Death Of A Rewilding Myth

This is one of the claimed advantages of rewilding Britain with 'wild boar'.

They are highly effective bracken destroyers . . .

www.rewildingbritain.org.uk...

Bracken has many ill-effects on other life.

. . . bracken that is left unchecked will eventually destroy most other plant life . . .

All parts of the bracken plant contain potent toxins and carcinogens and these cause a variety of illnesses within animals . . .

. . . very many more times the normal levels of gastric cancer have been found in areas where there are large infestations of bracken such as Costa Rica and North Wales . . .

mdairservices.com...

If these 'wild boar', (actually feral pigs), really did destroy bracken, that would be a good thing.

A few days ago I went to the Forest of Dean and walked out to a bracken patch I've been watching for several years now. There were the usual signs of pig activity in the vicinity, but the bracken patch was larger than before. Several years of repeated rooting seem to have done no harm to the bracken at all.

Thankfully this is starting to be acknowledged.

Our monitoring of the impact of our wild boar showed that their effect on dense stands of bracken was temporary and less than clear-cut.

treesforlife.org.uk...

I'll have to wait to find out how many more of the rewilding claims turns out to be made-up. I suspect rather a lot. There seems to be an increase in inaccurate claims being made, as if accuracy doesn't matter. Untrue claims have a way of being exposed, and that throws the rest of it into doubt. Better if the rewilding enthusiasts stick to accurate information, which is unlikely to be found in mushy, sensationalist books.

a reply to: Kester

Bring back the boar. We need them. An integral part of our ecosystem..

So is the bracken an invader, or native there? If native, seems like the issue is "don't eat it". We have bracken in the NW US and it hasn't destroyed "most other plant life" though it can get quite tall and thick in the summer.

Edit: So I did a little reading, and it seems your bracken is taking over pasture land. Seems like some kind of shift in agricultural practices, land/animal husbandry, or climate is driving an ecological change. The plant has always been there, it just found its legs. Interesting.

Here is a link to a pdf about bracken. publications.naturalengland.org.uk...

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: Kester

Bring back the boar. We need them. An integral part of our ecosystem..

Bring them back and you had better have predators to cull the herd, cause they have invaded the southern US, destroying crops and farm lands and generally being an expensive nuisance. Even then potentially could be up to your arse in piglets in a few years. Most areas have year round open season hunting because populations have grown so rapidly, Texas with their large ranches have resulted to hunting from helicopters,night hunts with thermal imaging, and massive baiting and trapping systems.

a reply to: Kester

Braken is indeed harmful for ruminants. They cause the braken staggers. Neurological issues, but feral pigs also do an incredible amount of damage. Not sure they would be an answer.

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: Kester

Bring back the boar. We need them. An integral part of our ecosystem..

Bring them back and you had better have predators to cull the herd, cause they have invaded the southern US, destroying crops and farm lands and generally being an expensive nuisance. Even then potentially could be up to your arse in piglets in a few years. Most areas have year round open season hunting because populations have grown so rapidly, Texas with their large ranches have resulted to hunting from helicopters,night hunts with thermal imaging, and massive baiting and trapping systems.

Yes lets have some predators for them too.. Think its a great idea.

a reply to: Kester

We need to worship the wild boar more.

LOL I wouldn't even begin to guess what the native predators were, and if they could or should reintroduce them. Iwould assume it would be wolves or cougars


I know they reintroduced wolves to Yellowstone and the transformation has been remarkable. But thats a huge area and its a relatively closed system.

What ecologists think they know often turns out wrong when instituted as policy. What you can learn from books is not the same as what you learn by actually studying nature itself. Sadly the best intentions often end up by simply trading one problem for a set of others.