One of the most depressing sights in the dales near Buxton is the landscape-scale devastation inflicted by ash dieback. Ash is the dominant tree in most of the woods, but such is the extent of the disease that the canopy has often collapsed. In its place are the dead tips to defoliated twigs and branches, which project from the trees like upraised finger bones.
As if trees are incapable of self-regeneration, various environmental groups have begun replanting saplings swathed in protective wreaths of plastic to ward off the gnawing teeth of squirrels and rabbits. Setting aside the rights or wrongs of this policy, I float an alternative idea: return pine martens to the region.
Victorian books on Derbyshire make it clear that in and around Buxton until the 18th century, pine martens were abundant. The measure would therefore return a Buxtonian citizen to its rightful place, but also have a major, one would hope, devastating impact on grey squirrels. This American species is heavier and more ground-dwelling than its red cousin, and falls victim to pine martens more regularly. In short, they seldom co-exist. The key issue with the grey squirrel, which is super-abundant here, is that it’s a voracious consumer of saplings.
A friend who owns part of a 250-acre wood, operating with a colleague over just 11 acres of the site, has so far culled 700 grey squirrels. The results are astonishing. Before the action, regeneration was severely impacted, and now on my friend’s plot he has six species of sapling, including holly, rowan and oak. Most important is the recovery of bramble, which has gone from stands that are ankle high to 3 metres. Bramble is one of the invertebrate superfoods in his patch.
Pine martens are recovering strongly in Scotland and have been enabled to spread in Wales and the New Forest. From these enclaves they will surely, given a fair opportunity, return to their former haunts. But we need them in the Peak District now, and a little judicious assistance to martens would no doubt be met with the complete gratitude of our formerly wonderful ash woods.
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