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Restoration of temperate wetlands
Biological Conservation 80 (1997) 221-224 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain 0006-3207/96 $17.00 + .00 ELSEVIER
BOOK REVIEWS
enough. All WPA symposium volumes are claimed to be 'on an evolutionary curve, aiming at improvement', but this is premature for any publication until scientists give their verdict long afterwards. In the reviewer's opinion this volume does not match the quality of a previous one in the series, from Scandinavia. No-one seriously interested in grouse and their habitats should be without this volume. However, one hopes that grouse researchers will make more reliable progress in future by doing some experiments and not just descriptive studies.
Proceedings of the 6th International Grouse Symposium. Edited by D. Jenkins. World Pheasant Association, P O Box 5, Reading, UK/Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica, Ozzzano dell'Emilia, Italy. 1995. 175 pp. ISBN 0 906864 10 0. Price £15 (pbk) inc. post and packing. This volume has a wide geographical spread of contributions from China, Japan, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Estonia, Slovenia and Canada, as well as European Union countries. A high proportion of the papers is on habitat. Nearly all of these emphasise declines in grouse numbers associated with either habitat loss or habitat deterioration due to adverse forest management practices, anthropogenic pollution, human-induced high densities of browsing mammals, and over-hunting in one case in China. There are some exploratory papers on grouse in pristine boreal forest in northern Russia and in montane habitats in several countries, as well as comparisons involving different silvicultural methods. The main common theme is habitat evaluation in relation to grouse density and requirements. The complex structure of some habitats, especially in forests, is a big challenge for developing reliable quantitative methods of evaluation, and this symposium makes a contribution. Also there are useful reviews on habitat requirements of black grouse, capercaillie and hazel grouse. Three pages of abstracts summarise studies at earlier stages of completion. One amazingly advocates introducing four American grouse species to the Caucasus. Given the number of factors that may be involved in determining grouse numbers in forest and montane habitats, the almost total absence of papers involving unpublished experiments is surprising. There is only one, a German study which found that two broods of hand-reared black grouse chicks showed anti-predator behaviour at later ages than two broods reared by captive hen black grouse, but the analysis was flawed by lack of statistical independence. Statistical presentation can be criticised more widely (e.g. one paper gives a mean difference of 0.48 for number of species, but a standard error of 0.2457641 and a T-test value of 1-9530923!). A common problem with conference proceedings is that organisers are under pressure to publish all papers. It would be a service if editors and referees took a harder line by rejecting some papers and improving others so that presentation and statistical analysis are less invalid. The editor's preface for this symposium states that all papers have been 'edited critically' and all longer papers refereed, but clearly not rigorously
Adam Wa~on
Restoration of Temperate Wetlands. Edited by B. D. Wheeler, S. C. Shaw, W. J. Foijt & R. A. Robertson. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1995. 562 pp. ISBN 0 471 95105 6 (hbk). Price:£49.95. Wetlands throughout the world are threatened by man's desire to drain them and the purpose of this book is to examine aspects of ecological science as applied to wetland restoration. It is not concerned with the political or commercial aspects of wetlands per se, nor is it a manual of wetland restoration, although this is alluded to in some chapters - - rather it presents a broad snapshot of much current information and experience concerning the scientific aspects of restoring wetlands. Restoration is used to accommodate various degrees of reinstatement - - repair, reconstruction, reproduction and re-creation. It is interpreted to encompass a broad spectrum of activities, from minor reparation of damage (e.g. damming of ditches), through contrived re-assembly (e.g. deliberate reintroduction of species) to de novo regeneration (e.g. provision of appropriate starting conditions from which a new wetland can develop). The authors quite rightly acknowledge that at the smallscale end of this range it may be difficult to separate 'restoration' procedures from those normally thought of as routine habitat and vegetation management. They suggest that the distinction should be that management practices are recurrent operations whereas restoration procedures are one-off or very infrequent. This volume is divided into 30 chapters contributed by 62 researchers drawn from Europe, America, Canada and Australia. It provides a broad and authoritative overview of current information and experience of wetland restoration. It highlights the lack of 221
222
Book Reviews
knowledge available and illustrates in some cases the difficulties of making informed decisions. It contains a wealth of information and research which until now had been largely unknown or scattered in reports and unpublished literature and the editors are to be congratulated on bringing it all together. I have no hesitation in recommending this book without reservation not only to restoration ecologists but also to all others who have an interest in wetland ecology. T. C. E. Wells
Managing Habitats for Conservation. Edited by W. J. Sutherland & D. A. Hill. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1995. 399 pp. ISBN 0 521 44260 5 (hbk), 0 521 44776 3 (pbk). Price: £55.00, US$84.95 (hbk), £17.95, US$29.95 (pbk). According to the editors, this book was born out of the frustration caused by the lack of readily accessible information on habitat management. The aim was to collate the available information to produce a practical guide to what needed to be done rather than to provide details of exactly how to do it. The authors of each chapter were asked to imagine someone who had become responsible for managing an area and to provide the sort of information that that person would require to make the necessary management decisions. The book is divided into 13 chapters. The first three cover the principles of ecological management, site management and planning, and access. The remaining 10 are concerned with the management of a particular habitat or group of habitats. Each chapter, except for that by Holmes and Hanbury on rivers, canals and dykes, finishes with a useful list of references. Some chapters, for example that on reedbeds, fens and acid bogs by Burgess, Ward, Hobbs and Bellamy, contain good line drawings of water control devices such as sluices and dams which the would-be manager will find useful. One of the best features of this book is the use made of boxes in the text to highlight what are basically summaries of important subjects in conservation management. In the chapter on lowland heaths, for example, Dolman and Land provide succinct information in one box on how to manage lowland heath for nightjars Caprimulgus europaeus, in another box on how to control bracken Pteridium and in a third box give details of the grazing management of the Suffolk Sandlings. The aim is to stimulate the reserve manager to think about how he or she should set about devising a management strategy for a site without necessarily adopting a recipe book approach. Similarly, in the chapter on upland moors and heaths, Thompson, MacDonald and Hudson use boxes to focus on the dos and don'ts of muirburning and for considering the choice of
methods which can be employed for monitoring the effects of grazing on heather Calluna. A theme which is common to all chapters is the necessity for setting clear objectives of management. Successful conservation management demands thoughtful planning based on the understanding of the habitat needs of species, coupled with commitment and vision. The potential variety of management manipulations is endless, so long-term objectives are essential. Seldom will the management of a site be driven by the needs of just one species; more typically, management will seek to cater for a range of species, each of which will respond uniquely to any treatment. The setting of objectives and the carrying out of management within the framework of a management plan is well-known and has been practised for at least four decades in Britain. What is lacking (and we are all reluctant to admit it) is the careful monitoring of the effects of different management practices with the result that we are continuously re-inventing the wheel and not making the best use of limited resources. William Sutherland touches on this point briefly in the introductory chapter but other than stating that all management should be followed by some form of monitoring offers little advice on how this could be achieved, yet it seems to me to be crucial to fulfilling our management objectives. With this proviso, I have no hesitation in recommending this book to nature reserve wardens, countryside managers and others interested in nature reserve management. The style and layout is clear and it is easy to find information required without reading the whole text. On these grounds alone, the paperback version is also likely to find a place on the shelves of students studying nature conservation, agriculture and environmental sciences. T. C. E. Wells
The Ecology of Woodland Creation. Edited by R. FerrisKaan. John Wiley, Chichester. 1995, 244pp. ISBN 0 471 95484 5 (hbk). Price: £45.00. Some 85-95% of Britain was originally covered in woodland but remnants of these ancient, semi-natural woods now occupy only about 1.4% of the land surface. Secondary woods (i.e. those which have developed on old farmland, heaths, moors, bogs, railway embankments and other formerly unwooded ground) occupy about 231,000 ha. The total extent of ancient and seeondary native woodlands in Britain accounts for about 3% of the land surface. New woods, of which the great majority are plantations of sitka spruce Pinus sitchensis and other introduced conifers, cover about 8% of the land surface, making Britain one of the least wooded countries in Europe. Given these facts, it is surprising that research into creating 'new' woodlands, containing both native trees, shrubs and a ground flora of native species, only began in Britain in the last 5-10 years: this
BOOK REVIEWS
enough. All WPA symposium volumes are claimed to be 'on an evolutionary curve, aiming at improvement', but this is premature for any publication until scientists give their verdict long afterwards. In the reviewer's opinion this volume does not match the quality of a previous one in the series, from Scandinavia. No-one seriously interested in grouse and their habitats should be without this volume. However, one hopes that grouse researchers will make more reliable progress in future by doing some experiments and not just descriptive studies.
Proceedings of the 6th International Grouse Symposium. Edited by D. Jenkins. World Pheasant Association, P O Box 5, Reading, UK/Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica, Ozzzano dell'Emilia, Italy. 1995. 175 pp. ISBN 0 906864 10 0. Price £15 (pbk) inc. post and packing. This volume has a wide geographical spread of contributions from China, Japan, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Estonia, Slovenia and Canada, as well as European Union countries. A high proportion of the papers is on habitat. Nearly all of these emphasise declines in grouse numbers associated with either habitat loss or habitat deterioration due to adverse forest management practices, anthropogenic pollution, human-induced high densities of browsing mammals, and over-hunting in one case in China. There are some exploratory papers on grouse in pristine boreal forest in northern Russia and in montane habitats in several countries, as well as comparisons involving different silvicultural methods. The main common theme is habitat evaluation in relation to grouse density and requirements. The complex structure of some habitats, especially in forests, is a big challenge for developing reliable quantitative methods of evaluation, and this symposium makes a contribution. Also there are useful reviews on habitat requirements of black grouse, capercaillie and hazel grouse. Three pages of abstracts summarise studies at earlier stages of completion. One amazingly advocates introducing four American grouse species to the Caucasus. Given the number of factors that may be involved in determining grouse numbers in forest and montane habitats, the almost total absence of papers involving unpublished experiments is surprising. There is only one, a German study which found that two broods of hand-reared black grouse chicks showed anti-predator behaviour at later ages than two broods reared by captive hen black grouse, but the analysis was flawed by lack of statistical independence. Statistical presentation can be criticised more widely (e.g. one paper gives a mean difference of 0.48 for number of species, but a standard error of 0.2457641 and a T-test value of 1-9530923!). A common problem with conference proceedings is that organisers are under pressure to publish all papers. It would be a service if editors and referees took a harder line by rejecting some papers and improving others so that presentation and statistical analysis are less invalid. The editor's preface for this symposium states that all papers have been 'edited critically' and all longer papers refereed, but clearly not rigorously
Adam Wa~on
Restoration of Temperate Wetlands. Edited by B. D. Wheeler, S. C. Shaw, W. J. Foijt & R. A. Robertson. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1995. 562 pp. ISBN 0 471 95105 6 (hbk). Price:£49.95. Wetlands throughout the world are threatened by man's desire to drain them and the purpose of this book is to examine aspects of ecological science as applied to wetland restoration. It is not concerned with the political or commercial aspects of wetlands per se, nor is it a manual of wetland restoration, although this is alluded to in some chapters - - rather it presents a broad snapshot of much current information and experience concerning the scientific aspects of restoring wetlands. Restoration is used to accommodate various degrees of reinstatement - - repair, reconstruction, reproduction and re-creation. It is interpreted to encompass a broad spectrum of activities, from minor reparation of damage (e.g. damming of ditches), through contrived re-assembly (e.g. deliberate reintroduction of species) to de novo regeneration (e.g. provision of appropriate starting conditions from which a new wetland can develop). The authors quite rightly acknowledge that at the smallscale end of this range it may be difficult to separate 'restoration' procedures from those normally thought of as routine habitat and vegetation management. They suggest that the distinction should be that management practices are recurrent operations whereas restoration procedures are one-off or very infrequent. This volume is divided into 30 chapters contributed by 62 researchers drawn from Europe, America, Canada and Australia. It provides a broad and authoritative overview of current information and experience of wetland restoration. It highlights the lack of 221
222
Book Reviews
knowledge available and illustrates in some cases the difficulties of making informed decisions. It contains a wealth of information and research which until now had been largely unknown or scattered in reports and unpublished literature and the editors are to be congratulated on bringing it all together. I have no hesitation in recommending this book without reservation not only to restoration ecologists but also to all others who have an interest in wetland ecology. T. C. E. Wells
Managing Habitats for Conservation. Edited by W. J. Sutherland & D. A. Hill. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1995. 399 pp. ISBN 0 521 44260 5 (hbk), 0 521 44776 3 (pbk). Price: £55.00, US$84.95 (hbk), £17.95, US$29.95 (pbk). According to the editors, this book was born out of the frustration caused by the lack of readily accessible information on habitat management. The aim was to collate the available information to produce a practical guide to what needed to be done rather than to provide details of exactly how to do it. The authors of each chapter were asked to imagine someone who had become responsible for managing an area and to provide the sort of information that that person would require to make the necessary management decisions. The book is divided into 13 chapters. The first three cover the principles of ecological management, site management and planning, and access. The remaining 10 are concerned with the management of a particular habitat or group of habitats. Each chapter, except for that by Holmes and Hanbury on rivers, canals and dykes, finishes with a useful list of references. Some chapters, for example that on reedbeds, fens and acid bogs by Burgess, Ward, Hobbs and Bellamy, contain good line drawings of water control devices such as sluices and dams which the would-be manager will find useful. One of the best features of this book is the use made of boxes in the text to highlight what are basically summaries of important subjects in conservation management. In the chapter on lowland heaths, for example, Dolman and Land provide succinct information in one box on how to manage lowland heath for nightjars Caprimulgus europaeus, in another box on how to control bracken Pteridium and in a third box give details of the grazing management of the Suffolk Sandlings. The aim is to stimulate the reserve manager to think about how he or she should set about devising a management strategy for a site without necessarily adopting a recipe book approach. Similarly, in the chapter on upland moors and heaths, Thompson, MacDonald and Hudson use boxes to focus on the dos and don'ts of muirburning and for considering the choice of
methods which can be employed for monitoring the effects of grazing on heather Calluna. A theme which is common to all chapters is the necessity for setting clear objectives of management. Successful conservation management demands thoughtful planning based on the understanding of the habitat needs of species, coupled with commitment and vision. The potential variety of management manipulations is endless, so long-term objectives are essential. Seldom will the management of a site be driven by the needs of just one species; more typically, management will seek to cater for a range of species, each of which will respond uniquely to any treatment. The setting of objectives and the carrying out of management within the framework of a management plan is well-known and has been practised for at least four decades in Britain. What is lacking (and we are all reluctant to admit it) is the careful monitoring of the effects of different management practices with the result that we are continuously re-inventing the wheel and not making the best use of limited resources. William Sutherland touches on this point briefly in the introductory chapter but other than stating that all management should be followed by some form of monitoring offers little advice on how this could be achieved, yet it seems to me to be crucial to fulfilling our management objectives. With this proviso, I have no hesitation in recommending this book to nature reserve wardens, countryside managers and others interested in nature reserve management. The style and layout is clear and it is easy to find information required without reading the whole text. On these grounds alone, the paperback version is also likely to find a place on the shelves of students studying nature conservation, agriculture and environmental sciences. T. C. E. Wells
The Ecology of Woodland Creation. Edited by R. FerrisKaan. John Wiley, Chichester. 1995, 244pp. ISBN 0 471 95484 5 (hbk). Price: £45.00. Some 85-95% of Britain was originally covered in woodland but remnants of these ancient, semi-natural woods now occupy only about 1.4% of the land surface. Secondary woods (i.e. those which have developed on old farmland, heaths, moors, bogs, railway embankments and other formerly unwooded ground) occupy about 231,000 ha. The total extent of ancient and seeondary native woodlands in Britain accounts for about 3% of the land surface. New woods, of which the great majority are plantations of sitka spruce Pinus sitchensis and other introduced conifers, cover about 8% of the land surface, making Britain one of the least wooded countries in Europe. Given these facts, it is surprising that research into creating 'new' woodlands, containing both native trees, shrubs and a ground flora of native species, only began in Britain in the last 5-10 years: this