"The ecological scene in America is dominated by individuals, but in Britain it is dominated by a place, Monks Wood, the Nature Conservancy's main research station in Huntingdonshire." This was the view of Anne Chisholm in her book Philosophers of the Earth: Conversations with Ecologists (1972). The quotation continues: "There is a larger concentration of ecologists at Monks Wood than anywhere else in Europe, and the work done there, since it was set up in 1960, has provided much of the substance, as opposed to the verbiage, of environmental debate."
The British Nature Conservancy, set up in 1949 by royal charter, was the official body in Britain concerned with wildlife conservation. It had the responsibility "to provide scientific advice on the conservation and control of the natural flora and fauna of Great Britain, including the maintenance of physical features of scientific interest; and to organize and develop the research and scientific services related thereto."
The Nature Conservancy (NC) was a typically British institution. While it was government-funded, it was supervised by a council of independent scientists and thus relatively free from governmental interference (though financial sanctions were always possible if it got too far out of line with official policy). As soon as it came into existence, the NC started to acquire areas of ecological importance as National Nature Reserves (NNRs) and to appoint staff to manage them. Yet it became increasingly obvious that reserve management was a difficult task, involving much more than simply fencing in an area and doing nothing else--this generally caused deterioration, not improvement in the reserve. What was needed was much more ecological expertise to ensure that native species of plants and animals flourished. So the NC organized a team of scientists to this end and set them to work on a variety of problems in different parts of the country.
However, the NC became aware that a more systematic approach was necessary requiring a new, custom-built research station, set up primarily to work on the important problems relating to the ecological basis of wildlife conservation. The new station was planned to provide the ecological know-how in a form that would be of immediate, practical value to the parent body.
Setting Up the Station
A site in one of the most rural parts of southern England was acquired, with sufficient land for field experiments. It had the advantage of being adjacent to Monks Wood National Nature Reserve, one of the few remaining areas of natural deciduous forest remaining in that part of the country and an ideal site for ecological research. The NC also owned several other sites with different characteristics--fenland, heath, and grassland--on reserves nearby. Some critics considered that these advantages did not compensate for the area's isolation, as there were few facilities nearby, but this worry proved groundless.
England is a small country, and scientists based at Monks Wood could travel to most places in half a day. Cambridge, with its wealth of facilities, was the alma mater of some of the staff, and it gave considerable assistance. The rail service to London from Huntingdon, which is only 5 miles from Monks Wood, improved dramatically, and the journey of 60 miles was cut to 35
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