Last September, I was fortunate enough to take part in a 3-day tour to the Netherlands to learn about the approach taken to land management, rewilding and nature recovery.
The Netherlands is often cited as a leader in rewilding and nature restoration, and comparisons are regularly made with the UK, given that their population density of 544 people per km² is much higher than our 279 per km². Land in the Netherlands is also much more expensive than in England, with sale prices quoted on the trip being perhaps 6 times as expensive for comparable land here.
Throughout history, the Dutch have manipulated both the land and water, with reclaimed land being settled as early as the 14th Century. Land is seen as somewhat more transient within Dutch culture, and they have a long history of moving their farms and agricultural land in response to flooding events or other interventions.
We visited five different sites around the country, looking at the different nature-based solutions taken to significant problems such as large-scale flooding causing huge damage to infrastructure, farming and loss of life. For this blog, I will focus on one of these sites, where one of the main points of interest was their small herd of bison.
The first site we visited was Slikken van de Heen, a 600ha coastal site that was once cultivated but suffered from high tides and flooding. Successive inundations had left the soil contaminated with dioxins, leading it to no longer be viable arable land. Arriving at the small, innocuous car park surrounded by flat arable fields, it was hard to imagine what could be found by climbing over the dyke and entering through the small metal gate that was held shut solely by gravity, with no latch.
This was perhaps one of most surprising things about the site, and felt very strange when viewed through English eyes. The fencing, which was the usual sort of fencing you would see on a sheep field here, was supplemented by a two strand, solar powered electric fence. This was considered completely sufficient for the site, which is completely open to members of the public, with the only guidance being to keep dogs on a lead for their own safety.
Compare this to the enormous expense of zoo-grade fencing of the Wilder Blean project in Kent, creating ‘bison bridges’ to allow their animals to move between habitat areas and keeping them separate from the public, and you can imagine our surprise at seeing such rudimentary fencing and 24hr public access.
It was evident there was a very pragmatic approach to coexistence and experimentation with how to manage herbivores. One of the unusual features of this site is that the bison are thriving in a very wet landscape, which is not ‘typical’ habitat for the species, and the team is hoping that learnings from the site may see bison being used in a wider variety of projects in the future.
The site manager suggested that they would like to have twice as many head of animals, and that the site would be able to support this. There is no supplementary feeding of the animals, but numbers are managed for welfare reasons. If an animal dies, they have been given special permission by the government to allow the carcasses to remain in situ, and have seen a corresponding increase in invertebrate diversity as species are attracted to the decaying animals. When we visited there were 30 ponies, 60 cattle and 6 bison on the site. When questioned about what happen if there was an incident with a bison, the site manager was quite pragmatic and said that the public knew to keep away from them, and to keep dogs on leads. There had been no incidents to date. We were told that local people were very happy to have the bison there, but were very opposed to wild boar being introduced due to the enormous value of the tulip industry, and the threat posed by wild boar was seen as an unacceptable risk.
Alongside the three grazing species, there was an abundance of wildlife on the site. There is a white tailed eagle nest, an incredible density of pine martens, evident by their scat marking every trail. The previous week, a lone wolf had been spotted visiting the reserve. The freshwater lake supports huge numbers of water birds, including spoonbills.
The grazing animals provided opportunities for a wide variety of species to make their home in the site. Wallowing behaviours created patches of open earth suitable for burrowing wasp and bee species. The dung attracts beetles and flies, with the territorial behaviour of the stallions, marking the same spot regularly, providing permanent breeding grounds for dung beetles. De-barking of trees creates habitat for invertebrates such as stag beetles, and also opens up woodlands, creating forest glades and a more diverse and open mosaic of habitats. The grazers prevent the species-rich grasslands from being taken over by bracken and non native invasive plant species.
To me, this was a fascinating example of what a nature reserve could look like, and it certainly felt very wild, but not intimidating in any way. The land was no longer suitable for food production, but clearly is now of massive value to wildlife and the local community. The interaction of the three different grazers creates a huge variety of ecological niches. Going back out of the reserve through the flimsy metal gate and climbing back up over the dyke and looking out over the flat, uniform fields that stretched for miles in all directions, it felt like leaving an oasis.
