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NEWSLETTER No. 5 -  Summer 1981

WEST MIDLANDS BRANCH, BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION

 

Book Review

Butterfly Watching by Paul Whalley.
Published by Severn House, at £7.95

This new book by Paul Whalley is different in character to most butterfly books on the market, in that it does not concentrate primarily on identification but on butterfly behaviour. Its aim is to stimulate amateur enthusiasts into observing butterflies in the field more closely and filling some of the gaps in our knowledge about their requirements if they are to survive in the wild. A number of practical projects are suggested which should provide plenty of food for thought for B.B.C.S. members, and certainly some of the suggestions need to be seriously considered in terms of future activities for the West Midlands' Branch. The book is well illustrated with a generally excellent standard of photographs and there are useful sections on breeding, attracting butterflies into the garden and photography. The emphasis is very much on conservation and the important role the layman can play through patient observation and study. Members will be pleased to note that the B.B.C.S. is listed amongst "useful addresses" in one of the appendices. The main reservation I have about the book is its price: £7.95 seems rather a lot to pay even these days for a book of less than 200 pages.

 

The Common Ground by Richard Mabey
Published by Hutchinson at £8.95

This excellent and challenging book should be read by all concerned in nature conservation. Richard Mabey demonstrates how rural land-use in the past contributed to the diversity of our wildlife but how this situation has now markedly changed with the adoption of a series of what he describes as "unstable monocultures". The book documents in some detail how in some cases virtual overnight changes to the landscape wiped away centuries of continuity. Where this has been prevented it has been increasingly through the purchase of a particular site by a conservation body. Mabey however, is critical of a nature conservation policy which concentrates wholly on the creation of reserves, particularly when those reserves are to be closed and only to be enjoyed by a small elite. Instead he argues that we need to see the fate of wildlife as inextricably tied up with our own, and that conservation touches on the quality of our lives. The way forward is through the adoption of an imaginative rural land-use policy of which nature conservation is an integral part. Endeavouring to make conservation pay for itself, putting land to its optimum rather than its maximum use, taking advantage of the general public's demand for access to the countryside are all the kinds of issues he urges us to consider. Certainly, some will find the author's views controversial, but the issues he raises are the right ones and they deserve the widest possible audience.