dragonflies? What will be the impact of a pond in your park? Will we have enough equipment and trained volunteers to get a good idea about what’s happening to bats, if, for example, we provided more bat roosts and turned off some of the city’s lights? What about otters and hedgehogs? What do we need to do to increase their numbers? Of course, you could achieve a massive increase in wildlife by expanding the rat population and letting other mammals go to the devil. But, I don’t think that’s the idea.
The baseline data that we have for 2018 is currently being collated within Bristol University. Data collected in recent years from 17 different organisations, often in differing ways, is being looked at, so this is a significant and complex task. It is hoped to have a first draft of this synthasis by this Summer.
But, getting the system right is only the first step. Once we know which species we are focusing on (eg which species are under threat? which species are ‘invasive’ and therefore might usefully be eliminated? which species are important in maintaining other species, for example, as a food source?) we will need to mobilise an army of spotters. This, dear reader, is where you come in.
So, What does this mean for the Wildlife Groups?
We are part of the ’empowering people’ aim referred to by Avon Wildlife Trust. Although trained and professional ecologists have an important part to play, there are way too few of them to do all the things that need to be done to rescue our declining wildlife. Regular monitoring of species by volunteers will be a crucial part of the Index work. Volunteers will also be key participants in habitat improvements. We know that many of you are already transforming your gardens, parks and allotments to make them more wildlife friendly.
The Wildlife Groups will continue to do what they’ve been doing for the last few years, but more so and with clearer guidelines.
More of us will be monitoring our gardens, local park, nearby churchyard and so on. We’ll be identifying butterflies or birds, bats or beetles as the mood takes us. We’ll also be looking at ways of improving habitats across the city and joining them up so that creatures can move around. Many are doing these things already and thanks to the work of the Ecology Network and Wildlife Index Group, we’ll be collaborating in a more effective and efficient way.
And probably having quite a lot of fun at the same time.
Please talk to your friends and neighbours and invite them to support their local Wildlife Group and join the circulation list for Wildlife News. Let me know if you want to drop out.
Bristol Wildlife 