People often wonder how they can help nature recovery in their local communities. The obvious answers are to stop polluting the environment and crowding out nature. We could decide to make ‘ethical’ choices about what we buy, but some of those choices are hard to make. And cut waste. These are hard to achieve individually – but there are in fact many small, rewarding steps we can each take.
Wivenhoe’s plan
This year in Essex, Wivenhoe Town Council and the Biodiversity Group are looking at what individuals can do in the urban environment, hoping that if we act together, it will add up to a powerful change.
For example, recently, some residents have put signs in their front gardens titled, “Gardening for Nature”. They are encouraging wildlife with plants that attract and provide nectar for pollinators or other habitats that provide food and shelter for critters. Water is needed by every living thing. Providing ponds or shallow bowls of water will bring creatures – every small amount helps.
Some people have made small apertures in their garden fences for hedgehogs to pass through when foraging.
Others provide bird feeders and nest boxes. Some simply decide not to destroy house martins’ nests; instead they take measures to protect windows from droppings by installing a shelf, which might even host other nests.
Some are considering returning ground from non-porous (e.g. concrete, plastic grass) to porous ground which allows vegetation. This not only reduces ambient temperatures, but can also reduce flooding.
Strength in numbers
Gardens take up approximately 30% of urban green space and are often grouped together. It’s an important opportunity to provide for nature in a way which brings rewards for the human hosts. One obvious benefit is watching birds feeding their young where there are nests.
Less obviously, the beneficiaries are microscopic and unseen. A single cubic metre of grass or meadow can host countless millions of micro-organisms at the bottom of the food chain – the foundation of all life – as well as offering the spectacle of birds feeding on larvae emerging from the ground.
While you may feel that your x number of square metres won’t make much difference, the key is what follows. This year, the council will hold a competition for the best anecdotes highlighting the rewards of hosting wildlife in your garden. We would love this to catch on!
Once people start enjoying the benefits of enlightened land management on their patch – and more importantly, sharing them – it will catch on, and, in numbers, we will start making a difference. This doesn’t only apply to gardens, but you’d be surprised just how much urban space is home to wildlife.
Change your mindset
Wasps, for example, are often unwelcome. Yet, it could be argued that wasps are just as useful as bees, because they actually feed on smaller insects that we might consider to be pests. They also help pollinate plants, drinking nectar as bees do. Likewise, spiders also catch insects which stray indoors. Slugs are useful, consuming decaying plant matter, thus recycling nutrients, and they are a good food source for birds, ground beetles and hedgehogs.
You could have a lot of fun googling the food chain game to find out which “ugly” or “undesirable” critters are needed for the survival of more beautiful ones!
Not many years ago, I had to put up a warning sign on a children’s playground about yellowtail moth caterpillars inhabiting a hedge nearby. Their hairy coats are severe irritants to us, but they are a common food source for cuckoos – a severely declining species!
Patience and space
As a seasoned bird watcher, I’ve learnt that two things are needed for decent and prolonged views of birds: patience and space. If you get too close to most wildlife, it will scarper. Almost every species sees us as predators. With patience and a little luck, the wildlife will often perform if we don’t crowd it out. If you are lucky to have green woodpeckers and starlings visit, they will help aerate your lawn by eating grubs from just below the surface.
And, so it is with nature recovery. Given time and space, nature will start to move in. A prime large-scale example of this is a disused oil refinery which lay untouched for years because no-one knew what to do with it.
It is now Canvey Wick nature reserve – a Site of Special Scientific Interest with several endangered species inhabiting, as well as some charismatic commoner species! Now, it is one of the richest, most biodiverse habitats in the country!
Good for us too
As with ourselves, if we nurture the environment and maintain it in good health, we won’t have to spend time and money trying to revive it. It is well-documented that spending time in a natural environment is good for our mental and physical wellbeing. There’s no place like home to put that to the test. It’s about quality of life, not quantity. We can do nature recovery on as large or small a scale as suits us. As I explained in my last article, humans must get better at living alongside nature.
Do look at the articles on the Wivenhoe G4N Facebook page. There are ideas large and small that you can try.
I hope you are inspired to live better alongside nature, at least supporting local efforts however you can, and encouraging other communities.
We are, of course, in this together!
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