An Environmental History of Wildlife in England 1650-1950

ConClusion: naTure, hisTory and C onservaTion^189

each other, not least because some can be created almost instantly while
others (such as ancient woodland) take a long time to develop, and are not
easily formed from scratch. Nevertheless, as Davis has also pointed out,
the environmental impact of industrial development and other forms of
modern land use change is clearly not universally negative: it depends on
circumstances and on essentially subjective judgements.

If an area of average farm land is developed into a housing estate, the

fauna and flora will certainly be different but it would be unwise to

assume that it would eventually be any less rich or interesting... If the

same area were exploited for gravel, the ecotones of the resulting flooded

pit might well produce an absolute enrichment and diversification of

fauna and flora. However, an exceptional area of farmland, one of the

few remaining fritillary Fritillaria meleagris L. meadows for example, is

unlikely to be replaced by any habitat of comparable individuality and

scientific interest.^25

Yet as we have seen, there are grounds for doubting whether the snakes-head
fritillary is, in fact, anything more than a garden escapee (above, pp. 11–12):
and the problems of relativism, raised but not solved by an historical per-
spective, are especially acute when we consider introduced or – to use that
loaded term – ‘alien’ species. There is no doubt that a mass of invasive organ-
isms are now causing serious problems to English wildlife, from Himalayan
balsam to muntjac deer, and this is a major worry to conservationists. But
what makes this issue particularly complex is a failure on the part of some
to distinguish between aliens per se, which may simply reduce marginally the
frequencies of ecologically equivalent native species, or fill what are effec-
tively vacant niches; and those aggressive invaders which are a real threat to
indigenous wildlife.^26 It is further complicated by the way that some of those
working in the humanities like to draw crass analogies between the determi-
nation of ecologists to prevent the wholesale naturalization of new species
from abroad, and the ravings of the far right against human immigrants and
refugees:^27 a situation which is itself not much helped by the unfortunate lan-
guage sometimes employed by ecologists themselves. Yalden rightly criticized
the ‘sentimental’ suggestion from ‘some quarters’ that introduced species like
the grey squirrel had a ‘right’ to live here, continuing:

The native species certainly have the right to be here, more right than we

have, but the exotic introductions have no right to be here, and no right

to eliminate our native species. The whole point of biodiversity is that

different parts of the World have different faunas and floras.^28

Yet many people like grey squirrels – they may be the only wild mammals
they regularly encounter – and introduced species like the rabbit are deeply
embedded in our environment as much as in our culture. Their eradication,