I first became aware of the living personality of
Skomer Island peering through windows veneered with rain of the
coastguard hut above Jack Sound. From this vantage point the
island appeared intermittently, as a distant inchoate grey
mass glimpsed through a flock of diving gannets. This was in
1970. I had just been appointed head of the department of
zoology in Cardiff and with two members of my staff, John and Anne
Edington, I was seeking an outdoor ecological laboratory where I
could learn more about how mammalian hormones shape ecological
behaviour. In this frame of mind I was making connections
between molecular biology and applied ecology and the Skomer
rabbits were destined to carry the
link.
Another figure in my mind's eye that day was
Charles Elton, one of my long established scientist heroes, a key
figure in the development of ecology as a science in the first half
of the twentieth century. His work had highlighted the importance
of the food web, the ecological niche and the pyramid of numbers,
as well as the study of population cycles, biological invasions and
the notion that biological diversity confers ecological
stability. His friends Aldo Leopold, and Arthur Tansley were
also in my mind that day, together with Julian Huxley, who, as
president of the West Wales Field Club, had actually played a key
role in bringing Skomer to the attention of the wider world of
natural history. More than that, Huxley was a pioneering
conservationist, who had helped advance the “modern
synthesis” in evolutionary biology and played a pivotal role
in founding UNESCO and the World Wildlife Fund. His argument that
we must accept responsibility for our future evolution as a species
was the basis of the concept of Transhumanism that he first
outlined in the 1950s.
All of these people had been hangers-on in my
brain for a long time as wildlife conservation had developed apace
with their devotion to ecological research into the workings of
biological populations and communities as contributions to nature
conservation. Their research had demonstrated that nature reserves
could not simply be established and protected but had to be managed
dynamically in light of various processes that invariably arise
within them. Tansley in particular adduced, as one reason for
nature reserves, their usefulness for the study of the connections
between habitats and species. Elton became engaged in conservation
activities that heavily influenced the development of a British
national policy on conservation, advised on the structures that
would aid implementing this policy and served for seven years on a
key committee which realised this policy.
My first landing on Skomer was the following year
with Roger Bray, the Nature Conservancy Council's regional
officer. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the rapidly
expanding populations of herring and lesser black-backed
gulls were perceived as having a serious impact on other bird
species, the vegetation and the amenity value of the
island. There was no management plan for the island.
Also, there was a perception that the rabbit population was also
expanding due to the prohibition of trapping, which had been a
condition of the agricultural tenancy before the island had been
designated as a nature reserve. The outcome of this island
tour was that I was tasked with studying the interactions of gulls
and rabbits with vegetation. This work was carried out with
student projects year on year from 1972-92.
Now, I cannot think of Skomer without the image of
Mike Alexander who was the third warden of Skomer (1976-86) with
whom I collaborated . He encapsulates his involvement with the
island as the start of a personal journey when he
writes:
"As a 13-year-old schoolboy I was so inspired and
motivated by a visit to a nature reserve that, from that time on, I
wanted nothing more than to become a reserve manager. Later in that
same year I read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Although I
could not understand everything that I read, it evoked deeper
feelings that added to my initial sense of inspiration, and I
realised that I had to do something: simply being an observer would
not satisfy my emerging ambitions. Eventually, I became the manager
of the nature reserve that was the source of my inspiration:
Skomer, the most wonderful, wild. Atlantic Welsh island. It was my
home for 10 years, and will always remain my spiritual haven. In
Wales we talk of cynefin. There is no English equivalent. It
means 'the land or place where a person belongs', and is quite
different to the concept of 'land that we own'.Skomer is my
cynefin".
It was on Skomer that we both grappled with the
relationship between ecology and conservation and how good practice
can by passed on. Mikes solution was
management planning.
"First, I concentrated on the management
activities, describing, programming and organising all the work
that should be done. Then I returned 10 the questions: why are we
here; why are we doing these things; what are we trying to achieve;
how will we know when, or if, we achieve our objectives? I then
revisited and reorganised the activities. Planning, or at least
planning as I understood it, became: why are we here; what have we
got; what is important; what do we want; what must we do; what
should we monitor?"
Personally, for over a quarter of a century, I
have seen the CMS develop from a 'back of the envelope' idea to
improve local conservation operations on Skomer Island, to today's
state of the art planning and recording software for adaptive
management. Because of the historical dominance of Welsh managers
in developing the software for a conservation management system
(CMS), the training and educational materials have always been
exemplified by plans for habitats and species in Wales. This fact
has meant that for several decades Wales has been seen as punching
above its weight in international nature conservation. To my
knowledge there is no other conservation management system with
this kind of grass-roots pedigree that meets global standards of
planning logic.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=H61WGyVqHX4C&pg=PR19&lpg=PR19&dq=%22As+a+13-year-old+schoolboy+alexander&source=bl&ots=zAvSjG3g-n&sig=B15jdB1f9pIvfdVVvMxctbFiFtY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xBSCVJihNqaQ7AbX04HQCQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22As%20a%2013-year-old%20schoolboy%20alexander&f=false
