Middlewick has been used as a firing range by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for generations. It’s predominantly a biodiverse green space, like Fingringhoe Wick, the Essex Wildlife Trust reserve nearby. One of the last significant remaining pieces of undisturbed lowland acid grassland in the country, it provides a habitat for nightingales, skylarks, rare invertebrates and many other species. When Middlewick isn’t under fire, it’s a wildlife haven. We in Colchester have been lucky to share at least some of this space, some of the time, for recreation when the MoD aren’t using it.
Most of the wildlife, though, lives there permanently…
The resident wildlife on their sites has been a source of pride for the MoD; indeed, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) produce Sanctuary magazine every year featuring many conservation success stories on MoD-owned land. In the 20 online editions since 2004, however, Middlewick is conspicuous by its absence. This may be because its biodiversity is slightly less obvious than, for example, the great bustards on Salisbury Plain.
For sale
In 2016, Middlewick was deemed surplus to the MoD’s requirements and a sale was actively considered. It was proposed for housing under the council’s Local Plan which locals, experts and nature organisations alike contested. The issue led to the freshly launched Buglife petition.
The part played by the MoD’s financial need in the proposed sale has not been fully disclosed, but everyone will be aware that land viable for housing development is likely to fetch a premium price…
Save the Wick campaign
The MoD responded to the campaign by commissioning an ecology report with a survey of its biodiversity. This appears to be a gross understatement of the biodiversity of the Wick. The campaign mobilised an impressive coalition of wildlife experts and representative bodies to countersign a letter which emphatically deconstructed the report.
Nightingales and skylarks
Middlewick is home to the UK’s second premier population of the melodious nightingale. An unmissable delight! If you stand in the right spot during late April or May, five or six can be heard simultaneously. And yet, judging by the ecological report which launched Middlewick onto the Local Plan, the MoD were unaware of the nightingales’ presence. They could have asked any dog walker.
Then there’s the skylark. A bird which will often sing, hovering high above its grassy territory on a calm, sunny day, often outside the breeding season. It’s a bird which nests on the ground between April and August, so care must be taken not to accidentally destroy nests and chicks. They are in serious decline, with a 63% drop in numbers since 1967. It is on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern, like the nightingale. So recently there was huge dismay at what appeared to be a sabotage of the skylarks’ attempts to breed in their regular haunt.
What sabotage?
In July, a senior ecologist providing advice and support to the Save the Wick campaign was called to attend a tractor cutting the meadows where many have seen skylarks breeding. The response to his assertion that skylarks might be killed and nests destroyed was an astonishing claim that there are “no skylarks on the Wick”. Worse, he was met with a rather robust response from security, a matter now under police investigation.
Initially, police seemed to support the complaint of a breach of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981). However, ten days later when the tractor returned, they were less sympathetic. At first “there were no skylarks”. When overwhelming evidence was provided of skylark presence including video evidence of territorial behaviour singing and feeding of chicks from several weeks of surveys, the justification for cutting during the breeding season moved to the question of ‘intent’.
Knowing – or having been shown evidence – that nesting birds are present, does the land owner and machine operator have to set out with intent to kill and injure skylark chicks? Or is the very act of mowing with knowledge that nests will be destroyed a sufficient signal of intent and a breach of the Act? This is a technical discussion beyond the scope of this article – but from the unfortunate skylarks’ perspective this distinction would appear rather academic. Their chicks are lost either way. And seeing parent skylarks searching for their disappeared young on newly-mown land is heart-breaking.
What now?
Readers can draw their own thoughts on the above, but this does raise some interesting questions for those charged with taking responsible action to address the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency (some might argue that is all of us) and those charged with defending the nation.
I’ll write again later with an update on saving the skylarks, but perhaps the rhetorical question I’ll leave you with is this: If the MoD is there to save the nation from destruction, is the destruction of the ecosystem on their territory not in conflict with this duty?
