April Blog Comments

I made a comment on:

The infamous Bushmeat Trade

I like the fact you’ve put in a lot of your own opinions to this post and researched further than just what was said in the seminar, makes for a much more interesting read. I also like that you’ve put the bonobo video into your post, a much better idea than just a photo. I agree with Peter Lindsay’s opinion of this matter being a ‘fix it, don’t ban it’ situation as, as you said, banning will not eradicate the problem in the long run. I don’t think it will be at all easy to find a balance because of the reliance for food and money but I really hope some stronger steps are taken to help the issue soon!

and:

Bring Back The Bog!

For anyone who hadn’t attended this seminar, your blog provides a great deal of useful information with good pictures in an easy to read format. Everyone’s guilty of a few spelling mistakes here and there, a read through would sort them easily. I’m surprised at how interesting I found this seminar, I’d never really thought much about peat bogs and how vital they are. Even though I used to work at a garden centre I never understood why people complained at peat composts.. now I get it!

Influence of the Seminars and the Course

So, we’ve come to the end of the module, end of the semester and the end of my time at university…scary! I’m pleased to say that thanks to the bioscience enterprise and employability module I’m looking into the future with a lot more excitement than I thought I would be at this time. Although I’m still not entirely 100% sure what career path I want to take, the range of seminars I’ve attended this year have made me realise how many aspects of biology I am passionate about and how many industries I would be happy to work in. I don’t think I’ll ever know exactly what I want to do so it doesn’t surprise me that the seminars may not have influenced my path, just reconfirmed my enthusiasm for biology.

On the other hand, the advice and tips I have received as part of this course as a whole have been invaluable to increasing my employability. Constructing a professional CV and getting detailed feedback on both the CV and my interview style have by far been the most useful aspects of the course, as well as advice on increasing employability with cover letters and social media. I feel confident now that I am prepared to apply for (and hopefully be successful at achieving!) a biology-based job.

Time to Save the Bogs!

Elspeth Ingleby

04/04/14

 

Cadishead Moss (photo from Chat Moss Project facebook page)

 

I’ve got to admit, this probably wouldn’t have been my first choice of seminar given the choice (I can’t say I have ever been excited by the idea of peat bogs)… However, I actually learnt a lot and found it very interesting, in the most part due to how passionately the speaker Elspeth Ingleby delivered the talk.

The Chat Moss Project is an area of peatland in the Greater Manchester area. The peatland originally covered an area of 2500 hectares but due to the agricultural addition of nutrients 50% of the land was lost in the 1800s. This decline carried on until 1978 when the area shrunk to just 5 hectares, however due to the recovery work by the project, the peatland currently covers an area of 300 hectares. There are currently three separate areas of Chat Moss Project peatland; Cadishead Moss, Astley Moss and Little Woolden Moss, all with varying sizes and levels of ecological diversity.

Sphagnum moss (wildlifetrust.org.uk)

Elspeth explained to us the numerous benefits of peatland bogs and why it is important that we restore them, most notably the aspect of carbon storage and the increase in absorption levels with larger areas of peatland (bogs can hold as much carbon as the UK produces in 35 years) – and consequent releases of carbon with their destruction. Peatlands have also become the home to rare species of plants that cannot be found elsewhere due to their adaptation to acidic water logged areas. Large areas of bog land also help to reduce flooding as they can store vast amounts of water and act as barriers when fully saturated. Peat has also been shown to be able to preserve trees and even bodies for as much as 4000 years!

Different methods of peatland restoration that are carried out on the old sites, as well as management for current healthy sites include:

• Re-levelling the ground
• Clearing scrubs and trees and re-vegetating with sphagnum moss and cotton grass which would have naturally grown on the sites
• Removing any invasive species
• Blocking drainage ditches
• Raising the water table level

I had never really given much thought to the importance of peatlands but I now realise that it’s incredibly important to protect and conserve these areas as the future of many endangered species – and humans (in terms of climate change) – depends on their survival. Restoration projects are expensive and the Chat Moss Project relies on volunteers to carry out restoration work, therefore it’s crucial that the local community gets involved in saving this wet and boggy land.

The Chat Moss Project facebook page has much more information and regular updates and photos of the ongoing restoration projects:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Chat-Moss-Project/329943177133245

Business Plan Essay

The final piece of work for this module was the completion of a business plan based essay. The aim of the essay was to evaluate how the knowledge of being able to write a comprehensive business plan is useful to a student going into any career. I don’t think the essay was a particularly useful exercise as after the lectures we had, I think we all had a good understanding of how important business plans can be and so the essay became quite repetitive. This being said however, although I previously understood the importance of a business plan this essay has increased my understanding of how to write one and how different aspects can be linked to a range of different jobs. Not many people on the course are planning on starting their own business so I think to some extent a more useful exercise would have been more focused on biological research jobs and proposals and how to go about writing a grant application.

March Blog Comments

I made a comment on:

The hitch-hiker’s guide to urban forestry

I enjoyed reading this post, very easy to read and the bullet points of benefits break up the text nicely. I’d never really thought about urban forestry before this seminar and definitely never thought I’d be so interested in city tree life but the talk gave me a real appreciation for urban forestry and with all the benefits I now find it hard to believe that there are people who oppose the scheme. I’m personally really glad that governments and town planners are taking the importance of vegetation into account and hope that one day soon our towns will be much greener places!

and:

Illegal Hunting and Bush meat trade: An emerging crisis in African Savannahs – by Peter Lindsey

Unfortunately although I wanted to attend this seminar I was not able to, so I’m glad I’ve read your blog post; it is very detailed and let me gain a real understanding of what the focus of the seminar was. I completely agree that more action and harsher enforcement needs to be taken to try and combat the poaching issue however, I don’t think there’s anyway it will be that easy. Illegal hunting is the livelihood of many people and so unless the issue of poverty is tackled as well, I feel that hunters will unfortunately always find a way..

The Hitchhikers Guide to Urban Forestry

Tim Hall

14/03/2014

Before this talk I’d never thought about what an ‘urban forest’ is and the impacts that greenery in urban areas can have. Luckily Tim Hall gave a very insightful lecture on the benefits and definitions of urban forestry.

Definitions of what counts as an urban forest vary from woodland within an hour’s drive of a city to trees planted in people’s gardens or along roadsides. However, in Tim’s opinion, woodland within a kilometre of a 2000 people population is the most useful classification (www.forestry.gov.uk).

For many people, areas of urban forest are just a part of everyday life, taken for granted on school runs and journeys to work, but with 80% of the UK population living in urban areas, they’re becoming increasingly important.

 

Urban forestry in a town centre (www.worldchanging.com)

 

They provide a whole range of benefits (economic, social and environmental) and ecosystem processes including:

• – Acting as a climate moderator (windbreak, shade in summer, let light though in winter etc)
• – Reduce heat store on roads
• – Increase biodiversity
• – Good for health (filter pollution, mental health)
• – Social benefits – eg forest schools, kids clubs
• – Only UK trees are planted by the Woodland Trust

The drawbacks on the other hand, are few:

• – Complaints about fallen leaves, roots, shaded gardens, blocked tv reception
• – Social fear of forests (many people not letting children go in by themselves, scary stories etc)
• – Long term management and inspection, especially after storms
• – Area for fly-tipping, drugs, vandalism

The issue with urban forestry at the moment is promoting and encouraging governments and the public to get involved, and finding the balance between a traditional forest and more of an ‘urban city’ design. The benefits of urban greenery far outweigh the problems faced and I think that if more people took notice of how important they are, the more people would be inclined to get involved. I certainly now appreciate how lucky I am to live in areas (both at home and university) surrounded by beautiful woodland and scenery.

More in-depth information about urban forestry can be found in a couple of documents published by the Woodland Trust:

• http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/mediafile/100083924/Urban-air-quality-report-v4-single-pages.pdf
• http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/mediafile/100083918/Trees-outside-woods-report.pdf
• http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/mediafile/100083915/Trees-in-our-towns.pdf

February Blog Comments

I made a comment on:

Landscape scale grey squirrel control: lessons from the UK

I actually thought, when listening to this talk, that I was going to be the only one who didn’t necessarily agree with the culling, but it’s great to know there are still other people debating the issue. I don’t think it’s a very sustainable policy, it’s expensive and the outcomes are uncertain – maybe the money being spent on culling should be put into researching other better methods, instead of the (I feel) somewhat easy method of ‘kill them all’. Besides, what happens if it is successful and red squirrels become more of a pest species, will people sit back and watch because they’re ‘’cute and fluffy’’ or will the cull move on? You’ve written a great post with a lot of your own opinions and a really good closing sentence.

and:

Is the “Grey Squirrel Menace” really that menacing?

This is a really well written and informative post and it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who doesn’t have the same view as most people! I can to some extent see the benefits of the cull and I realise that it’s a ‘we caused the problem/we should rectify it’ kind of situation, but I personally could never justify the killing of thousands of squirrels to only possibly lead to the growth of another pest species. Red squirrels are so susceptible to diseases from other animals such as mice and have such a limited habitat range, that I don’t think we can ever be fully certain that culling the entire grey squirrel population will actually help remedy the situation. Maybe it’s time to let nature run its course…

Landscape scale grey squirrel control – is it really the way forward?

 Craig Shuttleworth

21/02/2014

Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) and Grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) (www.bbc.co.uk/news)

 

Craig Shuttleworth of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust and 69% of the general UK public think it is. However, perhaps controversially for a biologist, I’m not so sure…

How can anything so ‘cute and fluffy’ ever be a pest?

Grey squirrels are a considered a pest species that were introduced from America in 1876. We’re constantly told that they relentlessly strip bark from trees, predate on nests, eat their way into roofs and chew through wires and insulation. However, red squirrels are just as capable of doing the exact same things, a fact which campaigners often neglect to mention.

It’s also been shown that the decline of reds is due to the introduction of greys who suppress the recruitment levels of juveniles as they compete for the same food and habitat and are carriers of the deadly squirrel pox virus.

Roof damage caused by squirrels (www.squirrelcontrol.ca)

Are restoration projects really feasible?

The fact they are such a widespread pest species and have caused the native red squirrel to decline are why there are numerous projects across the UK reintroducing red squirrels and attempting to cull the grey squirrel populations. Craig talked to us about the successful Anglesey reintroduction that he was in charge of. The island started with a population of just 40 red squirrels and an estimated 3000-4000 greys however, after a cull of greys (and an eradication of the squirrel pox virus) red squirrel recruitment numbers quickly started increasing. The red squirrels are now thriving and can be found across Anglesey.

But… Anglesey is not quite a separate island; it is connected to the mainland by two bridges. Red squirrels have been sighted on the other side of the bridges so what, apart from a nationwide cull, is stopping grey squirrels returning to establish on the island and infecting the red populations? Craig also told us that if necessary, the squirrels are capable of swimming the straits.

The future for red squirrels..

I personally found it very strange sitting listening to someone that was so enthusiastic and seemingly unaffected by, essentially, the mass culling of one pest species to save another pest species. I feel that although the idea of saving a ‘cute’ native species may seem like the way forward for many people, the future for red squirrels can never be certain. Even in areas such as Anglesey where grey squirrels are no longer found, red squirrels are still susceptible to many diseases such as adenovirus and populations may never recover to the levels they were before the introduction of greys. Besides, I don’t think a complete elimination of greys from the UK is achievable, and so it will forever be an ongoing project with uncertain results.

A project so large is also inevitably going to have problems with funding and I don’t think such uncertain results warrant large fundings of public money. I can in a way however, see where the supporters are coming from and think a balance needs to be found in order to keep populations of both species in the UK, then perhaps it’s time for nature to take over and let the red squirrel find its own way to survive.

 

The Red Squirrel Survival Trust has a lot more information on the current efforts being made:

http://www.rsst.org.uk/

Dragon’s Den

With semester two came the start of the ‘enterprise’ section of the module. The first aspect of this section was a Dragon’s Den style workshop. The class was split into small groups and given a choice of three business ideas; expanding the Brambell museum or Treborth botanical gardens or starting a new business. The group I was part of became the ‘winners’ of the day, choosing to expand Treborth into a Welsh honey producing business. During the day we had to come up with an idea and business plan, film a short video advert and pitch our idea to the Dragons.

Although there was a lot to fit into the day and so everything became a bit rushed it was a lot of fun. Completing all the tasks of the day required a great deal of team work, strategic thinking and time management. It gave us an idea of how important planning every aspect of a business is when starting or expanding a business and practice of how to pitch an idea to potential investors.

Construction of a CV and Cover Letter

Everyone knows that a good CV is vital for increasing your chances of employability but as there’s so much scope in writing one, crafting a strong and detailed but concise CV is difficult. One assessment of the enterprise and employability module was the construction of a CV. I am really glad we had to do this as it was really helpful to get detailed feedback from a member of the university’s employability department. Luckily I already had a basic CV so I didn’t have the difficult task of trying to sell myself on paper; it just needed a bit of tweaking. After the lectures we had on different styles (such as skills or experience based) and common mistakes I felt quite confident that I had a pretty good CV written when it came to submission. The feedback I got back was not as positive as I was hoping for but knowing the weaker areas of my CV meant I could subsequently improve it further. Having a CV I feel happy with has meant I am now much more confident about my next steps and chances of employability when it comes to the summer.