ELLIE HARRISON
All life needs darkness to thrive.
2. THE GREAT FEN PROJECT
In Cambridgeshire, 14 square miles of farmland are being turned back into a varied landscape of bogs, meadows, woodlands and wet heaths. This restoration project, one of the largest of its type in Europe, provides a window into a past much richer in wildlife before most of the Fens were put to the plough. You may see marsh harriers, water rails (pictured), bitterns, four-spotted chaser dragonflies, the purple emperor butterfly, noctule bats and otters among beautiful plants, such as the ragged robin, fen violet or marsh pea. All that wildlife and it’s a carbon sink, too. TH greatfen.org.uk
3. SOIL-FRIENDLY FARMING
Encouraging wildlife is great but we need to produce food, right? Well, Oxfordshire farmer Julian Gold, who grows wheat, barley, rape and beans, rears a few sheep and glories in the title of ‘Soil Farmer of the Year’, does both. He believes – and demonstrates – that by cutting chemicals and reducing tractor traffic while encouraging insects and letting straw rot into the soil, he can store carbon, build wildlife habitats and make a profit. A trailblazer for 21st-century agriculture. TH See feature on restorative farming, page 58.
4. BATTLE OF THE BELCH
Climate-friendly meat? Well, not quite yet, but Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) is ruminating on the problem of rumination: the way cows and sheep digest grass and burp plenty of global-warming methane. Its ‘Grass to Gas’ project is looking at special breeding and feeding of sheep to lessen their environmental hoofprints, while some cattle dwell in aluminium respiration chambers, being fed on seaweed supplements with scientists measuring every breath they take. TH sruc.ac.uk
5. FLOWER POWER
Colour in the Margins is an initiative from wild-plant conservation charity Plantlife to return cornfield flowers to fields depleted by intensive farming and years of fertiliser and herbicide use. At suitable sites, it works with landowners to reintroduce 10 rare arable plant species (including red hemp-nettle and corn buttercup) and three ground beetles. This promotes the reappearance of birds, other insects and native plants. SH naturebftb.co.uk/the-projects/colour-in-the-margins
6. RESTORING PEATLANDS
theflowcountry.org.uk
7. FARMING WITH TREES
Mixing trees with arable crops can make land more productive, improve soil quality, reduce water use, enhance biodiversity and provide shelter for animals and crops. Wakelyns Agroforestry in Suffolk is a silvoarable (arable crops planted next to trees) research farm that cultivates fertile alleys of hazel, willow and fruit trees interspersed with cereals, root crops and field vegetables in rotation. SH wakelyns.co.uk
8. GREENER GARDENING
Kent garden centre Edible Culture swaps plastic pots for compostable ‘sleeves’, and sells peat-free compost in reusable ‘bag-for-life’ carriers. edibleculture.co.uk The blanket bog of Scotland’s Flow Country in Caithness and Sutherland stores 400 million tonnes of carbon and is an important wildlife habitat. In the 1980s, conifer plantations destroyed vast areas of the peat. Since 2001, a programme of blocking drains to raise the water table and removing trees is allowing the bog mosses to recover. So far, more than 2,600 hectares of blanket bog have been restored. SH
9. RETURNING LOST SPECIES
Our modern farming practices and woodland management have marginalised our native species and caused sharp declines in populations, but many steps are being taken to create suitable environments for reintroductions. The Wildwood Trust in Kent specialises in captive breeding and release of hazel dormice, water voles (pictured), pine martens, red squirrels, Eurasian beavers and red-billed choughs. In June 2019, it released 22 of its dormice into the wild at secret locations in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. SH wildwoodtrust.org
10. BRIGHT IDEA
Unlike some forms of renewable energy, harvesting solar power can have positive effects on wildlife – and leave the land productive. Raised photovoltaic panels leave scrubby grassland beneath for sheep grazing, free-range poultry or wildflower meadows. The building of Vine Farm Solar Park in Cambridgeshire included the creation of a nature park with 50,000 trees, native hedging and a traditional meadow. The Westmill Solar Cooperative in Wiltshire, the first community-owned solar farm in the UK, demonstrates how wildflowers can flourish under the panels. SH westmillsolar.coop
11. THE ORKNEY REFLEX PROJECT
This island of 22,000 people is showing the UK how to run on zero-carbon energy. With the help of a £29 million grant, the residents combine wind power, marine energy, solar panels, hydrogen fuel, electric cars and domestic batteries to demonstrate how a windy spot surrounded by the sea can power itself without burning stuff. When it works here, scale up. TH orkney.com/news/reflex
12. MAKING MORE MARSHES
Up to 90% of saltmarsh habitats in the UK have been lost since the 17th century, and with them much of the teeming wildlife they attract. At Wallasea Island in Essex, the RSPB has broken down 1930s-built sea defences to allow saltwater to flood the land. Combined with three million tonnes of spoil from London’s Crossrail excavations, this has restored 1,500 acres of tidal wildlife habitat for species such as avocets, brent geese, redshanks and spoonbills. SH rspb.co.uk
13. REWILDING BROWNFIELD SITES
Disused industrial areas across Britain can be transformed into havens for endangered wildlife. Limestone grasslands on reclaimed colliery and quarry land in northern England, such as Thrislington NNR in Durham, have increased the populations of the Durham brown argus butterfly and rare plant species, including the dark-red helleborine (pictured). SH limestonelandscapes.info
14. ENERGY FROM HOT ROCKS
How can we generate energy without exacerbating climate change? Tim Smit of Cornwall’s Eden Project believes the answer lies beneath our feet. This spring, drilling starts at Eden, where hot granite lies three miles below the surface. Smit will use that heat to generate energy for Eden’s biomes, but he claims the technology has global potential – to be “a game-changer of the biggest kind”. edenproject.com
15. NEW NORTHERN FOREST
In the battle against the effects of climate change, trees are important weapons due to the carbon they store, and because woodlands mitigate against flooding and support diverse ecosystems. They’re also good for mental wellbeing. The Woodland Trust manages a partnership that aims to create a Northern Forest between Liverpool and Hull – an area that currently has only 7.6% woodland cover. The ambition is to plant one million trees by March 2022, rising to 50 million by 2045. SH thenorthernforest.org.uk
16. SMARTER GRAZING
Land that has become less productive due to intensive cropping and overgrazing benefits from rotational grazing by native cattle. The 356-hectare Kipscombe Farm in Devon employs English longhorns in fields that are left to rest from cropping for longer. The heavy animals trample and break up the soil, allowing more delicate plant species to get a foothold among the courser grasses. Being a heritage British breed, their gut bacteria is in tune with the pasture, so their dung also improves the soil. SH fieldonthefarm.home.blog
17. CREATING NATURAL FLOOD DEFENCES
Changing rainfall patterns have caused more frequent floods, impacting on homes and crops. Natural ways of preventing damaging floodwaters are being pioneered in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Farmers are encouraged to plant riverside woodland, create rough grass strips to intercept run-off, dig catchment ponds and swales, and reduce soil compaction to make soil more permeable. SH yorkshiredalesriverstrust.com
18. LIVING WITH WILDLIFE
The Wildlife Trusts produces guidelines for developers on building in a wildlifeaware way. At Kingsbrook Estate in Buckinghamshire, a partnership between Barratt Developments, the RSPB and Aylesbury Vale Council has seen 2,450 homes constructed with bat and swift boxes, wildlife corridors, fruit trees, ponds and hibernation places for hedgehogs and amphibians. SH rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation /projects/kingsbrook-housing