A new hope for our Mrs Tiggywinkle and Ratty
YOU could be forgiven for thinking all naturalists are incurably pessimistic — and with good reason. Over the past few decades, the news of vanishing species and habitats has been dire.
Now, tireless campaigner Stephen Moss — who has travelled all over Britain in a quest to discover the bare facts — redresses the balance.
Moss is under no illusion about the battles ahead. Modern forestry and farming practices have been so devastating for wildlife that now a creature as ‘common’ as the hedgehog has suffered a ‘catastrophic population decline’ of 40 per cent. He asks, with genuine shock: ‘Who would have believed that generations of children would be growing up without ever hearing the call of the cuckoo?’
He lists hares, skylarks, water voles (pictured), bumblebees, turtle doves and partridges among those in danger of disappearing from our countryside. But he assures us ‘the fight back has already begun’.
All over the country people are working hard to make things better: improving habitats, encouraging breeding and redressing harm that was done in the past. Make no mistake, this is not just a book about wildlife, it is also a song of praise to dedicated people (‘ armies of volunteers’, he says) who make things happen.
For example, motivated by a deep love of wildlife, David White, the fourth generation to farm family land in Wiltshire, has been working hard with his neighbours to make their fields animal and bird-friendly by planting miles of hedgerows that are essential ‘corridors’ for innumerable creatures.
The Whites are disciples, spreading the word. And we need more of them.
Animals once threatened (such as the otter) are now protected, and Moss notes that cities have become home to many species of bird as they learn that humans are no threat.
The story of the black redstart is one example of how wildlife can colonise urban areas. Arriving in Britain in the Fifties, the birds discovered that ‘a derelict bombsite, covered with plants such as rosebay willowherb and awash with small insects, was virtually identical to its home on rocky hillsides’.
The beaver is back, otters thrive, and Moss records the revival of many species: bitterns, cranes, great white egrets, marsh harriers, little egrets and many more. But he bangs a drum for
involvement and asks people to understand that valuing wildlife is not a sentimental fancy, but essential to our wellbeing.
Stephen Moss, a wildlife television producer, lives in Somerset. His passion for the ‘magical’ landscape around him informs every word of this beautifully observed book.
I live 46 miles further north, on the Somerset-Bristol edge where the story is rather different. While we treasure the kingfishers, water voles, herons, deer and badgers (yes) who live around our home, and witness how townsfolk love this area for walking, riding and blackberrying, politicians tell me that sooner or later this green belt land must be built on — to provide homes.
My retort (and I’m sure Moss will agree) is that these precious meadows and woods are
already homes — for animals and birds. And they were here first.