Nature really needs to be nurtured by us

FOR the past few years, I have lived opposite a bowling green. Along with a genial collection of chaps of a certain age in smart club suits and ties, it is also populated by a family of foxes.

At night, I hear the cubs playing, snapping at each other and rolling joyfully around on the grass, and sometimes, early in the mornings, I’ll catch a glimpse under the streetlights of a vixen slinking her way back through the hedge after a successful night’s hunting (or, let’s face it, rummaging through bins).

I thought of those foxes this week when I read that the number of wildlife species in Scotland is falling at a faster rate than the UK as a whole. Almost half are suffering a decline in numbers and just over one-tenth face extinction. Those worst hit include the Scottish wildcat, pictured, the capercaillie and even the common rabbit. Unfortunately – as so often seems the case these days – it’s all our fault. Pollution, habitation loss and climate change are all harming our wildlife, arguably one of Scotland’s greatest assets. Part of the problem with these issues is that they are not always immediately obvious. It’s easy to head out for a walk through our countryside and marvel at the wide open spaces without appreciating that, 50 years ago, the landscape was twice as green and rural as it is now.

And so I come back to my local bowling green, a green space that has been there for more than 100 years which provides a habitat not just for the fox family but also insects, butterflies and goodness knows what else. This month it will be closed permanently, and unless community funding is urgently found, flats will be built on the site.

The eradication of our wildlife often feels like something happening far, far away. But in reality it’s right here, under our noses.