Looking around the garden this morning one might be forgiven for thinking that autumn is already here.  Several trees seem to think the short days of autumn have arrived and are preparing to shed their leaves. Certainly the walnut and hazel are of this opinion.  However, other signs indicate that this is not the case, my twenty year old cedar has died, as have several Cryptomerias and other conifers - this despite assiduous trips with the water can.  In fact, the plants are responding to this summer’s weather, a long period without rain (or very little) plus the very hot weather that we have experienced; particularly in the South and South East.  The plants are not reacting to any changes in day length but to drought. Plants detect changes in the photoperiod they experience through their phytochrome system; under normal circumstances their biological clock will tell them when to prepare for winter.   Whilst many well established trees and plants with extensive root systems can withstand a period of drought, younger plants or those in poor or freely draining soil are likely to die.  Such plants simply cannot take up enough water to replace that lost through transpiration; that is, water evaporation through the stomates (pores) in the leaves.    The intensity of the heat this year coupled with the reduced rainfall has affected many plants and trees and it may be some time before we see the full effect of this summer’s weather.  Beech trees suffer more during periods of droughts because they have shallower roots, while oaks reach moisture deeper in the soil and continue to grow.  In the drought of 1976, many beech trees died and survivors often exhibited reduced growth some 40 years on*. Some plants respond to drought stress by bringing forward their reproductive process, so that fruits and seeds are produced early.  This is an attempt to ensure the survival of the species for when conditions are more favourable to growth.  The Woodland Trust, noted for its phenology records, recorded ripe blackberries in late July (lots of reports on its page on Facebook).  Hawthorn, Rowan, Holly and Elder have all been recorded as fruiting earlier this year.  This was true of the filbert in my garden this summer.  This earlier production of fruits and seeds may have ‘knock on’ effects on the wildlife that feed upon them.   Whilst the effects of the extreme weather are obvious in our parks, gardens etc, the effects on rivers and streams are dramatic.   Chalk streams, in particular, have been affected; they are unique habitats.  The River Ver is a chalk stream in Hertfordshire.  The summer has seen large sections of its upper reaches reduced by several kilometres due to the hot weather (and water abstraction).  The effects in and around such streams may be felt for many years as the water levels fall so the habitats for fish, amphibians and invertebrates (such as dragonflies / mayflies) are reduced or lost.  Recolonisation of such drought impacted systems can be slow and prolonged.   An accessible and detailed paper on Beech trees and drought is available here : research gate.net [caption id="attachment_22186" align="alignright" width="300"] Mature Beech on Box Hill, Surrey.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_10575" align="alignleft" width="300"] Mature beech[/caption]

There’s usually a distinct seasonal change around this time of year. Typically, we get a scorching hot July while the kids are at school with their heads down for exams, only for the temperatures to drop and the clouds to set in as soon as they break up for the summer hols. I could almost time the end of the school year by the appearance of this month’s mushroom of focus, as the first heavy summer rains prompt mass flourishings of Pale Brittlestems (Candolleomyces candolleanus), sometimes known as the Crumble Cap, or Common Crumble Cap. Alongside Sulphur Tufts, Fairy Inkcaps, Collared Parachutes, and the (related by common name at least) Trooping Crumble Cap, the sight of this species for me really seems to mark the arrival of the bona-fide mushroom season, just at the point where boredom with rusts, crusts and ascomycetes is beginning to set in.  Except this year is slightly different. We’ve recorded our hottest temperatures of all time in the UK, with the thermometer breaching the 40C mark here in the part of Kent where I’m based, and the past few weeks have been spent awaiting the long overdue summer deluge to bring a climax to the heatwave. But the rains haven’t come. The ground is parched and bare. I literally can’t remember the last time it rained. Pale Brittlestem One would suspect this to be a pretty bad situation for fungi. However the shortening hours of daylight in August and the consequently cooler nights have a positive knock on effect in that dew begins to fall more easily, and in the shady stillness of the woods, first thing in the morning at least, things are relatively cool and damp at ground level. And so while I’ve set out on my recent woodland wanderings with lowered expectations, I was delighted to find just a few days ago that the current drought situation hasn’t put pay to the appearance of this herald of fungal things to come. Yes, the Pale Brittlestems have arrived, and if perchance it does rain before this post goes online, I’d wager there’ll be a whole lot more of them appearing. This commonplace species is so generically mushroom-looking that while it provides quite a challenge to identify for beginners, once you’ve become more familiar with it, you should pretty much recognise it with some ease. In this sense, it is rather like the similarly nondescript Clouded Funnel (Clitocybe nebularis), in that it varies quite dramatically in form and colour throughout its various stages of growth. Pale Brittlestem In terms of habitat, it too is saprobic, growing either singly or in scattered groups on organic debris such as leaf litter, around rotting tree stumps or small bits of buried wood in parks, gardens and, of course, woodlands. When I describe it as common, it is one of those species that I see pretty much every year and have found in a range of different locations. Interestingly, I’ve often found it by entrances to woods or at the side of paths running through them. I recently identified this fungi growing around a hydrangea in someone’s garden. They asked how to get rid of it, but I queried why anyone would want to do that, pointing out that they’re totally harmless by any definition of the word – you could even eat them, if that’s your bag, although probably only the most desperate would bother. By feeding off dead organic material (presumably small twigs in this instance), breaking it down and returning the carbon and other nutrients to the soil, it can only be a good thing for the garden. Lets look at the hallmarks of this particular little mushroom. First of all, it should come as little surprise to learn that the Pale Brittlestem has a brittle stem (or rather stipe, in mycological parlance). Bend it, and it will snap. Run your fingernail along its edge to cut it lengthwise and you’ll notice it is hollow, like a dandelion stalk. It also bares a distinctive pattern that I always find useful for identification, looking a little like a pure white scurfy snakeskin. This pattern is formed by the remnants of the veil, or velum – the membrane from inside which the immature fruit body develops in and emerges from. Occasionally, this stem has a ring around it, although I’ve never seen this myself. Pale Brittlestem The flesh in the cap is also thin and delicate and breaks easily. The gills underneath are relatively tightly packed and start out white, but like a supermarket mushroom, darken as the spores mature within them through pinks and greys to a dark brown. Lay the cap on a white piece of paper for a few hours and you’ll get a dark brown spore print. The Pale Brittlestem is a member of the Psathyrellaceae “family of dark-spored agarics that generally have rather soft, fragile fruiting bodies”, which also include the coprinoids, or inkcaps, such as the Shaggy Inkcap. However, another key identification feature here is that the gills don’t auto-digest and melt away into a black ooze like those of these species. Pale Brittlestem The cap starts out dome-shaped and golden-brown in colour and flattens out to a diameter within the range of 3-6cm when fully expanded, while also fading to a pale near white colour like your typical shop-bought button mushroom but with slight yellow tinges. That’s right – the golden-brown dome-shaped mushroom that may be sitting amongst or not far from the group of thin-flesh mushroom-coloured and mushroom-shaped mushrooms is most likely the same mushroom. Geoffrey Kibby, in his Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and Europe vol 3 writes that when young, they can also be “reddish ochre”, and to further confuse matters, the caps are also hygrophanous – which means they range dramatically in colour and darkness depending on how wet or dry they are, and sometimes two tones can be present in the same cap. This cap does however present some clues amongst the confusion, mainly in the form of the tatty fringes around the margin, which like the patterns on the stipe are the remnants of the velum and also appear as flecks across the cap’s upper surface. I had a vague idea in my mind that these fringes were what gave this mushroom it’s latin name, Candolleomyces candolleanus – that it had something to do with candlewick bedspreads or lampshades or suchlike. It turns out, however, that there is not even the remotest of links, and that this species was named in honour of the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778-1841). Pale Brittlestem While we are on the subject of Latin names, it is worth pointing out that until very recently Candolleomyces candolleanus was known as Psathyrella candolleanus – so recently in fact that the encyclopedic Fungi of Temperate Europe (2019) still refers to it by this earlier name, as does its entry on the First Nature website and even that of the British Mycological Society as of this time of writing.  Psathyrella was a sizeable genus that was used to encompass a vast range of the small saprobic mushrooms linked by brittle stipes, dark spores and non-dissolving gills. Many of the Psathyrellas tended to be very difficult to pinpoint down to species level due to the variability of cap shape and colouration depending on their age and environmental humidity on the one hand, and the overlap of these visible features between various different species on the other. They are the type of fungi that amateur foragers might apply the term LBM (“Little Brown Mushroom”) to. Even microscopic inspection of spores and other hidden features revealed the difference between many of the Psathyrellas was often pretty hazy.  As the American mycologist Michael Kuo wrote on MushroomExpert.com in 2011, “the traditional genus “Psathyrella” is headed for some pretty big changes.” DNA analysis has revealed recently that many of those thought closely related are in fact anything but, and the Psathyrella genus has undergone a massive taxonomic overhaul.  Conical Brittlestem (Parasola conopilus) An illustrative example would be the Conical Brittlestem, which also has a hygrophanous cap that can be dark brown and two-toned when fresh or damp, and is noticeably paler when old and dry. The Conical Brittlestem has moved from being Psathyrella conopilus to Parasola conopilus, emphasising how it is by no means as closely related to the Pale Brittlestem as might be assumed from its physical appearance. Just to further confuse matters, Geoffrey Kibby’s entry for Candolleomyces candolleanus describes it as “A species complex yet to be sorted out” – in other words, this species-level identification of the Pale Brittlestem seems to encompasses a range of genetically different organisms that are so similar in terms of observable features that the boundaries between them are very blurred. It is true, just as there are many mushroom species that look so similar to Candolleomyces candolleanus that you’d be forgiven for identifying them as such (the Clustered Brittlestem or Psathyrella multipedata being one such example), the variability of the Pale Brittlestem’s appearance is also marked enough for the potential to confuse it with other species.  Pale Brittlestem Let us leave it to the molecular scientists and the hardcore mycological experts to quibble about the minutiae of Brittlegill taxonomy. I think the Pale Brittlegill provides a wonderful example of an instance where it would be quite forgivable for the average nature lover to ditch the Latin and not to bash ones brains out over more thorough identifications.  If one follows the basic guidelines in this post, I do however think it should be easy to put the name Pale Brittlegill to this common species that you should be seeing a lot more of around now, or at least get somewhere close to an identification. Pale Brittlestem 

The decline in insects numbers, especially pollinators is a cause for concern.  Insect numbers have fallen as natural ecosystems have been lost or disrupted by the expansion of farming and urbanisation, plus the increased use of pesticides and herbicides. The loss of insects not only affects the pollination of many commercially important plants, but also affects the animals and birds that feed upon insects.  So, there are knock on effects throughout food chains and ecosystems. Plantlife has launched a number of initiatives, such as  No Mow May,  Transforming Road Verges Saving Meadows to help offset the decline in insect numbers.  Now work done in Professor Goulson’s laboratory at Sussex Univeristy by Janine Griffiths-Lee (a PhD student) suggests another approach to increasing insect / pollinator levels in urban settings.  Her research has demonstrated that creating a small patch of wild flowers in gardens can go some way to address this fall in insects numbers.    She and colleagues managed to enlist the help of some 150 volunteers distributed across the UK (many were members of the Buzz Club*). Each volunteer set aside a wild flower area  - a mini-meadow (two metres by 2 metres).  Some  of the volunteers then sowed the mini-meadow area with a commercial seed mix of wild flowers, others sowed a seed mix designed / thought to be ‘beneficial to pollinators’. A third group did not receive wild flowers seeds but were asked to set insect traps and record insects in their gardens in the same way as the two ‘wild flower seed groups’. The results were interesting and revealing. The mini-meadows proved to be resource-rich habitats, with an increased numbers of wild bees, more bumblebees, solitary bees and also wasps (when compared to the control group with no wild flower seed sowing).  There were differences in the insect populations for the two groups of seed.  The commercial mix attracted more solitary bees and bumblebees, whereas the ‘designer mix’ of seeds attracted more solitary wasps.  There was no difference in the number of hoverflies that visited the two types of wild flower rich mini-meadows.  Solitary wasps, whilst not pollinators, are important in that they prey on a number of insect pests of fruit and vegetables. Clearly, the planting of small areas in gardens with wild flowers could do much to encourage the numbers and variety of insects / pollinators visiting (or possibly help control the damage done by insects pests).   * The Buzz club is a citizen science initiative.  The UK has a tradition of using the enthusiasm of volunteers to collect data for ecology research.  The Buzz Club projects are focused on gardens - see here.  Membership of the Club is free and the research projects are generally involve no cost.  You might be asked to supply simple equipment or to cover the cost of sending samples back to the club based at Sussex University. Should you sign up then you will receive : A ‘thank you’ email from the team! Information direct to your inbox of new projects being planned. A newsletter about what your data is telling us.  Professor Goulson has previously written a blog about bumblebees for woodlands.co.uk

Veteran trees may be defined by a number of features: age size; condition; history; position. Neither age nor size in themselves define veteran status. These features have to be viewed in relation to typical values for each tree species.  Thus, a one hundred year old birch or willow might be ‘deemed’ a veteran but a one hundred year old oak or yew would be a youngster.  To be termed a veteran, a tree should show some of the following features the trunk should be large (for the species) decay holes in parts of the trunk the trunk may show signs of damage and/or bark loss dead wood in the canopy fungal fruiting bodies often present (from heart rot fungi) epiphytes, such as mosses and lichens are present the tree supports a rich variety of different species the shape or position of the tree is of interest the tree may have cultural or historical interest, some  were used as gallows! Some veterans achieve their status through the management of the tree, such as pollarding or coppicing.  There are thousands of ancient trees in the UK and the Ancient Tree Inventory not only offers a way of finding ancient trees across the country but also you can add details of trees). Veteran trees can be found in many countries, though the may go under different names. In Australia, veteran or ancient trees are often connected with the social, cultural, and legal practices of the aboriginal peoples.  In Italy, an Albero Monumentale (‘a monumental tree’) is defined under National Law [number 10, 14th January 2013]. In Sweden, the oldest oak (Quercus robur) is the Rumskulla Oak , also known as the Kvill Oak. It is found in Kalmar County, Småland.  The name Rumskulla derives from its older form Romfarakulla ( = Rome + travel + hill); the area was a resting place for pilgrims that  to made the journey to Rome. It is one of the largest trees in Scandinavia, being some 14 metres (46 feet) high and with a trunk circumference of 13 metres (43 feet). Its girth is still increasing.  In the severe winter of 1708-09, the crown was was damaged and much lost. The tree is over a thousand years old and was first described in 1772.  The tree is now supported by iron bands and wire.  Like many veterans, its centre is hollowed out and it is covered with mosses.   There are many holes, cracks and crevices.   The Rumskulla Oak is registered as a national natural object of interest, with the Swedish Heritage Board. Thanks to Fredrika for the photos.

The UK has experienced some of the highest temperatures ever recorded in recent weeks, and in some parts of the country this has coincided with very low levels of rainfall.  It was the driest July on record for East Anglia, southeast and southern England, according to provisional statistics from the Met Office.  July was also the first time the UK exceeded temperatures of 40°C: on 19 July during an intense heatwave.   These conditions are not without their effects on wildlife.  Whilst warmth can accelerate plant growth and development, and also speed up insect life cycles, but the recent very high temperatures have significant effects, for example:  Drying of the soil As the soil dries, so earthworms burrow down deeper.  Insects, woodlice, spiders, etc avoid the surface of soil, hiding in litter so birds like song thrushes, robins and blackbirds struggle to find something to eat. Consequently, they are less likely to produce a second brood of chicks. This scarcity of invertebrates also affects ground feeding mammals, like hedgehogs (and badgers in more rural locations). Wetland areas dry out; for example grazing pasture that floods in winter - like the Ouse Washes.  This makes it difficult for birds to find food. Lack of water for plant growth Reduced rainfall and high rates of evaporation from the soil (and plants) mean that there is considerably less water available for plant growth.  The growth of leaves is reduced so that there is less material for caterpillars and other insects to eat.  With fewer leaves , there are also reduced surfaces for butterflies and other insects to lay eggs. High temperatures High temperatures and lack of water can affect many animals (including us). Rivers are running at very low levels and some have more or less disappeared.  DEFRA’s latest assessment of principal salmon rivers, such as the River Test shows that 74% of rivers in England are now ‘at risk’. The Environment Agency has noted the flow rate in the Waveney as 'exceptionally low', while other rivers in East Anglia like the Great Ouse  the  Yare, and the Little Ouse are described  as 'notably low'. The young of birds like swallows and swifts are at risk of fatal overheating (the young and old of various species are often more susceptible to heat stress).  Bumblebees cannot forage at high temperatures. Their bodies are covered with ‘hairy coats’ so they can fly when it is cool; but these become a burden in hot spells.High temperatures also shorten flowering time, and hence the availability of pollen and nectar for pollinators (bees, bumblebees, overflies, butterflies). Wild fires. [caption id="attachment_35352" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Woodland recovering from a fire[/caption] High temperatures increase the risk of wild fires, especially on moorland and heathland.  These fires can spread quickly and over wide areas. Young chicks (e.g. Dartford Warblers), eggs, snakes, lizards, small mammals, dragonflies and butterflies are lost.  Accumulated nutrients and stored carbon are lost from the ecosystems. The site of Springwatch Wild Ken Hill in coastal Norfolk suffered an intense fire during the recent hot spell.  The area is home to turtle doves, the grasshopper warbler and other rare birds.   It is hoped that most escaped but mammals, reptiles and amphibians, late-nesting and juvenile birds may not have fared well.   Grassland and woodland fires have also been reported at various sites across the country.  The UK is not alone in facing these problems, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, France and Germany have all lost many thousands of hectares to wildfires. [caption id="attachment_38699" align="aligncenter" width="700"] what was once was grass .....[/caption]  

It may be that a dead hedge is just that, your once carefully manicured box hedge which has now been ravished by the box moth.  However, in terms of managing your woodland, a dead hedge may have a different meaning. Here, a dead hedge may be a barrier to an area of new planting, it may be a way to ‘persuade’ people to keep to a footpath, or keep away from a pond / stream.   The dead hedge will be made from the bits and pieces that have be culled in clearing and thinning operations within the wood, material that foresters sometimes refer to as ‘lop and top’ and tree surgeons call ‘arisings. It can also include material cut from brambles and climbers such as ivy, honeysuckle and Old Man’s Beard (Clematis). Using natural materials to create barriers (and indeed) a habitat in a woodland is a way of using ‘waste’ in an ecologically sound way.  It saves having to remove trimmings from the site and offers opportunities to ‘top up’ the hedge if desired.  Obviously diseased materials should not be used.   Creating a dead hedge from clippings and trimmings is a way of using natural materials, rather than plastic & other materials that do not readily decompose.  A dead hedge will be an effective barrier for a period of time but it will break down sooner or later as bacteria and fungi break down the woody remains (lignin and cellulose).  The disappearance of the hedge will take time as the branches twigs etc are largely off the ground, so relatively dry and decomposition is facilitated by warmth and wetness. After its initial ‘construction’, the hedge will become part of the woodland, it will be colonised by some plants and it will offer shelter, nesting sites for birds and small mammals, and a ‘home’ to many different invertebrates, such as woodlice, beetles, even certain species of bumblebees.  As the hedge deteriorates, that is, decomposes, so the soil will gain in humus and fertility as the nutrients from the decaying wood etc are released through the detrital food chains.   Another way of using / recycling bits from pruning, clearing etc is by Hugelkultur.   Hugel beds are basically raised beds with a difference - they are filled with rotting wood and other biomass.  They are packed with organic material, nutrients and air pockets. Such beds can be an effective way of creating a productive area for growing fruits and vegetables in your woodland.  There is a woodlands blog about hugelkultur here. Large chunks of wood e.g. sawn up tree trunks can be stacked up in small piles and will over time make an excellent home for many invertebrates but especially xylophagous (wood eating) insects, for example,  saproxylic beetles.  These are beetles that live / eat in dead wood.  In the UK, some 600+ beetle species (from 53 different) families are associated with deadwood. Some feed on the deadwood itself (often with the aid of symbiotic bacteria in their gut), others feed on the fungi that are gradually ‘dissolving’ the wood.  Ants and wasps sometimes make their nests in dead wood.   Using wood to increase the organic content of the soil is good in terms of  carbon sequestration,  improving soil fertility,  water conservation and  productivity.  

Shade and stress. Shade (low light intensity) causes plants to elongate, reach up to the light to ‘outgrow’ the competition.  Such ‘elongated plants’ are said to exhibit etiolation.  However, there is a point when this strategy is counterproductive.  The plant simply cannot outgrow its taller neighbours, it is wasting resources and becoming weaker.  So plants in deep shade do not generally use this strategy.  Deep shade is detected by the phytochrome pigment system and ‘relayed' onto the plant’s circadian clock, the internal ‘daily time piece’.  This internal clock has various components and particular genes, some of which have an additional role in suppressing stem elongation (that would normally occur when shaded). Welsh woodlands and insect pollinators. A recent study across many different sites in Wales has revealed the habitats favoured by pollinators such as bees, overflies and butterflies.  The research found twice as many insects in broad leaved woodlands as compared to grassland areas.  They also found that farmlands without hedgerows had significantly fewer insects.  Both hedgerows and woodlands include trees such as oak and maple, which offer varied niches for pollinators.  They provide food (leaves) for larval stages, pollen and nectar for adults, plus egg laying sites and shelter. In Wales, there are plentiful grassland areas (mainly due to farming) with woodland only contributing 15% of land cover.  However, the Welsh Government aims to plant 180,000 hectares of new woodland by 2050.  New woodland will not only contribute to tackling climate change (through carbon sequestration) but will also do much to promote insect biodiversity. Sludge as fertiliser Sewage sludge is commonly spread across farmland as a form of fertiliser (throughout Europe).  Sewage sludge is the residual, semi-solid material that is the ‘by-product’ of sewage treatment of industrial and / or domestic wastewater. Sometimes, referred to as biosolids. It is a sustainable / renewable source of nutrients and reduces material going to landfill or incineration. The use of sludge has attracted attention as it can contain: Breakdown products of various medical / pharmaceutical that have been excreted / eliminated from us and / or animals, such as hormones, antibiotics, various drugs Heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic  Industrial chemicals / breakdown products PCB’s, dioxin Now, research at Cardiff University has shown that micro plastics in sludge are a problem; these are plastic particles less than 5 mm in size. It estimates that between 31,000 and 42,000 tonnes of micro-plastics are applied to European soils each year.  They are a threat to wildlife as they are easily ingested and can carry / contain toxic chemicals and may pass along the food chain.  The UK was shown to potentially have the highest level of microplastics in its soils, followed by Spain, Portugal and Germany.  

Perhaps it all started with a "No-shave November" (or "Movember") when men realised that they could go for a month without shaving and no one would mind.  It may also have been good for them as they thought more about men's health and they let nature take its course.  A few years later people started wondering about other habitual cutting, such as mowing their lawns religiously.  "No Mow May" was invented in 2019 by Plantlife with the idea that less cutting of grass would allow wildflowers to flourish.  The official reason for this concession to conservation was to allow the wild flowers and pollinators to thrive, but it may also have become popular because it allows maintenance teams to work a bit less hard during May.  In any event it's now so popular that about 36% of lawn owners now join in every year.  But it's spilled over well beyond just the month of May - many owners of lawns have questioned whether they really want so much short grass when alternatives are more interesting - and better for wildlife.  Even at the 2022 Chelsea Flower show there were several gardens demonstrating rewilding. So rethinking the scorched earth policy has now spread from men's chins to gardens and parks - but will it spread further?  What about our hillsides? For eighty years we have been intensively grazing these with sheep and cattle as if our lives depended on it - which maybe they did in 1942, when war-time convoys of food from the US were being torpedoed.  Even after grazing ceased to be a necessity sheep continued to dominate our hillsides with grants to sheep farmers making it profitable to use their four-legged lawnmowers at scale.  Farmers even grubbed out hedges in the 1970s, described by Oliver Rackham as the locust years, which made the countryside look even neater and tidier.  According to DEFRA there are currently about 32 million sheep in the UK, a third of them in Wales.  Land used for rough grazing and grassland makes up about 50% of the UK's total land area.  So for several generations now the UK has used half of its land to raise animals for eating, but times are changing rapidly.  Whereas those with meat-free diets used to be a tiny minority their numbers are growing rapidly - already at least 14% of the population is meat-free and for those of university age (18-23) the number is up to 25%, and rising. The combination of reduced demand for meat and increasing awareness that we can happily stop cutting the grass is prompting a rethink of how we use the British countryside.  Much of the grazing land is not suitable for growing agricultural crops so that leaves owners wondering what to do with their land.  Some are choosing rewilding in various ways but usually with far fewer grazing animals, longer grass and more wildflowers. [caption id="attachment_38426" align="aligncenter" width="600"] 'rewilding' of roadsides and verges[/caption] Others are planting trees and creating new woodlands.  Where the land is sold it's often to people who want to plant trees or simply to fence out sheep and allow "natural regeneration" allowing trees to self-select and grow on their own.  It's an appealing project for many families to take on 5 acres of grazing land, plant trees and convert it into a wood of their own. This re-evaluation of how grazing land is used is happening right across the world as plant based diets become more popular and there is potential to re-establish wilder habitats.  It's good for carbon emissions - not only because woodland fixes carbon but also because rewilding cuts the number of grazing animals releasing methane: belching by sheep and cattle creates a third of the total emissions of UK agriculture. Despite this, there may be resistance from the powerful National Union of Farmers which mostly represents bigger farmers and which promotes farming as an industry.  Farmers already complain about reductions in headcounts of livestock - since the peak in 1992, sheep headcount is down by about a third.  But it's also about the way the grant system is structured - millions of sheep only exist because of the farm payments, financed by taxpayers, and the condition of receiving these annual grants is that "unwanted" vegetation and wild plants have to be removed.  So even if the sheep don't chomp up biodiversity the farmers have to do it to get their grants. [caption id="attachment_21282" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Sheep grazing around solar array[/caption] Even beyond this suppression of diversity, sheep and cattle are damaging in many other ways such as compacting the soil which contributes to flooding and droughts. Meanwhile the number of men keeping their beards after no-shave November has increased and there are more gardens and parks with wild meadows so maybe the much bigger revolution in rural land use might follow. Governments have had it within their power for decades to reform the grant system but real change may be driven by people's behaviour - eating less meat and planting up their own woodlands.