Marsh Fritillary added to the protected list.

Neil Jones Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk
Mon Mar 30 18:22:17 EST 1998


In message <24026.9803300925 at csm.exeter.ac.uk> apktorry at csm.ex.ac.uk writes:
> It's not worth the paper it's written on unless it can protect the habitats.
> 
> I am SOUTH-WEST WATER therefore I can destroy MILLIONS of them.
> You are a HUMBLE LEPIDOPTERIST who doesn;t want to harm a single one.
> 
> Typical of Neil Jones --- TRIUMPHALISM IS AN UGLY WORD.
> 
> What are you going to do about SWW building a huge sewage treatment plant 
> over the top of a once thriving colony of them then Neil.? TELL ME
> 
> A pissed of member of the British Electorate who hates double think.
> 
> FLAME ME IF YOU LIKE but this is how I feel.

Perhaps being both humble and triumphalist is indeed double think.
There is a valid point here, but I'm afraid that Andrew Tory has engaged
in yet another tirade full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Yes, the particular legislation is not as strong as I would like it, but it
does help. I do not know the particular case involving South West Water but
to understand why the legislation does help defend habitats it is necessary
to know more about the UK planning system. A site may be lost years before
a planning application is put in because the "local plan" says that it is
scheduled for development. Now that the Marsh Fritillary is on the protected
list it means that when the plan is being developed it is necessary to take
its needs into account.

It also means that those of us who are seen as rational enough to be taken
seriously can mightily embarass any organisation who so much as threatens
a development on a site. 

Then there is the extra attention and funding the species gets from being on 
the list.

As for what I would do to protect a Marsh Fritillary site. One thing
I wouldn't do is argue against protecting them because it might stop
me having a bit of fun.  

-- 
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.nwjones.demon.co.uk/
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
National Nature Reserve


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