Wild Boar As Caretakers Of The Forest - Battling Bracken

On November 26, 2009 the BBC News Service reported about an unusual experiment to use much maligned boar as caretakers of the forests. Because of the humid Scottish climate many forests have thick undergrowth of bracken. The fern is blocking out much light thus preventing other more useful plants and small trees from growing.

Trees for Life, a Scottish tree hugging group that apparently understands the interaction between fauna and flora better than most other green groups, just released 6 boar from a wildlife reserve into a 30 acre enclosure in an old birch forest. The boar were donated by a nearby Highland Wildlife Park. The purpose of the release is to study further the effects boar have on the spread of the bracken. Boar are known to dig up and eat the bracken rhizomes and fronds. Both are toxic to other animals. Bracken can grow five to six feet high, harbor ticks and other unpleasant wildlife (venomous snakes in German forests, for example) and shade out the light from the forest floor. That eliminates valuable much needed undergrowth in a healthy forest environment.

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8380381.stm)

Previously, the Guisachan Wild Boar Project close to the Glen Affric National Nature Reserve in Scotland, tested between 2004 and 2007 boar as bracken control. The experiment established that boar indeed reduce the spread of bracken considerably. Their activities also expose the soil in rooted areas allowing woodland plants and trees to germinate more easily.

Boar were an indigenous part of the Island's forest communities. They became extinct on the British Isles during the 13^th or 14^th century because of excessive hunting and poaching in all of the “King's Forests”.

This event can serve as a further illustration of the serious effect prolonged intensive hunting pressure can have on a species. Woolly Mammoth and the Dodo bird are other man made extinctions. And they did not even have helicopters in those days!

Alan Watson Featherstone, executive director of the charity, declared that boar will become major players in protecting native plant life in the forest and added:

"Wild boar are an integral part of the Caledonian Forest and their presence is crucial to the ecological health and balance of a natural woodland."

Ecologist Liz Balharry, who coordinated the Guisachan Wild Boar Project and is now an advisor to the new project by Tree of Life goes a step or two further:

"Wild boar are outstanding ecological engineers. Their return to Dundreggan will utilize the knowledge gained by my project and is exciting news for forest restoration in Scotland."

It is also exciting for the poachers. They already returned as well hunting and shooting the tagged boar in the research area. Even misguided competing researchers from Defra's Central Science Laboratory are known to catch sows and administer contraceptives.

The English research projects reflect in some aspects similar studies in the oak woodlands of California. They found almost identical effects on the native grasses in the oak lands. Wild pig rooting favored native perennials over imported annual grasses. The authors of the Californian study called wild pigs Grizzly Bears of our times because both species are rooting in similar fashion and with similar results.

Yet, to remain 'fair and balanced', I have to add that right in front of me are the results of another study that finds essentially the opposite to be true. Their researchers conclude that boar and wild pigs reduce germination of oak seeds to a measurable degree.

Be that as it may, I find it encouraging that certain English environmentalists and wildlife enthusiasts are willing to give boar a fair chance by looking at the environmental benefits that can be associated with boar.

You can listen to the BBC report right here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8380381.stm.

PJJ