Curlews and Climate Change

November 13, 2005

Guest article written by Clare Nunamaker, California Registered Professional Forester

Imagine picking up the newspaper and reading an article about how climate change is resulting in the California condor moving up to Canada to find suitable habitat. That's what it was like to read in a paper here in Scotland that the curlew is moving to Scandinavia to find the cool climate it requires. The curlew is a bird that has long been part of folk songs and stories, and it's hard to imagine a Scottish landscape devoid of the cry of the curlew.

Indeed, it seems that every week or two the newspapers here in Scotland run another story about how climate change is impacting the local flora and fauna. There are winners and losers.

Most mosses and lichens are predicted to be winners. Another winner is the muntjac, something like a cross between a deer and a pig. Its populations have nearly tripled in the last ten years. This is at the expense of the nightingales. Their numbers have dropped by about half in the same time period, since muntjacs eat sprouts that would otherwise grow to become nightingale nesting habitat. These changes are obvious and sometimes, as in the case of the curlew, muntjac, nightingale and others, rather drastic.

Even non-nature lovers are aware of the impacts of climate change here. Whiskey drinkers are learning that distilleries are bemoaning the loss of the cold water they have relied on for generations. Warmer weather means less snow. That translates to less snowmelt and less cold water at key times for the distilleries.

Here in Scotland there is little to no debate about climate change. It's happening. The effects are so obvious as to be part of daily newspaper reporting. The only questions have to do with who the winners and losers will be. And, of course, how much humans will or will not do to alter the course of how quickly the climate does change.

Clare Nunamaker is a California Registered Professional Forester and member of NorCal SAF and the Forest Guild, who after receiving a composer's visa for the UK, has moved to Scotland. Go to http://www.HeartwoodMusic.com for more information.