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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46218
Location: yes
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
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judyofthewoods
Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire
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 Posted: Thu Aug 25, 05 12:14 am Post subject: |
 
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My boundary is a river, and my neighbour across the river and myself have stopped the mink hunt along this stretch for the past ten years or so. There are ducks, there are fish, and many other species, incl. otter. As far as I can tell, there is nothing amiss. I would agree with Himalayan balsam being a very invasive species, as it is spreading on my padock, however, it is a lot easier to eradicate than Japanese knotweeed, and it is not preventing the natural succession to climax to occur, as there are also plenty of trees growing there, and before long they will shade out any of the non-native weeds. If I wanted to keep it as a padock, I would have to keep mowing to get rid of it, or pull it up before it flowers, and do that every year until the seedstock is gone. How long? I dread to think. As for the mink, they must be keeping their numbers in balance, as I have not seen the place overrun by them or seen the damage they are supposed to do, with the one-off exception of loosing a couple of chicks to one. I did not see it happen, but was told that the small puncture wound on either side of the head was a tell-tale sign of mink. |
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46218
Location: yes
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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| Posted: Fri Aug 26, 05 8:24 am Post subject: |
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| judyofthewoods wrote: |
| My boundary is a river, and my neighbour across the river and myself have stopped the mink hunt along this stretch for the past ten years or so. There are ducks, there are fish, and many other species, incl. otter. As far as I can tell, there is nothing amiss. |
You're lucky then. Talking with some of the locals up near Stornoway earlier this year, they all talk about a time before the mink when you used to see a lot of birds 
The impact they have really depends on what you're looking at and where you are; certain species really suffer.
| Quote: |
I would agree with Himalayan balsam being a very invasive species, as it is spreading on my padock, however, it is a lot easier to eradicate than Japanese knotweeed, and it is not preventing the natural succession to climax to occur, as there are also plenty of trees growing there, and before long they will shade out any of the non-native weeds. |
There are patches by the River Trent where Himalayan Balsam is all you see. Tons of the stuff, out-competing the native flora such that the river bank supports a much less diverse range of species than it ought. It's a mess. You'll still get a seral succession, but there's more to conservation than reaching an approximation of climax vegetation
| Quote: |
If I wanted to keep it as a padock, I would have to keep mowing to get rid of it, or pull it up before it flowers, and do that every year until the seedstock is gone. How long? I dread to think. As for the mink, they must be keeping their numbers in balance, as I have not seen the place overrun by them or seen the damage they are supposed to do, with the one-off exception of loosing a couple of chicks to one. I did not see it happen, but was told that the small puncture wound on either side of the head was a tell-tale sign of mink. |
We have to keep all of these things in context; we're stuck with many non-native species (rabbits, sycamore, Japanese knotweed, fennel, alexanders, ground elder, horse chestnut, himalayan balsam...) and we just have to manage our environment accordingly so that we maintain a level of species diversity that is practical, aesthetically pleasing and workable. I suspect that your paddock is just part of a stream bank covered in balsam? |
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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Bugs
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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| Posted: Fri Aug 26, 05 10:13 am Post subject: |
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| Bugs wrote: |
| cab wrote: |
| You'll still get a seral succession, |
I beg your pardon?  |
Oops...
This is the kind of thing you take for granted if you've studied any ecology, but it's worth sharing what this means for those who haven't.
Seral succession.
Imagine walking from the sea across a sandy beach, up through the sand dunes, across a grassy scrubby bit of land, and into a younf birchwood and then into a forest.
That's a sere. You can look at a sere spacially (a habitat developing as sand is deposited on a beach, inland are the made up of that sand, further inland there's scrubland that grows up on dunes, etc.). Or you can look at it in terms of time (the sand being deposited on the beach now will form dunes, which will have grass on them, etc).
Each seral stage has a certain flora and fauna associated with it; knock over some of the biodiversity on any one of those stages and you may (or may not) impact on the final stage. That final stage (the mature woodland in the example I've used) is called the climax community.
You can now imagine (I hope) the same process going on in a marshland, on a river bank, etc. |
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Bugs
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46218
Location: yes
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46218
Location: yes
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46218
Location: yes
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46218
Location: yes
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46218
Location: yes
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more about balsam knotweed and such please . the local balsam is prolific and supports many types of bee and other types of insect .what other effects does it have and can i eat it?
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