Author: Sean McCormack (Page 1 of 2)

PRESS RELEASE: Ealing Beaver Project backed by Mayor of London’s Rewild London Fund!

March 20, 2023 / Sean McCormack / 0 Comments

PRESS RELEASE: Ealing Beaver Project backed by Mayor of London’s Rewild London Fund!

For press enquiries contact:
Sean McCormack 07754 147 656
hello@ealingwildlifegroup.com

Beavers set to return to urban London landscape in a publicly accessible
reintroduction site in Ealing!

Eurasian beavers, one of the most impactful, native ecosystem engineers will be returning to Ealing for the first time in 400 years. This collaborative project will give people access to a rewilded landscape to experience firsthand these animals’ incredible abilities to create nature rich wetlands. As a fully accessible site, this project stands to be the first of its kind in an urban setting in the UK. As wild populations in Kent and Oxfordshire inevitably move closer to London, this is an incredibly important component of the project, preparing people to live alongside this species once again. Not only will it give people the chance to learn about these animals and their incredible behaviours but will provide key learnings on how we can coexist together.

Ahead of the reintroduction, Paradise Fields, a ten-hectare area of woodland and wetlands in urban Greenford in the north of the borough, has undergone a feasibility study to get baseline data on existing wildlife. Just last month, our licence application to Natural England, which was supported by the Beaver Trust, was accepted. Since then, we are delighted to have received funding from the Mayor of London as part of his Rewild London 2 Fund. This support will drive the project forward through physical preparation of the site, baseline ecological surveys and establishing monitoring activity and community engagement.

The project is a collaboration between Ealing Wildlife Group, Citizen Zoo, Friends of Horsenden Hill and Ealing Council with support from Beaver Trust. Its core objectives will be:

To return beavers to an urban setting for the first time in over 400 years for their intrinsic value to nature.
To show how we can manage beavers in the urban context including monitoring
flood mitigation effects in an urban river catchment.
To enable their natural ability to create new, better and more ecologically inclusive habitat for a wide range of other species, on-site, with a view to later reintroduce threatened water voles, now considered locally extinct
To show how people in urban areas can coexist with these charismatic animals in a way that will allow us to scale these efforts throughout the rest of London

In recent weeks, the team has been busy working with the local community to prepare the site for fence installation. This has involved removing trees and shrubs around the perimeter of the site to provide access for vehicles and machinery. By preparing the site now, the team is targeting a date as early as autumn this year to release a pair of beavers onto the site. Once released, a short period of site closure will give the new arrivals time to settle and acclimatise, after which it will be open to the public to experience an immersive beaver landscape. Paradise Fields is a 10-hectare site in the Greenford area of Ealing.

Dr Sean McCormack, vet and Chair of Ealing Wildlife Group says:
“Many people assume beavers are a wilderness species, when in fact we’ve just forgotten how closely we used to live alongside them. We’re so excited to study how beavers interact with an urban river catchment and, crucially, with urban communities. Beavers are a keystone species, manipulating habitat to create biodiverse wetlands where many other species can thrive. Their activities can help combat and adapt to impacts of climate change through carbon capture, reduce flood risk by slowing water flow in times of high rainfall and mitigate drought by holding more water on the land.”

Elliot Newton, co-founder of Citizen Zoo welcomed the beaver licence approval and funding announcement, commenting:
“We are hoping to challenge perceptions, and demonstrate how London too, can embrace these ecosystem engineers as we strive for a healthier, wilder future in which our Capital can become a leader in urban rewilding. This will greatly benefit not only wildlife populations but local communities too.”

Head of Restoration at Beaver Trust, Dr Roisín Campbell-Palmer was also pleased to hear of the licence approval, stating:
“Now that beavers are back in Britain, learning to coexist with them is fundamental to the species’ successful restoration. We look forward to continuing to support the team to make the most of this superbly located site.”

Further Information

Project Partners:

Ealing Wildlife Group are a local community conservation group and applied for the project licence from Natural England. They are focused on bringing nature back to urban areas and engaging local people with green spaces. They have spearheaded a number of other successful conservation projects in the area including driving the increase in birds of prey in the borough, developing a community nature reserve and reintroducing the threatened Harvest Mouse to
the borough after local extinction.

Citizen Zoo is a social enterprise harnessing the power of community for urban nature conservation and rewilding. They set up the London Beaver Working Group to explore the possibilities of beavers returning to or being reintroduced back into London. They have also been successful in their own reintroduction programmes for Water Voles on the Hogsmill River in Kingston and the Large Marsh Grasshopper in Norfolk. In 2022 they began restoring Kingston’s largest nature reserve by adopting rewilding principles.

Friends of Horsenden Hill are a community of volunteers dedicated to preserving the cultural and natural heritage of historic Horsenden Farm, Hill, Wood and Meadows. They support a cooperative of enterprises including coppicing and hedge laying, forest school, community Orchards, vegetable growing alongside mental health charity Mindfood, a brewery, a bakery and much more. They also help support regenerative conservation projects including a small holding with rare breed livestock conservation grazing in collaboration with the site Ranger and other initiatives with Ealing council and Ealing Wildlife Group.

Ealing Council have pledged to support the project by sponsoring the initial outlay on infrastructure such as fencing, gates and grilles to enclose the site. This project will benefit a variety of priority species on Ealing’s Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) including Water Voles and Great Crested Newts. Of particular interest to the Council and local residents, hydrological modelling has indicated that this project may significantly reduce flooding downstream around Greenford Station and surrounding streets.

Beaver Trust is a climate and nature restoration charity restoring beavers to regenerate our landscapes. They provide practical solutions to help people live alongside beavers and support legislation that rebuilds ecosystems and strengthens climate resilience in a time of ecological and climate crisis.

For more information visit beavertrust.org

Media contact: Eva Bishop – 07733171883 / info@beavertrust.org

Key quotes:

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said:
“We are now facing dual climate and ecological emergencies worldwide, which further threaten our ability to survive on our planet. Despite the harm inflicted on the natural world, we have the power to make amends, and I am committed to ensuring that London is at the vanguard of efforts to reverse the trends of
declining biodiversity and the destruction of nature.”

“Rewilding allows nature to take the lead and is an exciting way to create healthier ecosystems and allow humans and wildlife to live together more harmoniously. I’m proud that London is leading the way once again and excited to see what can be achieved with this further £1m of funding. We’re cleaning up our city, re-establishing lost species and reconnecting people and nature as we build a greener, fairer city for all Londoners.”

Licence applicant Dr Sean McCormack, vet and Chair of Ealing Wildlife Group, believes that communities and councils can work together to create suitable space for wildlife, and that the Ealing Beaver Project can demonstrate how urban rewilding projects can help connect diverse, urban communities with the value of nature.

Dr McCormack said:
“Many people assume beavers to be a wilderness species, but in fact we’ve just forgotten how closely we used to live alongside them. And we’ve forgotten the rich tapestry of life they can bring as engineers of healthy ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems clean our water and air, reduce flooding and drought, capture
carbon to tackle climate change and boost biodiversity. We’re so excited that our site, Paradise Fields, has been considered suitable and granted this licence to study how beavers interact with an urban river catchment but crucially also with urban communities being able to experience them on their doorstep. We’re itching to get started and to get the community further involved too.”

Elliot Newton, co-founder of Citizen Zoo sees this as a unique opportunity to put cities and urban rewilding on the map:
“Across Europe and North America, beavers are known to thrive alongside urban communities. Bringing a range of benefits from increasing the resilience to the challenges of climate breakdown and enriching people’s daily lives, as they encounter these magnificent mammals in their local greenspaces. Here we
are hoping to challenge perceptions of Londoners and demonstrate how London too, can embrace these ecosystem engineers as we strive for a healthier, wilder future in which our Capital can become a leader in urban rewilding. Which will greatly benefit not only wildlife populations but local communities too”.

Jon Staples, the Ealing Council park ranger for the site is thrilled to be part of a pioneering urban rewilding project that will see volunteers taking ownership and to explore a new way of thinking, turning some traditional land management practices on their head.

Jon said:
“As humans we manage urban green spaces for public wellbeing and for wildlife, but this will be a unique opportunity to let the wildlife engineer a landscape with minimal intervention from us. We will step back and leave it to the beavers to do what they’ve done for tens of thousands of years. It will be a fascinating journey.”

Martin Smith, former Ealing park ranger and Chair of Friends of Horsenden Hill Chair said:
“The Friends of Horsenden Hill are excited to be involved in this first truly urban London beaver reintroduction and look forward to the day they arrive.”

Dr Roisín Campbell-Palmer, Head of Restoration at the Beaver Trust and licenced ecologist supporting the project believes the Ealing project to be truly unique, offering new insights not previously seen in more rural reintroduction projects.

Dr Campbell-Palmer said:
“It’s been wonderful to watch the project team involve the Ealing community as the project developed. Now that beavers are back in Britain, learning to coexist with them is fundamental to the species’ successful restoration. We look forward to continuing to support the team to make the most of this superbly located site.”

A fundraising appeal has been started to support further infrastructure costs and ongoing delivery costs. If you would like to contribute to this exciting urban rewilding project, you can find the donations page here: https://www.citizenzoo.org/get-involved/appeal-page/.

If you would like to watch a webinar on London Beaver reintroduction to hear more about this exciting project, you can find it on YouTube:

EWG x JE Delve: Engaging Future Conservationists With Urban Nature

March 18, 2023 / Sean McCormack / 0 Comments

EWG x JE Delve: Engaging Future Conservationists With Urban Nature

I had the absolute pleasure of giving a guided tour of Horsenden today to two bright young students, Leshae and Kishan from the late Jamal Edwards’ Acton youth group, JE Delve. Both are interested in biology and nature conservation.

They got a behind the scenes tour of the Harvest Mice project with mousewife extraordinaire Lesley Burgess, and we checked some Kestrel and Owl nestboxes and talked about meadow management for biodiversity.

Another group from JE Delve will be joining us at Costons next Saturday for a tour and to plant our new disease resistant Elm tree from Elms4London in Jamal’s honour.

EWG & JE Delve were set to collaborate in 2020 but the pandemic halted plans, and then again last year before Jamal sadly died. We look forward to picking up plans now and honouring his legacy helping to facilitate youth engagement with urban nature.

https://www.jedelve.com

Sean’s speech, cut short at Warren Farm Scrutiny meeting

February 23, 2023 / Sean McCormack / 6 Comments

Dr Sean McCormack, Chair of Ealing Wildlife Group speaking outside town hall to the protest gathering

On Tuesday 21st February 2023 EWG Chair Dr Sean McCormack spoke at the Warren Farm Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) meeting called in by leader of the opposition, Liberal Democrat’s Cllr Gary Malcolm. Unfortunately, despite the first speaker Dr Mark A. Spencer speaking for nearly six minutes without interruption, Sean was told he was “well over time” by the Chair after just 3 minutes 25 seconds. Continuing, and only needing a short time to close his statement he was cut off just 7 seconds later when Labour Cllr Deirdre Costigan defending the Cabinet under scrutiny took her own microphone into her hands, and gave a shrug when the sound was cut. Suspicious? You decide, you can view here:

Incidentally Cllr Costigan was allowed to speak to defend her proposal to destroy rewilded Warren farm for sports facilities for 5 minutes 36 seconds before the Chair interjected, and the crowd objected, after which she continued for a further 90 seconds. So in the interests of not being censored, accidentally or otherwise, here is the full transcript including closing remarks that the scrutiny committee failed to offer Sean time to share after this rather unlucky and oddly timed ‘technical glitch’ with microphones:

“Warren Farm Nature Reserve doesn’t need Natural England’s sign off to be recognised as one of the most precious wildlife hotspots in Ealing. If we lose it we lose an extensive area of wide-open, grassland meadow habitat the likes of which cannot be found elsewhere.

We would, it’s true, lose Ealing’s only breeding Skylarks, that account for a significant proportion of London’s breeding population. But this is not just about Skylarks, a little brown bird that sings a nice song. I know lots of you listening tonight are wondering “what’s all the fuss about Skylarks?” Well, Skylarks are a symbol of wild open landscapes, a symbol of times when our countryside was richer for its abundance, humming with life, not depleted, grey and silent. They are an indicator species for the overall health of intact, vibrant ecosystems and for many other less visible or audible species. To have them breeding in Ealing is a jewel in Ealing’s crown. And an asset for this Council’s green credentials. Councillors, eliminate them at your own risk, it will be a PR disaster for this leadership. And despite what was said in the recent Cabinet meeting, they do not breed in any significant numbers across the road in Osterley Farm, nor will they survive on the crumbs of Warren Farm left behind if these plans go ahead. Incidentally they don’t “enjoy long vistas” either.

But let’s get off the topic of Skylarks, there are many other species that rely on this space in our increasingly urbanised landscape and that the Council’s own Biodiversity Action Plan promises to protect and enhance habitat for:

Linnets
Barn Owls
Peregrine Falcons
Swifts
House Sparrows
Bats
Hedgehogs
Slow Worms
Grass Snakes
Common Toads (not so common anymore!)
Pollinators, Invertebrates and wildflowers galore.

All important, and all to suffer or die out if we keep chipping away at their habitat.

The proposed development is in breach of Ealing Council’s BAP but also its own Climate & Ecological Emergency Strategy. The Council’s own Local Plan red-flags the loss of biodiversity, habitat and green space in a parks-depleted area.

The addition of the Imperial College land to the proposed nature reserve would not mitigate this loss. And it is entirely misleading to suggest it would. To label this one of London’s biggest rewilding projects when it will obliterate almost half of already rewilded Warren Farm is a total nonsense. Having recently been through the process for a genuine rewilding project reintroducing beavers to the urban landscape at Paradise Fields, I can tell you Natural England are not likely to look favourably on ecological destruction dressed up as rewilding. It’s greenwashing, plain and simple.

Public and expert opinion is firmly against this proposal.

Since Ealing Council published its plans on 17th January, another 5,000 people have signed the petition asking for Local Nature Reserve status for the entire site, taking the total currently to over 19,000.

A number of high-profile experts, wildlife organisations and charities have criticised the decision and supported the Warren Farm Nature Reserve campaign.

London Wildlife Trust have said they could run the entire site as a LNR and can get funding to do it. An offer to sponsor the site for rewilding has come through Rewilding Britain, brokered by myself to Cllrs Costigan and Mason, yet it wasn’t entertained.

In a climate and biodiversity emergency where wild spaces are being fragmented, depleted and destroyed bit by bit, we cannot chip away at these precious remnants of nature and claim it’s in the best interests of our children and future generations. This space is just too precious to ruin with sports facilities that could be accommodated elsewhere. The proposals are untenable. We need to go back to the drawing board to actually achieve a “win-win” for sports and nature in Southall. This could be a flagship rewilding project that puts Ealing on the map.

Ealing Wildlife Group are willing to collaborate positively to achieve these aims, but we are not willing to stand back and watch a misleading narrative carry out ecocide on one of our richest habitats, or be told that we don’t care about children’s futures for wanting to protect that.

Thank you. “

Wildlife presenters speak out on Ealing Council plans to de-wild & destroy Warren Farm Nature Reserve

February 15, 2023 / Sean McCormack / 3 Comments

Ealing Council’s proposal for sports facilities at Warren Farm must be reconsidered. There are much better alternatives for sports provision that will not destroy wild green spaces that are vital for our wellbeing. Spaces that are also vital for our threatened wildlife like red listed Skylarks, Swifts and Linnets, Bats, Barn Owls, Slow Worms and other species clinging on in this country, one of the most nature depleted in the world. We cannot continue to chip, chip, chip away at our remaining fragments of wild spaces and pretend this is in the interest of our children and future generations. We need nature, and sports. And Ealing Council’s plans are pitting one against the other. It is not a ‘win-win’ for all and they are not listening to local experts, the local community, their own Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy or their own Biodiversity Action Plan.

If you care about nature and want to save it for our children’s future, with provision sports facilities in more suitable locations than rewilded, biodiverse meadow habitat then please take one or all of these actions:

Sign the petition here: https://bit.ly/3HR1Y0J
Write to our local councillors urging them to withdraw their support for the current destructive plans, full list is below to copy and paste
Come join us in a protest at Ealing Town Hall on Tuesday February 21st at 5.30pm.

Full list of local Councillors to email here:

ahmedshah@ealing.gov.uk

kohlis@ealing.gov.uk

aysha.raza@ealing.gov.uk

bainska@ealing.gov.uk

ranjit.dheer@ealing.gov.uk

MidhaM@ealing.gov.uk

gallantju@ealing.gov.uk

seema.kumar@ealing.gov.uk

anthony.young@ealing.gov.uk

anandp@ealing.gov.uk

jon.ball@ealing.gov.uk

herschc@ealing.gov.uk

katherine.crawford@ealing.gov.uk

DonnellyS@ealing.gov.uk

hitesh.tailor@ealing.gov.uk

alexanderv@ealing.gov.uk

Harbhajan.Dheer@ealing.gov.uk

anthony.kelly@ealing.gov.uk

Contifa@ealing.gov.uk

gregory.stafford@ealing.gov.uk

zissimosa@Ealing.gov.uk

yoel.gordon@ealing.gov.uk

hamidim@ealing.gov.uk

knewstubp@ealing.gov.uk

swaran.padda@ealing.gov.uk

SahotaK@ealing.gov.uk

karam.mohan@ealing.gov.uk

daniel.crawford@ealing.gov.uk

hailiho@ealing.gov.uk

hashanib@ealing.gov.uk

iqbalmu@ealing.gov.uk

Amarjit.Jammu@ealing.gov.uk

shital.manro@ealing.gov.uk

brettl@ealing.gov.uk

TigheC@ealing.gov.uk

ray.wall@ealing.gov.uk

DriscollP@ealing.gov.uk

kingstoni@ealing.gov.uk

nagpalk@ealing.gov.uk

costigand@ealing.gov.uk

Ricem@ealing.gov.uk

chris.summers@ealing.gov.uk

bassam.mahfouz@ealing.gov.uk

dee.martin@ealing.gov.uk

lauren.wall@ealing.gov.uk

martinj@ealing.gov.uk

murtazag@ealing.gov.uk

sidhut@ealing.gov.uk

munir.ahmed@ealing.gov.uk

tariq.mahmood@ealing.gov.uk

charan.sharma@ealing.gov.uk

baaklinir@ealing.gov.uk

nijhari@ealing.gov.uk

wessonb@ealing.gov.uk

andersonc@ealing.gov.uk

blackerj@ealing.gov.uk

johnsoy1@ealing.gov.uk

khansar@ealing.gov.uk

kamaljit.nagpal@ealing.gov.uk

anandj@ealing.gov.uk

kamaljit.dhindsa@ealing.gov.uk

peter.mason@ealing.gov.uk

jassals@ealing.gov.uk

mohamedf@ealing.gov.uk

busuttilg@ealing.gov.uk

gary.malcolm@ealing.gov.uk

andrew.steed@ealing.gov.uk

quansahg@ealing.gov.uk

binda.rai@ealing.gov.uk

gareth.shaw@ealing.gov.uk

WFNR-ealing-councillors-mailing-list-Jan-2023.xlsx-Sheet1 Download

Imperial College land & Warren Farm ‘rewilding’. A plea to Councillors to vote no & start over.

January 25, 2023 / Sean McCormack / 1 Comment

Imperial College have come out with a statement today saying they have no plans for sports grounds on their land in the controversy surrounding Ealing Council’s ambitious plans for sports and ‘rewilding’ at Warren Farm. The truth is that Imperial College land entering the scheme is currently a trashed, horse grazed paddock next door to Warren Farm. The Council can only get away with calling this entire scheme ‘rewilding’ because they are going to allow this single paddocked area to rewild. It will take 10-15 years. Many species will be lost in that time. Meanwhile Warren Farm itself has been rewilding for well over a decade and is now an incredibly precious ecosystem as a result of that time for nature to recover. Destroying half of Warren Farm for soccer pitches nobody needs and cricket pitches that could be placed elsewhere is not acceptable in a climate and biodiversity crisis.

Imperial College are being used as pawns in this flagrant ‘up yours’ to the Council’s own Biodiversity Action Plan and as tokenistic mitigation. It’s like chopping up ancient woodland with 500 year old Oak trees and saying you’ll plant the same number of Oak saplings in their place. It’s simply not equivalent and makes no sense when we have alternative sites for sports available. Biodiversity value comes with scale, intactness and age. It’s also not a good look for an organisation like Imperial hoping to boost their green credentials so I would strongly advise their legal and PR team take a closer look at how this will impact their reputation.

Council leaders are quite incredibly pushing through a plan tonight which has been vocally opposed by the majority of respondents in their public consultation, over 15,000 respondents to the Warren Farm Nature Reserve petition, our 5,500 members of Ealing Wildlife Group and most worryingly they’ve shown they don’t have a clue about very basic ecological principles. Nor it seems will they listen to experts or evidence on the matter. It begs the question why they are stubbornly proceeding with a plan that virtually everyone but them objects to? Is there an ulterior motive? How is it acceptable to ignore and silence objection on this, and then brazenly state it’s democratic. It boggles the mind.

I’m all for social justice and new sports facilities for children and communities in need, but in appropriate locations that don’t destroy incredibly complex ecosystems and rare species. Ones that cannot exist elsewhere and cannot survive on the crumbs left behind when this Council barges its plans through effectively halving the space for Skylarks, Barn Owls, rare plants, Slow Worms, Bats and all the people that want to enjoy Warren Farm as it is. The fact is they won’t survive. A vital urban oasis needs protection. Chipping away bit by bit at these last refuges are why we are one of the most nature depleted countries in the world!

There is still a chance to halt these plans and start from scratch with a solution that favours sports for children as well as saving our last Skylarks and all the other species that rely on this land. I challenge Councillors voting tonight to vote no and let’s start discussions together from scratch, respectfully and collaboratively. Let’s bring children from Southall schools to Warren Farm together and teach them about the unique wildlife that lives there. And let’s ask them if they’d like cricket and football pitches to be installed there, or at one of the 7 other sites earmarked as suitable in the Council’s sports review last July. One of the seven sites that are wholly more suitable and won’t destroy the precious little urban nature we have left.

Our Council leaders say they have to find a compromise. This is the only acceptable compromise.

Dr Sean McCormack BSc (Hons), MVB, MRCVS

Founder & Chair, Ealing Wildlife Group

An EWG statement on the proposed future of Warren Farm

January 20, 2023 / Sean McCormack / 3 Comments

Following publication of plans (https://www.aroundealing.com/news/warren-farm-nature) to reinstate sports facilities at Warren Farm by Ealing Council leader Cllr Peter Mason which claims the compensation will be Local Nature Reserve (LNR) status for the remainder and a newly acquired field alongside, we wish to put out a response ASAP:

“I’m very disappointed that our leaders are pushing on with plans to destroy half of one our most biodiverse habitats in the borough, home to many rare species and the only site in Ealing where Skylarks can breed, a red listed bird of highest conservation concern. Having contributed to Ealing’s Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) which vows to protect and enhance habitat for this rare bird it’s shocking to hear that it’s apparently either Skylarks or sports facilities for children. This is disingenuous and misleading. We can have both. It’s also extremely concerning to see a real misuse of the term ‘rewilding’ when the plans involve the opposite, de-wilding. Warren Farm has already rewilded. It’s ecocide to undo that process.

Warren Farm is not the place for sports facilities. And Natural England will categorically not grant this plan for Local Nature Reserve status when it will cause local extinction of this precious Skylark population if it goes ahead. There are lots of sports grounds that children can use, and far more suitable sites to make new ones that won’t obliterate nature on such a concerning scale. There’s only one place in Ealing where we can show children Skylarks, an indicator species for a really rich and valuable ecosystem. I’m sure many children would agree to save this amazing natural asset we are lucky to have on our doorstep, and if they had a vote, would ask their Council leader Peter Mason to reconsider this ill thought out plan. It’s stubborn, ignoring the overwhelming consensus of the local community and undermining democracy at worst, and ecologically illiterate at best.

The Council needs to listen to experts on this if their Climate and Ecological Emergency policy or Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) mean anything at all. Skylarks, Barn Owls, Slow Worms, rare plants and insects, Bats and many other threatened species rely on this whole vast site to thrive, not a damaged portion of it left after new sports facilities swallow it up and leave the remainder for wildlife to share and make do with alongside a more concentrated public using the site currently for exercise, recreation and enjoying nature. The remainder will be a poor replacement and wholly unsuitable for Skylarks who need the large scale meadows currently there to avoid predators, as they are vulnerable ground nesting birds.

I’m urgently meeting with Cllr Deirdre Costigan and head of parks Chris Bunting next week to discuss implementation of the BAP and how we have got to this stage with Warren Farm as well as wider targets to protect and improve Biodiversity across the whole borough. Ealing Wildlife Group has been very collaborative with the Council over the years to achieve these aims together so we are extremely concerned for our collaborative future with this announcement. I would urge all Councillors to seek expert advice before believing some of the PR spin here being touted as a victory for Warren Farm and its wildlife when the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.

Dr Sean McCormack BSc (Hons), MVB, MRCVS

Founder & Chair, Ealing Wildlife Group”

More information here: https://www.warrenfarmnaturereserve.co.uk/blog/ggbikuhfj677hdrecokz4xubtiawxy

Beaver Update!

November 2, 2022 / Sean McCormack / 0 Comments

Beaver Update

Ealing Beaver Day

May 13, 2022 / Sean McCormack / 0 Comments

On Thursday May 26th at 7pm we’re delighted to be hosting our friends from Beaver Trust at Horsenden Farm (Horsenden Ln N, Horsenden, Greenford UB6 7PQ) to give an evening talk followed by a panel discussion to answer some of the questions and concerns arising from our public consultation on beaver reintroduction in Ealing. Our project partners Citizen Zoo, Friends of Horsenden Hill and Ealing Council will be there too to answer questions and join the discussion. Gathering in the courtyard from 7pm, Perivale brewery will be open to provide refreshments. Talk starts at 7.30pm.

Translocated Eurasian Beaver (Photo: Roisin Campbell-Palmer, Beaver Trust)

Earlier in the day we’re hosting a couple of guided tour talks and walks at Paradise Fields to explain our proposed beaver reintroduction in situ. We expect to see and hear lots of wildlife. All welcome. 1pm and 5pm for guided walks starting at the underpass from Westway Retail Park (via McDonalds car park, postcode UB6 0UW), but drop by all day from 1pm.

Paradise Fields aerial view (Photo: James Morton)

Would you like to host Swift nest boxes with your neighbours? We’re looking for Swift street champions!

May 10, 2022 / Sean McCormack / 0 Comments

In recent days the Swifts are arriving back in Ealing! We have pretty much completed phase one of our Swift project, with about 60 boxes already up and ready for inspection by adult breeding pairs who have returned to find their traditional nest site no longer present or accessible. As well as first year breeding birds looking to set up home.

If anyone would like Swift nest boxes installed as we reach phase two of the project, then drop us a line on hello@ealingwildlifegroup.com with your name, street address and whether you’ve seen swifts or know they are breeding nearby.

For efficiency and cost saving with our contractor we are looking to find Swift champions who will recruit 5-10 neighbours on their street or in the immediate vicinity who would each host 1-3 boxes on their houses. And a calling system or two on each street as well. We hope to get phase two complete by July when young birds will start inspecting potential nest cavities for when they return in 2023.

Phase three will be the individuals who have already been in touch who want boxes they already have erected on their house only, or wish to host one or two of our boxes on their own home. If you can be the Swift champion for your neighbourhood and offer a home for lots of boxes then we can get to you quicker. So get in that neighbourhood Whatsapp or Facebook group and gauge interest.

We would love to host more boxes in Acton, Northolt, Greenford and Southall so offers from these areas will now be prioritised.

More info here:

Could you be an Ealing Swift champion?

Also as always happy to answer questions in comments, but please do read the article first

Members of Ealing Wildlife group, Beaver Trust, London Beaver Working Group, Citizen Zoo, Ealing Council ranger team and Friends of Horsenden Hill at Paradise Fields.

Ealing Beaver Reintroduction Project: statement of intention.

March 17, 2022 / Sean McCormack / 8 Comments

We are excited to announce that we intend to apply for a license from Natural England to reintroduce Eurasian beavers to Ealing in a controlled enclosure trial at Paradise Fields in North Greenford. This is a joint project between Ealing Wildlife Group (EWG), Ealing Council, Citizen Zoo and Friends of Horsenden Hill, supported by experts at the Beaver Trust. Ealing Council have agreed to provide ranger support and partial financial backing from Section 106 developer funding to improve the local environment and provide community benefit. We will be seeking further funding for the project in order to make it happen should our application be successful.

Site scoping visit at Paradise Fields, January 2022. Left to right: Jon Staples (Ealing park ranger), Martin Smith (Friends of Horsenden Hill), Sean McCormack (Ealing Wildlife Group & London Beaver Working Group), Róisín Campbell-Palmer (Beaver Trust), Elliot Newton (Citizen Zoo & London Beaver Working Group), Ben Stockwell (Citizen Zoo & London Beaver Working Group).

Following a series of visits, Paradise Fields has been identified as highly suitable habitat for beaver reintroduction, and as a flagship London rewilding project. The intention is to enclose most of the 10 hectare site and uniquely to allow visitors to enter an immersive experience in a rewilding beaver landscape. Studying the impacts of beavers in the urban landscape in an enclosed trial setting at first is very important before wider free-living beaver reintroduction is considered, or before natural recolonisation occurs over the coming years.

Free living wild beavers are already as close to London as Medway in Kent to the South and Oxfordshire in the west. Natural recolonisation is almost an inevitability. Learning to live alongside beavers is something that landowners, local councils, residents, conservation organisations and other stakeholders are going to have to do in future. And excitingly today, the 17th March 2022, Forty Hall Farm in Enfield released a pair of beavers into a woodland enclosure under license in a joint project by Capel Manor College and Enfield Council, the first beavers to live in London in 400 years.

The key objectives of our proposed project are:

1) Learn to manage beavers in the urban context including monitoring flood mitigation effects in an urban catchment

2) Habitat and biodiversity improvements on site, with a view to later reintroduce water voles, now considered locally extinct

3) Public engagement of local urban communities with nature, biodiversity and nature based solutions/ecosystem services

Public engagement with the proposed beaver reintroduction is absolutely crucial to all involved in the project. We will be asking site users to modify behaviour to some degree like in taking care to close gates, not to litter, to walk dogs on lead, sticking to paths, cyclists will need to dismount to enter and exit, report any fence damage and so on. And for that reason we recognise there may be concerns from local residents or site visitors about a project of this nature, so we are launching a public consultation survey to request feedback, insights and so we can answer any concerns raised. Please do take part in the survey here, where you can also sign up to our beaver project mailing list:

https://forms.gle/mFPmYdkzDTWQCMbJ9

For more information on why beaver reintroduction is being considered in London, and the associated benefits of projects such as this, here’s a talk by our friend and colleague Elliot Newton from Citizen Zoo:

For further information on beavers and the ecosystem services they can provide, please take a look at the Beaver Trust website (https://beavertrust.org/) and the short film ‘Beavers without Borders’:

For more information or press enquiries please contact hello@ealingwildlifegroup.com.

Could you be an Ealing Swift champion?

February 23, 2022 / Sean McCormack / 5 Comments

We’re very excited to have exceeded our funding goal to help save Ealing’s Swifts. If you’re not aware of the campaign you can read more here.

But now, we are looking for interested residents, business and organisations who would be happy to host some of our swift nest boxes ahead of their summer breeding season this year. We’re especially interested in public buildings where they can be enjoyed by many. If you’re interested or have a site in mind please read the following to make sure it’s suitable and then drop us a line on hello@ealingwildlifegroup.com.

By hosting some of our Swift nest boxes you’ll be helping this iconic summer visitor and now red-listed bird remain as a thriving species in the borough of Ealing for future generations to enjoy.

We have a few requirements we hope you can meet to be part of the project which we will outline here. It’s important we have suitable sites and full commitment from one or two Swift champions at each site to ensure the success and sustainability of the project.

As we have had a good response from interested parties, we’re asking that you run through this list and self-select whether you think your site might meet these requirements before we arrange a visit. We’re happy to chat through any concerns or minor points that might not fully satisfy the list on a case by case basis either by email or phone.

Physical requirements:

A North, East or North-East facing wall on a building to erect boxes
Space for at least three, but preferably five boxes at least 0.5m apart
A sheltered position under a ledge or eaves if possible
A drop of at least 5m height underneath each box, free from any physical obstructions to allow young swifts to drop and take their first flight without becoming grounded
In some sites we may wish to host a public education sign or information board to showcase the project and educate about Swift conservation and wider biodiversity

Logistics:

Permission from building owners to erect long lasting nest boxes onto the building, affixed using screws and other hardware drilled into the brick or woodwork
Access to site with high ladders and/or cherry picker equipment as needed
Depending on sites, you may prefer to erect the boxes yourself rather than have our contractor visit to do so (please let us know if this is the case)
Ideally we want to get boxes up by the end of April 2022, but some sites may have to be later (young swifts will still check out boxes put up later in summer)

Swift champions:

One or preferably two people per site who will act as point of contact for us at EWG
Willingness to act as a Swift champion, educating and advocating for Swift conservation at each site and with any residents, occupants, visitors etc
Responsibility to operate calling systems during key periods to attract Swifts to the boxes in the early phase of the project, anticipated to be at least three seasons in early and late summer when Swifts are arriving from and preparing to leave for Africa

Calling systems:

We will supply a small electronic device that plays the sound of Swifts at each site to try to recruit returning adult Swifts that are looking for a nest site or have been displaced from a previous one, as well as young Swifts thinking about a nest site for the following summer
We can also supply a Swift call CD or MP3 digital file for you to play if preferable
Calling systems need to be played in close proximity to the nest boxes to attract passing Swifts to investigate as they like to nest in loose colonies
The electronic box can be placed outside on a wall or window ledge and the wire looped back through a window. It needs to be plugged into a USB socket or plug adaptor in order to work and can be placed on an automatic timer. We can provide what is needed at each site
Calling system volume can be adjusted, but ideally would mimic the natural sounds (and volume) Swifts would make around the nest site anyway
If there are concerns around noise the calling systems can be played at certain times of day only
Ideally they should be played for an hour or two in the morning and evening at peak Swift arrival time in late April/early May, and again when young Swifts are on the wing and preparing to leave in late summer (late July/August)
We can advise on this on a case by case basis, but the use of calling systems for the first few years of a project until Swifts are established in boxes and the site becomes attractive in its own right to passing swifts is a vital part of the success of the project
We’re hoping you can accommodate the calling system until Swifts take up residence but do let us know if there are any concerns about this so we can find a solution that works for everyone

Monitoring:

Any Swift sightings and breeding records should be submitted both to EWG and Greenspace Information for Greater London (GiGL) each year to support ongoing monitoring of Swifts in Ealing
We will set up an easy system to do this
We would also ask that we can visit the site to observe and monitor Swift activity, and if appropriate bring the public to see the boxes if they are successful in attracting breeding Swifts in future

We hope all of the above is reasonable and can be accommodated. Please let us know if your proposed site meets the requirements or get in touch if you have any concerns or queries.

If you have a site in mind or would like to suggest one, ask more questions or volunteer with the project then please drop us a line on hello@ealingwildlifegroup.com

More information on swifts and boxes can be found here:

https://www.swift-conservation.org/

https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/conservation-and-sustainability/safeguarding-species/swiftmapper/about-swifts/

Bringing Beavers back…to Ealing?

January 25, 2022 / Sean McCormack / 9 Comments

Left to right: Jon Staples (Ealing park ranger), Martin Smith (Friends of Horsenden Hill), Sean McCormack (Ealing Wildlife Group & London Beaver Working Group), Róisín Campbell-Palmer (Beaver Trust), Elliot Newton (Citizen Zoo & London Beaver Working Group), Ben Stockwell (Citizen Zoo & London Beaver Working Group).

An exciting meeting of various stakeholders took place on January 17th 2022 to scope out the potential for an urban beaver reintroduction project in London. Ealing Wildlife Group are entering talks to partner with Ealing Council park rangers, Friends of Horsenden Hill and Citizen Zoo to apply for a licence for an enclosed urban beaver reintroduction trial.

Sean McCormack exploring Paradise Fields, one of the proposed locations for a London Beaver reintroduction trial

We recently invited the Beaver Trust, London Beaver Working Group and Citizen Zoo to come and assess the proposed release site, Paradise Fields in Greenford, Ealing. And the feedback was very promising and positive that the site is suitable and our proposal would be supported.

Beavers are coming back in the UK landscape and it won’t be long before they reach more urban areas. Indeed there are already free living beaver populations as close to London as Medway in Kent to the Southeast and Oxfordshire to the West. So we need to learn to live alongside them when they do arrive. An enclosed trial in the urban setting therefore could provide us with a lot of learning opportunities.

We are keen to set up an enclosed urban trial in Ealing to assess and monitor:

how beavers can mitigate flooding in the urban landscape
how urban communities engage with beaver reintroduction, rewilding and wildlife reintroduction
how beavers can alter urban wetland habitats and improve their biodiversity
how beaver-human-landscape conflicts can be mitigated in the urban landscape
how we can bring back other threatened or locally extinct wildlife species such as harvest mice and water voles using beavers as ecosystem engineers

Here is a great talk by our friend at Citizen Zoo, Elliot Newton, explaining why bringing back beavers to London is a good idea:

For further information or press enquiries please contact hello@ealingwildlifegroup.com

Update 21st Dec: Ealing Council have withdrawn Junction 2 proposal. (Ealing Council set to host Junction 2 music festival at Horsenden West meadows)

December 20, 2021 / Sean McCormack / 30 Comments

21/12/21 5pm UPDATE: Ealing Council have now turned down the proposal to host Junction 2 music festival following urgent talks today.

We are angry and disappointed to have learned in recent days that Ealing Council has agreed to host Junction 2, a dance music festival with up to 15,000 attendees at the ecologically important meadows of Horsenden West. The proposal appears to have reached the event planning and approval stage, yet neither Ealing Wildlife Group (EWG) or Friends of Horsenden Hill (FOHH) have been consulted. This despite both groups being significant stakeholders in habitat management decisions and conservation activities on site. Consultation with stakeholders after a decision has been made and permission granted is not a proper consultation.

Please sign our petition asking Ealing Council and Junction 2 to consider another more appropriate location for this festival, and read below for more information on why it should not go ahead at this precious site for Ealing’s wildlife and biodiversity.

Petition: https://chng.it/RLZyRVwg

Horsenden West meadows by Sean McCormack

Junction 2 music Festival main stage. Photography for LWE by ShotAway/ Chris Cooper. shotawaydotcom on instagram

Why is Horsenden West unsuitable to host a music festival?

Horsenden Hill and Horsenden West meadows are a Grade 1 site for London, a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) of the highest priority category – Metropolitan importance, one of 6 such sites in the borough. They are the Queen’s Coronation meadows for London and are outlined as an important site for many priority species in Ealing’s updated but yet to be publicly launched Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). The site is one of the best sites in Ealing for nature conservation and biodiversity with extremely sensitive, rare and threatened flora and fauna, some found nowhere else in the borough. It is a priority site for Local Nature Reserve (LNR) status, something that both FOHH and EWG have advocated for and supported for several years and that Natural England has approved but has yet to be signed off by the Council.

Horsenden West meadows and hedgerows by Caroline Farrow

EWG’s recently launched ‘Rewilding Ealing’ initiative has reintroduced a locally extinct and nationally threatened species, the harvest mouse. Initial efforts have focused on Horsenden West as the best and largest expanse of suitable habitat Ealing has to offer. So far 187 harvest mice have been released here with hundreds more scheduled for release in early 2022.

The meadows are one of the best examples of wildflower-rich grassland in Ealing which has been decades in the making with careful management under a high level stewardship scheme. Over the past 3-4 years as part of EWG’s joint barn owl conservation project with the Council rangers, more of the meadows and field margins are being managed as rough grassland. This is to encourage greater species diversity and crucially to increase small mammal populations. We’ve seen an upsurge in numbers of Kestrels, Little Owls, Red Kites, Barn Owls, weasels and the first reported sighting of a stoat for many years as a result.

What harm will this festival cause?

To host a massive music festival on these sensitive meadows and rough grassland will significantly degrade their value and suitability for all of these species, being trampled underfoot by thousands of revellers. Junction 2 is set to take place on June 3rd and 4th 2022, a sensitive time in the life cycle of both the wildflower meadows and many of the wildlife species they support.

In order to prepare for that timeline we believe significant works to allow site access would need to happen imminently, ahead of the birds’ breeding season. Considering the crew, vehicles, equipment and infrastructure needed for such an event we have no doubt some of the 300 year old hedgerows would need to be removed or at least badly damaged and fragmented. It would also mean that the meadows and rough grassland would need to be mown early, at the peak of the meadow flowering season and butterfly breeding season. Wildflowers would therefore fail to set seed in 2022. Noise and light pollution along with such a level of human disturbance would almost certainly guarantee that any owl chicks in our nest boxes would die as their parents will not be able to provision them with food for two days and nights at this critical time.

Little Owl chicks in an EWG nest box at Horsenden on 14th May 2021.
Photo: Sean McCormack

Could this damage be undone?

This is not damage that can be mitigated for or paid for afterwards as compensation. These precious habitats and ecosystems took years to establish and create. No amount of money from Junction 2 to undo the damage will have them recover. We are living in a climate and biodiversity crisis, something Ealing Council has said they are keen to play a role in addressing. Presumably if this happens in 2022, with all the associated costs and effort to provide infrastructure to host an event of this scale, then this will become an annual event. Altogether devaluing the nature and integrity of the site. The crowds attending this event will undoubtedly have an impact across the site outside the event space itself and in surrounding neighbourhoods too.

Junction 2 Photography for LWE by ShotAway/ Chris Cooper. shotawaydotcom on instagram

Is this a legal matter?

Yes, there are serious legal ramifications for hosting an event like this on such an ecologically important site. Horsenden Hill and Horsenden West are home to various legally protected, rare and threatened species such as Great Crested Newts, Bats, Badgers, Brown Hairstreak Butterflies, Dyer’s Greenweed, Barn Owls, Common Lizards and many more. It is a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation, of the highest priority for protection in London’s biodiversity strategy. We are seeking advice to bring legal action against both Ealing Council and Junction 2 if this goes ahead for directly and indirectly damaging or destroying protected species and their habitats.

Great Crested Newt handled by an ecologist under license at Horsenden.
Photo: Sean McCormack

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

The ask at this point in time is simple. Please sign our petition asking Ealing Council to find an alternative location to host this festival.

Please sign our PETITION here

We would strongly suggest a more urban park with amenity grassland. Horsenden West is not a park, it is a nature reserve and entirely inappropriate for this kind of event. Junction 2 cannot go ahead at Horsenden West meadows.

Signed

Dr Sean McCormack BSc (Hons), MVB, MRCVS

Founder and Chair, Ealing Wildlife Group

Martin Smith

Chair, Friends of Horsenden Hill

‘The Harvest Mouse’ by Maria Lundy

October 31, 2021 / Sean McCormack / 0 Comments

The Harvest Mouse

Running along grasslands green

The smallest rodent goes unseen,

At the woodland edge they stop to feed

On Fruits, flowers, and types of seed

A field of hundreds and there’s more

spread around the farmyard floor

Our fur and white belly reflect our kind

and Camouflage, so we are hard to find,

with rabbits, bats and water vole

we are found near the stoats and European mole.

A field of a hundred and a handful more

spread around the farmyard floor

Builders come and chase us away,

with bricks and houses day by day,

The harvest mice we start to hide

In the ever-decreasing countryside.

A field of fifty and no more

Scattered about the farmyard floor

The fields and farms are fading fast

The beds and hedgerows don’t seem to last,

The cereal crops we cannot see

are left as a lonely plant or tree.

A field of twenty and no more

Scarce about the farmyard floor

So now we are placed around the UK

To conserve our breed and be ok,

Plant us crops, chemical free

Bring your binoculars and look for me,

In fields in Ealing, and plenty more

Around the farmyards, close to your door.

Maria Lundy

EWG’s 5th Annual Wildlife Photography Competition opening soon with brand new categories!

August 26, 2021 / Sean McCormack / 2 Comments

It’s that exciting time of year, for you to go back through your photo archives or get out hurriedly snapping more. Because our photo competition is about to open for entries very soon indeed, for the 5th year running!

And this year we are changing it up a little with some new categories alongside some old favourites. Here they are, so get thinking about what photos you enter. As usual 3 photos per person, they must be from within the Borough of Ealing and taken in the last 5 years. All levels and ages welcome, under 16s have their own category. And many previous winners have been taken on phones so you don’t need expensive gear to take part.

Urban Nature
Relationships with Nature
Up Close and Personal
Young Wildlife Explorers (Under 16’s)

And brand new this year…

5. Abstract Nature

6. Community Conservation

More info to come soon! Watch this space.

Heather from Calderglen on Ealing’s Harvest Mice

August 26, 2021 / Sean McCormack / 0 Comments

Heather Ryce releasing her captive bred harvest mice at Horsenden West meadows

“Conservation work involves the protection, preservation or restoration of nature and biodiversity, not a task one would immediately associate with Instagram or TikTok. However, more and more we are utilising social media platforms to share ideas and information, organise events and have conversations with one another regarding wildlife and the environment. It’s blending our very primal need to be one with nature with our newly evolved reliance on technology, and in most cases, it is working to the benefit of the natural world.

In the case of releasing endangered captive-bred harvest mice back in Ealing we have Instagram Stories to thank. No, really.

I have followed Dr Sean McCormack and Ealing Wildlife Group on social media for a while. I was inspired by the passion and innovation of both and drawn back each time on my phone by the community spirit and the sharing of wildlife photographs and information.

When Sean posted on his Instagram about a new project to return harvest mice back in a suitable habitat and monitor their population I paused my Netflix show, put my glass of red wine back on the coffee table and furiously began constructing my reply. I had to be involved.

I work as an Animal Keeper and Education Officer at a small zoo in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. We care for a very successful breeding group of harvest mice and had been on the look out for a while for a project to introduce our mice back into the wild, as we were reaching maximum capacity in their enclosure.

Some of the first Calderglen mice installed in EWG’s brand new captive breeding programme HQ

We had explored options in the past, but nothing seemed to work out or last. I wanted a project that Calderglen could fully get behind and believe in, and that gave our Scottish mice the best chance at surviving.

After talks with Sean I knew the area chosen for their release and the people involved offered the harvest mice the best chance at restoring a wild population in Ealing. A species that hasn’t been recorded there since the late 1970s. It was time for that to change.

After a couple of months of more conversations and planning with Sean the morning arrived for the long journey down to London. I plucked the fittest mice from the safety of their captivity, clinging unknowingly to their corkscrew hazel branch and silently wished each one good luck as I placed them into the travel box, awaiting a life of freedom only wild animals understand.

It’s not lost on me the control humans have over non-human species and even though in my heart I knew I was doing the right thing for the conservation of harvest mice, looking at each individual twitching face, I also battled with doubt if it was what they would want.

It may seem silly, after all how could a mouse possibly understand the concept of consent and the importance of its little life in the preservation of its entire species, but it certainly picked at my moral compass regardless.

It’s why I take so much comfort in Ealing Wildlife Group’s project because out of the many that have been reviewed by Calderglen this one surpassed expectation.

Heather Ryce at Horsenden Farm, ready to go release her precious charges into the wild

It was a lovely evening when I met with members and volunteers of Ealing Wildlife Group and I quickly felt I was with ‘my people’. Our enthusiasm and passion kept the chat flowing as the sun started to dip and the smiles and laughs just got wider and louder even after we stopped recording videos on our phones. Everyone was excited to be there, everyone wished for the success of the project, and everyone believed it was the right thing to do to give back to nature.

Heather and EWG’s Caroline and Sean chat to passersby about the mice and reintroduction programme

We let Calderglen’s mice go in thickets of grass and flowers, with a small shelter and some food left behind for a short-term resource if they should need it. I watched one particular brown and white fuzzy ball dart immediately from the travel box and wind its way gracefully into the foliage.

Heather, Sean and Caroline assess a likely release location for one group of mice

A bubble of emotion rose in my throat as I again wished it a silent good luck. As I uploaded the video to my Instagram with the caption ‘They’re free!’ and watched the mouse get lost behind stalks of green and fade from view, my doubts vanished. The harvest mice were home. “

The door to their soft release tank (with familiar food, water and shelter) is open, and they are free to be wild again…

Heather Ryce

Animal Keeper and Education Officer

Calderglen Zoo

(All photo credits to Council ranger James Morton, who accompanied us on this release alongside fellow ranger Jon Staples to whom we are grateful for collaborating on this project)

New Harvest Mouse partnership with Battersea Children’s Zoo

August 23, 2021 / Sean McCormack / 0 Comments

We’re very excited to be partnering with Battersea Children’s Zoo and their sister zoo, New Forest Wildlife Park, both of which will be providing us with captive bred harvest mice to release in Ealing over the coming years. I recently visited Battersea and was astounded by their beautiful Harvest Mouse exhibit, which showcases just how busy (and adorable) these little mice are. Here’s what Head Keeper, Jamie Baker, has to say about the partnership:

“Battersea Park Children’s Zoo has always championed British native species. Alongside our conservation work with other BIAZA and EAZA facilities on European Endangered Species breeding programmes we have always worked to put our own native species at the forefront of our work. As one of most successful zoos working with the Scottish wildcat breeding programme, producing 5 kittens over the last couple of years, we also collaborate on reintroduction projects for native hedgehogs and of course, Eurasian harvest mice, which are increasingly threatened in Britain.

Battersea Children’s Zoo Harvest Mouse enclosure

We currently have one of the largest harvest mouse exhibits in the country and actively breed mice at the zoo before transferring them to reintroduction projects up and down the country. Education is key in providing a future for our native species, so our dedicated harvest mouse barn is a great opportunity for our yearly 8500 school children to connect with these relatively unheard of creatures.

We are excited to have struck a new partnership with Ealing Wildlife Group and can’t wait to shine a light on their amazing work to restore wild places in London and reintroduce native species. Our curator Jason and head keepers Jamie and Charlotte had the pleasure of welcoming Sean to the zoo recently to discuss our joint passion for harvest mouse conservation and we look forward to providing captive bred harvest mice to Ealing Wildlife Group’s upcoming release projects. Joining forces to rewild some amazing habitats in West London.”

The team at Battersea and New Forest are also keen to come help us survey for harvest mice to monitor how well the reintroduction project is going over the coming years. There will also be opportunities for volunteers to help with this important work. Exciting times!

A Calderglen Harvest Mouse arrives in Ealing (Photo: James Morton)

Rewilding Ealing, one mouse at a time

August 9, 2021 / Sean McCormack / 2 Comments

Calderglen Harvest Mice arrive in Ealing (Photo: James Morton)

We’ve recently kicked off our ‘Rewilding Ealing’ initiative with the reintroduction of locally extinct and nationally threatened species, the diminutive Harvest Mouse. Also known by its scientific name of Micromys minutus, or the ‘minute micro mouse’, it’s the UK and Europe’s smallest rodent, and the only one with a prehensile tail designed to cling to the finest of grass stalks and vegetation as it climbs.

Last year we outlined the aims, preliminary survey work and preparations for the project in a live webinar, a recording is available to watch here:

We were thrilled with the reaction to our crowdfunding campaign, helping us to raise funds to source mice in large numbers for release and also allowing us to buy equipment and housing for our very own captive breeding facility. We asked our community of wildlife fans to sponsor a mouse for £10 and reached our target within days. The crowdfunder, which is still open to donations to support our borough-wide conservation efforts, can be found here:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ealingharvestmice?utm_term=V7VrrkVVn

We’ve partnered with Calderglen Zoo in East Kilbride near Glasgow who has been breeding Harvest Mice, and a few weeks ago delivered our very first mice to be released as well as to form the foundation of our own captive breeding colony.

And since the initial release we’ve had quite a bit of interest and coverage including BBC London and Scotland news. Check out the release and see these amazing little rodents being set free into the wild after a potential absence of 30-40 years from our borough here:

(Featured image: James Morton)

PRESS RELEASE:

For immediate release

For press enquiries contact:

Heidi Cullip

07989 471 584

heidicullip@gmail.com

Group reintroduces the threatened Harvest Mouse back to London!

Harvest Mice are set to be released in a new location in London by a local community group in Ealing, West London – bringing the rodents back to the area for the first time in decades.

Harvest Mice are Britain and Europe’s smallest rodents, and, in recent decades, these miniature mammals have undergone rapid declines due to changes in land management nationwide. The mice live mainly in grassland areas and eat seeds, fruit and invertebrates and build their spherical nests high up in tall grasses.

Reinstating the harvest mouse population is important for a number of reasons but, most significantly, their presence in the Ealing area can support the wider food chain and will be a welcome addition for Ealing’s growing populations of birds of prey including Barn Owls, Kestrels and Little Owls.

Local community group, Ealing Wildlife Group (EWG) are behind the project. EWG is focused on bringing nature back to urban areas and have spearheaded a number of other successful projects in the area including driving the increase in bird of prey species nesting in the borough.

In order to release the Harvest Mice, Ealing Wildlife Group (EWG) successfully crowdfunded their project to purchase hundreds of captive-bred mice from one of the UK’s leading rewilding experts and set up small breeding colonies of their own. The plan is to release the mice into the wild over the next couple of years.

Sean McCormack, Chair of local conservation community Ealing Wildlife Group (EWG), believes that communities and councils can work together to create suitable space for nature, and the Harvest Mice reintroduction project is just the latest in a long line of projects being spearheaded by EWG. Dr McCormack said:

“After extensive surveying of likely locations in Ealing, we believe Harvest Mice are locally extinct here due to historic habitat loss and fragmentation. Over the last few years however, there has been an effort to manage some of Ealing’s green spaces more sympathetically for nature. What this has done has enabled several sites within the borough to now have habitats suited to the reintroduction of Harvest Mice.”

After holding a webinar with the local community to outline the details of the project, McCormack set up a crowdfunding page to help fund the reintroduction – asking funders to ‘sponsor’ a mouse for £10. The money raised will go to buying mice from a responsible breeder, one who supplies many rewilding projects with rare and threatened native wildlife, plus equipment for setting up some small breeding colonies of their own – enabling EWG to continue releasing mice into the wild in Ealing over the next couple of years.

EWG is also partnering with a number of conservation organisations already breeding Harvest Mice including Calderglen Zoo in East Kilbride near Glasgow, who have supplied the first cohort of mice to have been set free into the wild in Ealing.

EWG will also spend an extra £500 on Longworth live mammal traps, enabling the harmless monitoring of small mammal populations in Ealing. This monitoring will ensure the habitat management continues to be successful and that populations of the harvest mice, as well as other small mammals such as voles and shrews, can continue to thrive for years to come.

Fundraising has been incredibly successful and the £2,500 target was hit within days of set up however, if you would like to contribute to this exciting urban rewilding project, you can find the Harvest Mice Reintroduction page here.

If you would like to watch the Harvest Mouse webinar to hear more about this exciting project, you can find it on YouTube: youtube.com/c/EalingWildlifeGroup/

About Dr Sean McCormack

Sean McCormack, vet and Chair of the local conservation community Ealing Wildlife Group is passionate about nature and biodiversity. He has a large Instagram following and offers content across a variety of topics (animal welfare, biodiversity and allotmenting). He also showcases some of EWG’s practical conservation projects on their highly subscribed YouTube channel. Sean hosts the popular podcast ‘Sean’s Wild Life’ talking to relevant experts and celebrity guests to explore topics in nature conservation, rewilding, sustainability and our connections to nature.

Instagram: @thatvetsean

https://drseanmccormack.com/

About EWG

EWG is an inclusive community of locals interested in nature and wildlife in the Borough of Ealing and beyond. Set up in early 2016 by Sean McCormack, a vet and lifelong naturalist, the overall aim of the group is to build a community of like-minded individuals, who are passionate to learn more about nature and who see the value in actively conserving it. Since 2016 it has grown steadily in membership and secured funding for several community environmental projects. The main hub of activity and discussion remains the Facebook group, where members can truly appreciate the diversity of wildness on our doorstep through others’ observations and posts.

Our AGM & new roles available

June 22, 2021 / Sean McCormack / 0 Comments

We are delighted to be getting back up and running with events and new projects as life slowly returns to normal.

As part of our requirements as a Community Group we must hold an Annual General Meeting. This year the AGM will be on Zoom on Thurs 8th July at 7pm – and everyone is invited!

2020 held back many of the projects we would have liked to have made progress on, so now we need your help to move forward and gain momentum as a local conservation organisation harnessing the power of community and collaboration.

The AGM will be looking at essentially who we are as an organisation, what we’ve been doing in the community and what we can achieve in the future. It is also an opportunity for us to focus on specific projects and restructure our committee, including bringing on some new volunteer roles.

New volunteer roles

I would love to build the EWG team, enabling us to grow and continue to do great work for wildlife and people in Ealing. We have two exciting new volunteer roles to join us as officers on the team. If you are interested, please have a read of the following job specs and bring any questions along to the AGM – the closing date for applications is Fri 16th July.

Events Officers – there is more than one position available

Volunteer Officer

Agenda

The AGM will be run on Zoom (details below). There are 100 spaces available and they are being allocated on a first come, first served basis. You do not have to sign up for the event, simply join the Zoom meeting on Thurs 8th July. The AGM will start at 7pm.

The agenda will be as follows:

2020 review
Financial report
Board Structure and new roles
Aims for EWG as a Community Group going forward
Open Q&A

Please do join if you can so you can take part in the Q and A session afterwards.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sean and the EWG team

Zoom details

Ealing Wildlife Group is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Ealing Wildlife Group AGM
Time: Jul 8, 2021 07:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82280218635?pwd=NlBLMFBqL0pvQS9SV0ZES2FKZVpWdz09

Harvest Mouse by Amy Lewis, The Wildlife Trusts

Design EWG’s official T-shirt competition!

June 21, 2021 / Sean McCormack / 0 Comments

Exciting times ahead. Are you or your kids talented illustrators or artists? Well we would love you to draw an iconic species of wildlife (animal or plant) found in Ealing and send it in to be featured on our new EWG T-shirt design.

Just draw your design and email it to Neerja100@hotmail.com from Inkineeri.co.uk following the guidelines above and below. Best of luck!

PRESS RELEASE: Ealing Beaver Project backed by Mayor of London’s Rewild London Fund!

Further Information

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