Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 48


     
     1        through the progression of the growth of an area that was
     2        not forested, you have a change in the ecological balance
     3        in that land, and that there is a stage when the forest is
     4        first planted when the wildlife have not fully inhabited
     5        that forested area.  There then comes a stage when they do
     6        while the trees are young and growing.  There then comes a
     7        stage when they move away because of the fact that the
     8        canopy closes.  Finally, when the forest is thinned, a
     9        further ecological balance is restored.
    10
    11        But I would like the privilege, if you would allow me so,
    12        to read from Charles Darwin because there is a very
    13        relevant passage written in the middle of the 19th century
    14        that I have been itching to actually read out.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I saw you had the book yesterday and
    17        this morning it was open and now we are actually going to
    18        hear from it.
    19
    20   MR. MORRIS:  Yes, I have no objection as long as it is not pages
    21        and pages.
    22        A.  It is not very long.  Charles Darwin, writing in the
    23        middle of the last century, as you appreciate, in
    24        establishing the origin of the species by means of natural
    25        selection by constant modification which, you can imagine,
    26        leads him to talk about extinction at a certain stage,
    27        refers here to a case in Staffordshire:
    28
    29        "On the estate of a relation where I had ample means of
    30        investigation, there was a large and extremely barren heath
    31        which had never been touched by the hand of man, but
    32        several hundred acres of exactly the same nature had been
    33        enclosed 25 years previously and had been planted with
    34        scotch fern.  The change in the native vegetation of the
    35        planted part of the heath was most remarkable, more than is
    36        generally seen in passing from one quite different soil to
    37        another.  Not only the proportional numbers of the heath
    38        plants were wholly changed, but 12 species of plants, not
    39        counting grasses and caroseeds, flourished in the
    40        plantations which could not be found in the heath.  The
    41        effect on the insects must have been still greater, for six
    42        insectivorous birds were very common in the plantations
    43        which were not to be seen on the heath, and the heath was
    44        frequented by two or three distinct insectivorous birds.
    45        Here we see how potent has been the effect of the
    46        introduction of a single tree, nothing whatever else having
    47        been done with the exception that the land had been
    48        enclosed so that cattle could not enter".
    49
    50        My Lord, I only read that to show that, yes, forestry does 
    51        have an effect upon any ecological balance, but it cannot 
    52        be said that it is always detrimental to the breadth, width 
    53        and purpose of wildlife.
    54
    55   MR. MORRIS:  I do not think we will be calling Mr. Darwin as an
    56        expert witness in this case though.  It does point out also
    57        that the damage that cattle are doing?
    58        A.  Very much, Mr. Morris, very much.
    59
    60   Q.   Also they indicate, I presume, that the insecticides,

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