Not many people know this Part 2.........bees are safer but our drinking water may be next

A little safer now

Today, Friday 27th April 2018 the European Union banned the outdoor use of three neonicotinoid insecticicides. But this still leaves some of them in widespread use including acetamiprid the active ingredient in Gazelle which is used widely in our forests to contol large bark beetle.

It's not just used in fields and forests, if you have a dog or cat you probably use it regularly to control fleas, you can also buy it in supermarkets and garden centres to control greenhouse insect pests. It's everywhere. Acetamiprid is also used to control bed bugs but people who reasd this blog don't have bed bugs.

Acetamiprid has been found "moderately toxic" to bees, so that's OK!  but it's still toxic and has been licenced by the EU until 2033. Moderate toxicity doesn't justify reigning in it's very widespread use and affecting corporate profits, supermarket income to protect water quality because even when used indoors it gets into the drains and water supply..

This could be our next concern

On the posiitve side, politicians seem to be listening to the scientists and responding to widespread public concern. But acetamiprid is highly toxic to birds, kills non-target species, is soluble in water ( think drinking supplies ) and toxic to humans , have a look at the safety notes on your systemic cat flea killer. EU ban on neonics

Not many people know this..............Neonicotinoids in Scotland's woodlands Part 1

Forest industries in Scotland make a huge annual contribution to our economy through; timber growing, timber processing, employment in forestry, recreation and tourism. The forest industries support 26,000 FTE (Full-time equivalent) jobs and create an estimated Gross Value Added (GVA) in our economy of £1bn each year. It's important and it's big business but like all industrial activity it has the potential for vast environmental damage.Economics of forest industries in Scotland

Our national forest estate looks pristine, natural and healthy but there is something unseen and potentially damaging going on...... the deployment of neonicotinoid pesticides to control the large pine weevil (Hylobius abietis).

This beetle eats the bark of all tree species but is particularly damaging in commercial industrial forestry. Sitka spruce the most numerous and widespread commercial tree species are especially vulnerable to beetle attack and are being treated with a neonicotinoid, (Gazelle) in forest nurseries and commercial woodlands.

Bark weevil reproduces rapidly in the stumps of recently felled trees and it is necessary for then to die out before replanting or the new  plants will be ring barked and killed.

Neonicotinoids have been found to directly affect honey bees and indirectly song bird species in the UK and throughout Europe. Is widespread use of neonics in forestry going to have disastrous unintended consequences on wild life and the environment as they have in industrialized agriculture? , not least by killing non-harmful and beneficial insects. Insect pests of trees in Scotland

There are people who work in forestry who think that neonics are potentially damaging to human and ecosystem  health and that non-chemical physical barriers to the beetle, nets and wax treatment should be standard practice as in Scandinavia.

Last week I was working with Rachel Watt planting trees on my croft. Rachel is a forestry contractor with 35 years experience, she told me about this problem, it was the first that I knew of it. Most of what goes on in the Forest Industries is completely unknown to the majority of us so I have asked Rachel to write an insider's story of neonics in our woodlands. See the next post.

A long walk in the Pyrenees

Back in the depths of winter ( 13th January) I perhaps rashly, posted a blog proposing that I walk from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean through the Pyrenees along the route of the GR 10, Le Sentier de Pyrenees. From Hendaye-Plage to Banyuls-sur-Mer it's a journey of 995 km in 55 daily stages and 53,000 m of climbing. I can see what you're thinking..... "He now knows what it involves and wants to back out".Do you remember an inn Miranda, January 2018

No, I still want to do it, but more slowly than in 55 days; perhaps 60 or 65 days in June, July and August. I do have," form " as a GRdiste, the Tour of the Glaciers of Vanoise, the Route Stevenson through the Cevennes, hut to hut in the Alpes Maritimes and the toughest, the GR 20 across the mountains of Corsica. But the last was twelve years ago. So I do need your help; and perhaps Mac Hoskins would like to join me for one of the stages?

At my age there is no way that I want to carry a tent and all of the gear for that distance over so many mountain passes. The solution is to use Mountain huts, gites d'etapes, hotels and where necessary cabanes ( bothies).  According to the guide there are only two nights when a cabane is necessary. However; since the last trip when mountain huts in Corsica cost slightly less than £20 a night, huts and gites in the Pyrenees cost £40 a night, add travel, insurance and a modest per diem allowance of  £10 a day and you have a total expedition cost of £3,500. Too much for a Crofter on a pension alone.

Craigard

Is there anyone out there who wants to spend a month or two months of the coming summer renting and living in my house and being a Crofter? This would help to finance the expedition, you could take over the blog for two months, look after the hens, do shepherding, fishing, walk the hills and take care of Miss Mimi my hybrid wild cat. Craigard Croft on Google Earth

From the kitchen window

When Hamsa gets back I'll ask him to make a short video of the croft, inside and out and then I'll post a link so that you can have a close look at it. In the meantime, Jacqui Chapple who runs Steading Holidays is going to look after inquiries and handle any  Steading Holidays