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Message: <blockquote data-quote="redshank2" data-source="post: 1671563" data-attributes="member: 80551">In reply to the original post; unfortunately management of 'natural' areas is a necessity. The UK even arguably in its most remote areas such as the Scottish highlands is not truly a wildlandscape. In particular the ecosystems occuring in this country have lost many species most especially the large mammals formerly present here such as beaver, auroch, brown bear, wolf and (across many areas) red deer. Equally some apex bird species such as White Tailed Eagle are nbow absent from range they formerly occupied. Whilst some of these would never have been present in very dense populations their imapct on the ecosystem as dominant herbivores and predators would have been great. For example the large grazers and browswers helping to open out and maintain glades in woodland and reedbeds, beavers creating waterside coppice stands, marshes and ponds, wolves keeping in check deer numbers.In the abscence of these large animals acting to control plant growth and animal numbers we are left with ecosystems that do not function normally, additionally the total area of 'wild' land is much reduced. To maintain diversity of habitats and preserve species it is therefore nessecary that humans intervene to try to mimic some of the natural processes that would formerly have maintained habitat diversity.given that habitat area is often much reduced and species numbers consequently equally reduced it may be nessecary to control some of the more widespread adaptable species in order to preserve specialists. Yes predation by foxes and stoats may be natural for Stone Curlews but he problem is that the stone curlew population is much reduced by our activities such that the population may not be resilient enough to cope with these losses - hence the need for predator control.For anyone interested there is a fascinating reserve at Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands where an attempt has been made to recreate a quasi-natural ecosystem that largely regulates itself. This is habitat reconstruction on a vast scale. Would I support such a scheme in the UK; without reservation yes. We have lost so much wildlife and habitat in western europe that habitat reconstruction is vital if species are to survive.Tom</blockquote>

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