Daily Express

Ingham’s W RLD

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LOVE – or lust – doesn’t let a little thing like winter weather dampen its ardour. As I took my dog out yesterday, dawn’s grey cold greeted me like a smack in the mouth. But slicing through the fog came the love songs of robins, great tits and song thrushes. That was good news for me. Hearing birdsong can boost mental wellbeing for more than four hours, King’s College London told the journal BioScience this week.

So the Wildlife Trusts’ guide to building nature-friendly homes could not have been more timely.

As Theresa May unveiled her 25-year eco-vision yesterday the WT showed how the Government can work with nature to meet its target to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.

Housing developmen­t all too often involves razing woods, ripping out hedgerows and creating barriers to wildlife.

The WT say developmen­ts should keep existing habitats and create wildlife corridors linking to the wider landscape.

That way hedgehogs and butterflie­s can roam with ease instead of being penned into ever tinier pockets of greenery.

New houses should have built-in bird and bat boxes while allotments would let residents grow their own fresh food.

The WT advocate street trees that provide shade, nest sites and better air quality. Perhaps chainsaw-wielding Sheffield council should take note.

Butterflie­s and bees can be boosted by wildflower verges along roads while safe cycle and footpaths can help residents keep fit.

Flood risk can be reduced by permeable drives and pavements, ponds and trees (again). And developmen­ts should use renewable energy and the latest energy and water-saving devices. For developers this may sound very expensive but homes in a green environmen­t instead of acres of tiny boxes crammed together are more attractive to buyers.

The real winners will be the residents and taxpayers. Countless studies show that easy access to green spaces is good for your health. For most people a walk in the park, hearing the lazy, flutey song of a blackbird or seeing a fox trot past boost the spirits.

This connection with nature helps fight depression, reduce obesity and create something lost across much of the country: a sense of community.

That translates into less strain on the NHS, which is good for our pockets as well as our health.

So wildlife-friendly housing won’t just make the song thrush feel at home. It will make us all feel better. WELL done, Theresa May, for vowing to defend the environmen­t: a forest from Liverpool to Hull, greener farming and fisheries and plastic waste to be outlawed by, er, 2042. But Mrs Thatcher briefly went green – and not much changed. Beware long-term promises from politicos who’ll be lucky to be around next year never mind in 25. THE movie The Martian may not be a flight of fancy. Large quantities of ice have been found in eight different locations on the red planet, says Science. The Mars Reconnaiss­ance Orbiter suggests the ice is between 3ft and 300ft below the surface.

This could be “a potential resource for future exploratio­n”, say the researcher­s. GREEN TIP: Take your own cup to coffee shops to reduce the UK’s waste mountain of 2.5 billion disposable cups a year. EVEN turtles are gender fluid these days, almost certainly due to climate change. Young green turtles from the northern Great Barrier Reef are 99 per cent female, Aussie scientists tell Current Biology. The temperatur­e of eggs in the sand determines the sex of babies, with warmer temperatur­es producing more females. WWF says putting shade over nesting beaches could produce more males.

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 ??  ?? ’TIS the season for fly-tipping old Christmas trees but Surrey Wildlife Trust is recycling them by feeding them to their goats. The herd keeps heaths in trim to protect habitats for nightjars and orchids. The goats eat prickly plants and love a pine needle surprise.
’TIS the season for fly-tipping old Christmas trees but Surrey Wildlife Trust is recycling them by feeding them to their goats. The herd keeps heaths in trim to protect habitats for nightjars and orchids. The goats eat prickly plants and love a pine needle surprise.
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