So they have spent 50 years clearing the rhododendron bushes from Brownsea Island in an effort to help the red squirrel species grow and thrive again. 50 years! So this is a pretty big project, yes? Indeed, it has apparently recruited about 15,000 people to help over the years.
So let's sit back and bask in the glory of this successful project, shall we? Oh no, we can't. "As yet, no-one has officially counted the squirrels to see if the numbers are increasing". Give me bloody strength. Even if we did count them now, we don't know how many there were to start with....
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Crap 50 year conservation project. They're nuts.
(10 posts) (7 voices)
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SpankyMonkey
offlineMemberPosted 1 year ago # -
dvo4fun
offlineMemberSomebody from another country - hmm try another continent - reading this might well imagine that Brownsea Island was pretty darned big; if it took 50 years and perhaps 15,000 workers.
But it's only about as big as a football stadium! If you walk round the edge talking to a friend, and that friend stops to tie up his shoe laces, you're likely to bump into him whilst he's still bending over on your next lap.
Using that manpower (other genders are available)and time frame you could have cleared it of all vegetation, never mind just rhodendron bushes, using just one pastry fork and a soup spoon.
What were they feeding the workers with at tea breaks? Max strength Mogadon? Ooh, that reminds me ................
Posted 1 year ago # -
Al OPecia
offlineMemberOoh I'll remember that one dvo - "honest officer, my friend had bent over to tie up his shoe laces, and by the time I came around the other side of the island his trousers had accidently fallen down and I just kept bumping into him enthuasiastically, and that caused my trousers to fall down, and....."
Posted 1 year ago # -
Al OPecia
offlineMemberAny back to the mensuration problem:
204 hectares - 2.04 million square meters
Divide by 15,000 volunteers
Equals 136 square meters each
Divide by 50 years equals just under 3 square meters per volunteer per year.
Someone, I fear, has either got their sums wrong or is suffering an attack of hyperbole.
Or, it occurs to me, they largely attracted quitters to the project.
Posted 1 year ago # -
beau-jolly
offlineMemberFlaw in Al's arguement: Given that the volunteers are likely to be fully paid up National Trust members, their average age is likely to be in the region of 55. After 50 years many will be too old or dead. This may well be the cause of the problem. Each time one pops off the rhodedendrons creep back over their 3 square meters making the job never-ending.
That and the constant buggering.
Posted 1 year ago #
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