Coppicing & pollarding trees could provide us with energy, materials and food — but also with a lot of glow-worms (or fireflies), a research paper argues:

The glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca (Linnaeus, 1767) (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) is thought to be declining in the UK. Average glowing counts at 19 sites in Essex, south-east England, changed from ca. 20 glow-worms per km of transect in 2001 to ca. 5 glow-worms per km in 2018.

There is a clear signal of climate warming and drying effects on glow-worm numbers, but a substantially greater proportion of variation in glowing female counts is explained by local-scale site factors, such as unmanaged scrub encroachment. Brash and wood chippings provide habitat for glow-worm larvae while bare ground is important for glowing females.

Management that increased site populations included scrub clearance on a seawall flood defense embankment and coppicing in an ancient woodland. Sustained favorable management of sites by coppicing and scrub cutting may buffer populations against declines caused by climate drying and warming and benefit other insects such as butterflies.

In the UK, the widespread cessation of traditional coppicing in ancient woodlands in the 20th century has had a detrimental impact on the insect fauna associated with open woods:

Glow-worms were said to have disappeared from many Essex woods in the late 19th century, and have become very rare in Epping Forest, possibly due to the cessation of traditional pollarding (cutting of trees at approximately 5 m off the ground to prevent deer browsing re-growth) in the 20th century. Anecdotal evidence from Shut Heath Wood suggests that coppicing of willow has been beneficial for glow-worms over many years.

In the summer after winter coppicing had taken place there was often a number of glow worms in the coppiced area. Once the coppice had grown, even after 1 year’s re-growth, glow worms declined in the coppiced area. This indicates that glowworms may have a continuous cycle of building up abundance in newly coppiced (cut) areas, before declining or moving to an adjacent cut area (also known as a coupe).

Railways

Railway lines, used or disused, also offer a particularly good habitat for glow-worms, perhaps because the track bed (ballast) has a plentiful supply of the calcium which snails need to build their shells:

Most of Britain’s railway network was built at a time (1800s) when glow-worms were much more widespread, therefore providing an excellent system of ‘corridors’ along which isolated habitats could be colonized. Railway lines, both disused and active, provide ideal glow-worm habitats, with egg laying occurring in exposed, well-drained areas on top of embankments, while larvae may need the moisture gradients present on the steep slopes to forage.

Read the whole story: Gardiner, Tim. “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out! Reversing the Glow-Worm’s Decline.” (2021).

Image: Fireflies in the woods near Nuremberg, Germany, exposure time 30 seconds. By Quit007 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Read more: Young people can’t remember how much more wildlife there used to be, Adam Vaughan, New Scientist. More. Thanks to Vincent Grosjean.

Quigua, an indigenous leader whose village in Colombia sits on an isolated mountain range rising 18,700 feet (5,700 meters) before plunging into the sea, is just one of over 1,000 delegates in town for the 15th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues that ends Friday.

“On top of the temples of the goddess and Mother Earth, they are building castles, they are building cities and building churches, but our mother has the capacity to regenerate,” Quigua said. “We are fighting not to have roads or electricity — this vision of self-destruction that’s called development is what we’re trying to avoid.”

Read more: Indigenous grapple with NYC bedlam, bureaucracy at UN forum, AP.

“First People” hosts a large and wonderful collection of American Indian photographs online, dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Aside from the portraits (which include, among others, the Edward S. Curtis archives), there are picture galleries of tepees, boats, pottery and basketry.

Previously: Walter McClintock’s glass lantern slide collection of the Blackfoot Indians.

A Zumi girl.

Medicine man.

An old woman.

Mountain chief, Piegan.

All pictures: First People. Follow the link to see more.