brendenbeckett

All articles by: brendenbeckett

The Power of Birdsong

Birdsong has inspired many artists, poets and composers from different backgrounds over the years. Great writers like Chaucer and Shakespeare marvelled at sounds of birds and incorporated the songs in their literature. From classic-romantic Beethoven to 20th century Messiaen to modern jazz musician Rothenberg, either direct or indirect references to the melodious models of birdsong feature greatly across many genres of music. Birdsongs are said to be among the most beautiful, complex sounds produced in the natural world. Birds produce sound using a uniquely avian vocal organ called the syrinx, which is located at the top of the bronchi in the lungs. Some birds with particularly complex syringeal muscles are able to produce two harmonically distinct sounds simultaneously, like the Wood Thrush. Each species has a unique set of calls and songs, known as its repertoire, and some birds have a particularly vast selection of sounds. The Brown Thrasher, for example, can sing 2000 song variations and can switch sound production back and forth from one side of the syrinx to the other, even within a single syllable! Bird vocalisations are heavily involved in courtship displays, nesting care and interspecies interaction (the dawn chorus). However, birdsong is far more than just a means of communication.

Bird bioacoustics is an active field of scientific research using bird vocalizations to gather information about habitats. By measuring birdsong, researchers can use birdsong as an indicator to assess the health of ecosystems and can monitor species populations. Birds play ecologically crucial roles in the balance of food webs and it is imperative that their populations are maintained. Birdsong also has notably positive effects on humans. Listening to birdsong can improve our mood and boost our mental health significantly. This ‘natural high’ helps us to recover from stress and refocus our attention. This is because birdsong is stochastic; this means that it is made up of seemingly random sounds with no audible, repeating pattern to focus on. Evolutionarily, it is believed that birdsong was a signal of safety and thus stimulates us cognitively. The ecological and psychological benefits of birdsong are unquestionable but there is a serious problem.

Studies show that British birdlife is in trouble. The combined actions of pesticides, farming intensification and habitat change, as well as other factors, has caused species populations to plummet drastically. The glorious song of the nightingale, one of the world’s most celebrated passerines (songbirds), is now a rarity as its population has crashed by more than 90%. With our skies emptier and woodlands quieter, we need to act quickly to reverse this loss in biodiversity. So, what can you do to help support U.K. birds?

1) You could start by feeding garden birds on your windowsill, balcony or garden. This will help attract birds locally.

2) Avoiding chemical pesticides can help protect the insects that are essential to the survival of many bird species.

3) If you have a pet cat, try and keep your feline friend inside as cats are notorious for killing birds.

4) Enjoy the birdsong. Through listening and learning, you will soon be able to identify your avian garden visitors by sound and you can become a ‘citizen scientist’!

As renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough says, “What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?”

February 16, 2021 brendenbeckett Blog, Nature Nearby, Our member!, Power of No Comments

Why we must protect our vanishing species

By Monica K Bhatia

We as humans can often get so caught up in our hectic urban lives, spending all day seeing only other people. It can be easy then, to forget that we cohabit our spaces with many other species.

Can you guess how many we share the UK with?

70,000. That is 70,000 species of animal, plant, fungi, grass in the UK alone! To be fair, we don’t exactly see them every day – if you’re a wildlife fanatic you probably have seen some through your screens in the form of documentaries. However, so many go unnoticed from the humble Silphidae (beetles that feed on decaying matter, often dead animals) to the mighty fox, which can live a lot closer to city centres than you may think. We can be dismissive of these species and this tends to continue to keep them out of the conversation, when it comes to what we love about nature.

But as our Vanishing campaign makes clear, 41% of these species (or the ones that were studied for the State of Nature report) are declining. The UK is 189th in the world for biodiversity and has missed most of its major targets for preventing the loss of biodiversity in the last decade. Making targets is all well and good but if we don’t then follow up on creating successful plans and holding the government to account when they fail, they are pointless.

If you asked somebody “what is the population of the world”, you’d probably get an answer of around 7.5 to 8 billion, but this is in fact wrong. There are around 8.7 million species of wildlife in the whole world, and imagine how many individuals there are in each species, we actually have no idea of how many organisms this earth holds!

Our human-centric focus tends to keep us from moving forward and clouds are judgement regarding policy change. Something that must be reworked.

If you look back at some of our previous blogs at UK Youth for Nature (you can find the link below!), you will see that we have discussed ecosystem services; the benefits they can give are vast and varied but none of these would occur without the support of a diverse set of species that fill all the niches (Little quirks) of a habitat. I truly believe that if you picked out any species – yes any out of the 8.7 million – it is more than likely indirectly part of your life

whether it be pollination from wild honey bees (creating fruits and seeds), the little bit of joy you gain when you see a heron standing in a pond, the brush of some moss instead of scraping your hand on stone or even just being able to breath slightly healthier air thanks to a few trees lining the street.

While I would love to type for pages and pages about how great the earth’s species are for all that it does, there are some harsh statistics surrounding what is happening to them. Wildlife experts calculate that a low-ball estimate between 0.01-0.1% of all species are lost every year. Looking at the number 0.01 seems pretty minute, right?
At this rate, we are still losing 8,700 per year; it’s far too much to lose globally. Especially when you take into account some of these are from small changes we have made, like neonicotinoids, fisher trawling, etc.

There’s a lot of things the government could do in this regard, without stating the obvious that they should have stuck to the targets they set and aggressively pushed to achieve them by 2020. They could always make more aggressive action for 2025 and fund this area significantly to get back on track of their own plan. But, we know that’s unlikely to bear any fruit and so what they could do instead is turn protected areas already created, into havens for wildlife. Often they’re miss-managed, under funded and generally disregarded by the wider public. Make these areas beautiful retreats for nature, pillars of the community and beacons of hope to show that the UK should not be a 189th best for biodiversity country (https://www.britishwildlife.com/article/volume-30-number-2-page-87-95).

In addition they need to fund and provide enough legal enforcement to environmental enforcement agencies (Natural England and Environment Agency to name two), so that they can spend the time needed to continuously educate and reinforce the importance of biodiversity across the UK. That funding should then filter down into nature itself, simply comparing it to road infrastructure funding makes it look miniscule. £3 billion is a laughable amount when we’re already so far behind the promises the government made 10 years ago. Why isn’t it our priority to save the biodiversity on our little island?

Local authorities should take a tougher stance on planning proposals and utilise the knowledge of experts when required. Wider government should create nationwide nature plans to reduce the distance needed to find a local site, corridors for nature should be created and specific ‘stop off’ points supported to help migrating birds find shelter. We should be investing in saving the most vulnerable species, those endemic to our island and those that are part of our national identity. Reintroduce species where possible to help resolve centuries old issues due to extinction (Deer populations are too high). Then filter through that passion and desperation to every species we can save, we used to care so much about nature, from the books we wrote, to the interest we gave to other countries. Yes, it’s a huge issue rolling down the hill and it’s hard to stop. We can fix this though, there’s still a small amount of time, it just requires some effort. There’s so many things we can do but the biggest thing we can do is try

As always, I will never write an article about how change needs to happen without offering advice on how to step in, so if you’re thoughtful enough to make personal changes to keep these species living and thriving, read on! One way is through ethical consumerism, which is exactly what it sounds like – purchasing ethically, and we can take orangutans as an example. Sumatran orangutans are classified as critically endangered. These great apes live in the rainforests of the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and while it makes for a great home for these animals, for us humans, it is a rich source of palm oil, an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees which is found in everything from our chocolate bars to our shampoos. So how can we counteract this? Always check your products before putting them in the basket, and if you don’t want to sit and read the tiny writing on the back of your products, head over to the nifty app linked below that’ll do all of the research for you. (Once you start looking you’ll find a lot of surprising food items contain palm oil, even ones not supposed to!!)

When seeking to help out a pressing cause, it all starts with education. Head over to the IUCN Red List linked below to do some research into your favourite animals and their stance in population numbers, or if you want to see the most endangered straight away, take a look at the WWF website to look at their list of most endangered species (which you

could then consider sponsoring!).

Thank you very much for taking the time to read, remember to stay safe, and stay educated on the vanishing species you know and love! And always keep in mind, while being aware of the species we have lost, don’t forget to look at all of the great success stories when it comes to reappearing (we’re looking at you, dodo bird).

Ecosystem services and nature based solutions blog: https://youthfornature.uk/2020/12/15/ecosystem-services-and-nature-based-solutions/

Ethical shopping resource:

giki.earth/

IUCN Red list:
https://www.iucnredlist.org/

WWF endangered list

https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/wildlife?ds_rl=1263317&pc=ATB001001

WWF success stories!

https://www.wwf.org.uk/success-stories

Monica’s Instagram: HERE

January 13, 2021 brendenbeckett Blog, Our member!, Uncategorized, Vanishing No Comments

Ecosystem Services and Nature Based Solutions

By Monica Bhatia

It is clear to see that so much of what we humans have on earth is given to us by the natural world – many of these are what keep us alive! So if the services that ecosystems provide us are so important, surely we should be doing everything in our power to keep these ecosystems alive and healthy. Unfortunately this isn’t always a priority. So let’s discuss ecosystem services, and the nature based solutions to keep them functioning.

To begin, it is key that we understand the components; an ecosystem is a biological community of interacting organisms within their physical environment and a service is a system supplying a public need. Therefore an ecosystem service can be defined as the benefits to humans provided by these ecosystems.

Before we continue, let’s look at the main ecosystems that make our lives oh so wonderful:

Tropical rainforest
Temperate forest
Boreal forest
Tropical grassland
Temperate grassland
Mediterranean
Desert
Tundra
Mountain

Now, what are the main ecosystem services? They can be split into four main categories:

1 – Provisioning services

These are the tangible goods produced or provided by ecosystems. One example of this is food, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, which not only provides us food on a basis of survival. Another example is fuel wood, and this benefits not only individuals in regards to heat for cooking but also allows unusable wood excess to find a home and reduce waste.

2 – Regulating services

These are the benefits we gain from the regulation of ecosystem processes (regulation meaning the act of something being maintained by an authority). Examples of regulating services include pest regulation, climate regulation, and pollination. What is key to note when looking at these is the fact that we could not live without them; if pests were not regulated, crops would be devastated or even wiped out; if the climate wasn’t regulated, the earth’s surface temperature would soar even quicker, making the planet simply inhospitable sooner than is already predicted and if pollination wasn’t to take place, the habitats that wildlife rely on for food and shelter may not even exist.

Without pest predators like birds, plant life would likely struggle to feed our global populations because pests adore munching away on plants.

3 – Cultural services

These are the non-material benefits we withdraw from ecosystems, such as a spiritual, recreational, aesthetic and educational gain. While, unlike the provisioning and regulating services, our lives don’t necessarily depend on cultural services, they provide a different type of gain; it allows traditions to be withheld throughout decades, allows families and friends to bond in the outdoors, provides self peace and joy, and allows you to educate yourself with a more holistic understanding of the world.

Did you know, just 20 minutes spent outdoors can significantly lower your stress levels?
Simply, nature provides a stunning view; just look at those trees – and mountains – and that lake!
There are an estimated 413 ecosystems in the world. That is 413 things to learn about!

4 – Support services

These are the factors necessary for maintaining these ecosystem services, such as soil formation and nutrient cycling. If these biological processes didn’t exist, nor would the animals and environments that produce all of the gains mentioned above, and our lives would be nowhere near what they are right now.

In the same way that bricks and cement build solid foundations for our houses, nutrients and soil build up ecosystems – it’s like a construction matrial!

At this point you might be thinking, we have all of this already, and we will in years to come, so what are we trying to solve? People think this because the things mentioned above such as food and wood fuel are labelled as “renewable”. If a resource is renewable, it is meant to mean we will always be able to have it, however, this is often not the case. It can happen where over exploitation occurs – thinking it’ll never run out – yet an infinite resource can turn finite. Why don’t we look at an example:
Trees. We can always plant them, and the world is full of them. The fact that they can be grown again and again means that they are an infinite resource. Wood is in demand as we use it for heating and energy, so we cut it down. If we cut down the trees at a faster rate than we can grow them back, there is a possibility of there being a period where there are no trees (as we would still be waiting for more to grow). If you’re a bit business savvy, you could even call it supply and demand.

So now we know where our issue lies, we can begin to ponder the solutions, and more specifically, the nature based solutions. Nature based solutions are actions that work with and enhance nature to help address social challenges. The solution begins with us – we need to take on lifestyles where we withdraw the gifts of nature that we need to survive, while allowing it to flourish and recover between periods where we take from it. If you are reading this article, I can assume that you are intrigued as to what the nature based solutions to ecosystem loss are – they can be carried out on an individual, organisational or governmental scale, but considering you may want to make a change, let’s begin with the steps you can take.

It is all about consumption really. More or less everything we buy, eat or wear is a derivative of nature, even if it isn’t so obvious, somewhere down the supply chain of the products you own, an ecosystem service comes into play. There are two main questions we can ask ourselves; what do we buy/consume, and how much do we buy/consume. You should always check when buying natural products that they are derived ethically, in a way that doesn’t harm the ecosystem it comes from, here are some marks to look out for that ensure that your product is doing as little damage as possible:

Note that these symbols don’t guarantee that the entire product is both ethical, sustainable and provide a fair wage. They merely target one section of the creation process (and sometimes transport process) and suggest that they’ve tried to follow certain guidelines.
Often the best practice is to buy when you need something and to buy local.

Additionally, we just need to buy less if it is derived from nature – remember how we mentioned supply and demand? We need to give what we take away time to be replenished. If you want to go all the way and make as little interruptions in ecosystems as possible, consider some lifestyle changes; ensure your home runs on renewable energy sources, or install a smart meter so you can keep an eye on what you use.

When we talk about organisations, we are discussing amazing groups such as the WWF, which collect funds in order to preserve these habitats and shield them from being exploited. This trend has developed and progressed into other organisations but this needs to be a more commonplace practice for businesses.

But where the most influence is held, is in our governments. If stricter environmental rules were insisted upon, we wouldn’t have products that are not ethically sourced in a way that is as unobtrusive as possible, as it simply wouldn’t be allowed – yet laws and policymakers often turn a blind eye and allow too much to be derived in the wrong way (often only focusing on economic benefit), meaning we are losing many more ecosystems than we should. (speaking your mind is the best way to show a government that you disagree with a policy – sign petitions at www.gov.uk > petition-government, or maybe express your views in an instagram post and tag @borisjohnsonuk @ukgovofficial and @ukparliment !)

I would like to thank you so much for reading, I hope I have done a decent job in educating you on ecosystems and nature based solutions – stay safe, and stay caring for the planet 🙂

Follow Monica HERE

December 15, 2020 brendenbeckett Blog, Nature Nearby, Our member! 1 Comment

We’re recruiting for our Advisory Committee!

We know that there are a number of areas where we know we can improve our performance, knowledge and outcomes. An Advisory Committee would help us to ensure that our actions as an organisation and a movement are as impactful as they can be and are embedded in evidence, accuracy, and expertise.

We are currently seeking advisors with the following expertise:

List of positions:

Diversity & inclusion
Social media
Campaign strategy
Political strategy
Mental health & education

Our initial proposal would be for an average of 1 day/month. However, the structure of the advisor’s position would be tailored according to their skills, expertise, availability, and own ideas, investment, and requirements. This time would be used mainly by the core Organising Team and would perhaps include:

Review of strategy documents, according to area of expertise, and suggestions for improvement
Review of campaign materials, according to area of expertise, and suggestions for improvement
Open discussions and general training and advice
Targeted sessions for wider members of the team
Specific questions that would be addressed to advisors only once we had undertaken research and attempted to come up with solutions ourselves.

If you’re interested or want to find out more, please email: ukyouthfornature@gmail.com

Thank you!

December 7, 2020 brendenbeckett Uncategorized No Comments

What the heck? SSSI’s

An informatory series, to educate on topics relevant to any of our campaigns.

What are they?

A Site of Special Scientific Interest¹ (SSSI) is a protected area considered special by virtue of the wildlife, geology or landform contained within it. There are over 6900 SSSI‘s in the UK! (See image below!)

Image depicting the listed SSSI’s across the UK as of 2020.
© Scottish Natural Heritage Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right (2020)
© Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2020.
© Natural Resources Wales copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2020.
© Northern Ireland Environment Agency copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2020.

SSSI status is a higher-level designation than a Local Wildlife Site which means they are afforded partial legal protection to prevent damage from activities such as development. In some parts of the UK SSSI’s are also protected from neglect as owners have legal obligations to look after them.²

The specific legislation underpinning SSSI’s differs between countries but all offer similar levels of protection. They are;

Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) as amended (England and Wales)
Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 (Scotland)
Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands Order 1985 (Northern Ireland).

How are they created?

Fundamentally, SSSI’s are selected because they contain the best examples of natural heritage in the UK but the actual process of designation involves;

Cataloguing features of interest.
Evaluation against a set of established criteria.

The ultimate responsibility for designating SSSI status then falls to the devolved nature conservation bodies;

Natural England
NatureScot
Natural Resources Wales
Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

Why is it important to look after them?

SSSI’s are a cornerstone in British nature conservation, forming a national network of protected sites, often underpinning higher-level designations such as National Parks or Natura 2000 sites. Given the scale of wildlife decline in the UK and the continued development of the countryside it is imperative to look after SSSI’s to ensure the continued survival of a wide range of the diverse habitats, species and landforms found in the UK.

Many SSSI’s also deliver a variety of provisioning, regulating and cultural services to society, which are so valuable, that DEFRA has concluded that the benefits of achieving favourable condition in all SSSI’s far outweighs the investment cost.

By Chrissy Derrick – Organising member

References

1) Known as an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in Northern Ireland
2) In England since 2000

December 2, 2020 brendenbeckett Blog, Our member!, What the heck? No Comments

‘Rewilding’ at different spatial scales

(A suggestion of a variety of small steps we could all take to achieve a complex goal – reducing homogenous landscapes)

The biodiversity crisis is real, and we require serious action to avert a mass extinction and the deterioration of our self regulating planet. “Rewilding” is often posed as a solution, yet there is now much confusion about what it actually means, and, rather than slapping meaningless labels onto things, we need a clear plan to restore nature at speed and scale.

So here is my vision of how we can restore nature in the UK, my “rewilding manifesto” if you like.

At the smallest scale, we can let more nature into our gardens. Allowing patches to grow into scrub, planting flowers, creating a pond, and growing vegetables could create a variety of microhabitats for insects and small birds. This isn’t going to save the planet, but we might as well allow a bit more wildness to live alongside us.

At a slightly larger scale, we can allow more wildlife to persist in our parks, verges, and the margins of farmland (hedges, field margins, and ditches). At these scales, we’re reliant on mimicking ecological processes through human management rather than allowing nature to truly take over. Cutting vegetation sporadically to maintain a patchwork of vegetation heights, mimicking wild herbivores; tilling the soil and sowing wildflower mixes to mimic wild boar; culling herbivores to mimic top down apex predator control.

Within farmland itself, harnessing our ecological understanding will be vital for producing nutritious food with the smallest possible environmental impact. Minimising the disturbance of soil and ensuring a constant covering of vegetation can increase its fertility and minimise the erosion of this precious resource. Integrating trees into arable systems may be able to increase the yields of crops by restoring soil mycorrhizal networks, and also producing fruit or nuts – more nutritional diversity – as a bonus. Providing hedge habitat for songbirds may be able to reduce the impact of insect pests through predation. Since we have so little agroecological farming in the UK, there are likely to be many ways in which we can make farmland better for wildlife without reducing yields.
However, neither should we entirely abandon conventional modern agriculture or oppose new developments such as genetic modification; we should be wary of romanticising the farming practices of the past or having an irrational fear of modern technology, when what we need is a combination of both high tech and low tech approaches to farm using the smallest possible amount of land and water, and emitting as little greenhouse gases and nutrient and soil runoff as
possible.

Across the wider farmland landscape we should restore corridors of greater ecological complexity. The obvious way to do this is along our river valleys. Creating a 20m buffer either side of rivers and streams, allowing scrub to regenerate, and releasing vast numbers of beavers, would create mosaics of wetland, woodland, dead wood, and rough grassland habitats. Focusing our efforts along river valleys not only ensures that these habitats are joined up at a landscape scale, but also helps to attenuate flooding, and minimise the effects of agricultural runoff on our aquatic ecosystems.

Corridors should also be created to link up tiny, isolated nature reserves to allow species to move to track climate change, and enable the use of large herbivores roaming over large areas to create a diverse mosaic of habitats, rather than prescriptive management of individual sites. The margins of urban areas should also be a priority for nature restoration. “Green belts” are often little better for wildlife than the surrounding countryside; a commitment to a “wild belt” around every city could make a real contribution both to nature recovery and improving people’s connection to nature and mental health.

Into these corridors we could reintroduce lost species to restore the complex web of trophic interactions which characterises a healthy ecosystem. Wildcats, pine martens, water voles, red backed shrikes, and storks could all be reintroduced, or come back of their own accord, and, whilst they may not have the ecosystem engineering capabilities of wolves or beavers, they would certainly add a lot more magic into our natural world.

At the largest scale, we should have huge areas, each of many thousands of acres, devoted toambitious nature restoration, where ecosystem engineers and natural processes are the primary engines of biodiversity. We should prioritise this strategy in areas which are already fairly good for nature and retain substantial fragments which we can join up by filling in the intervening farmland. In the south of England, we might have a 15,000 acre heathland and wetland stewarded by bison and beavers at Minsmere; a continuous swath of chalk grassland, woodland and scrub along the south downs and the chilterns, grazed by feral horses, cattle, and wild boar; a mega wetland in the Somerset Levels 10x the size of what we have now, and a few more. As well as these, we should create new nature areas from scratch: the famous Knepp estate has become a truly fantastic wildlife hotspot, starting from ecologically barren farmland, in just 20 years. In places such as the lake district, smaller, slightly-less-wild areas could involve aspects of traditional farming to preserve cultures, rare breeds, and rural economies.

Within the massive wildlands we should bring back many more of our lost species. White tailed eagles already soar over the south coast and will soon be thriving in the marshlands of East Anglia and Somerset; perhaps one day truly epic dalmatian pelicans, one of the world’s largest living birds, will join them. In the coming decades, we should reintroduce lynx and wolves. The latter could live here already, we only need to change mindsets and design mitigation for farmers.

So how can we achieve this vision? I think there are two main requirements: a shift in mindset, and a restructuring of food production and farm subsidies.

In our sanitised, efficiency-obsessed modern world, we seem to have developed what one ecologist calls “ecological tidiness disorder”. We have an obsession with “cleaning up” messy corners, yet these are the places where wildlife can thrive. We need to appreciate the creatures living around us, and allow them a little more space to thrive. We would also do well to temper our fear of large animals: in mainland Europe, wild boar live in landscapes as densely populated as southern England. They are not without problems – raiding dustbins, rotavating football pitches, and terrorising nudists – but that is part of the point: we need to accept that other species impact the landscape as well, and we shouldn’t always be in control. How can we expect poorer nations to coexist with tigers, lions, or elephants – species which pose a genuine threat to human lives and livelihoods – if we can’t live alongside wild boar or beavers?

Secondly, we need to rethink the relationship between food production and nature. Due to the infamous shifting baseline syndrome, as well as our cultural romanticisation of farmed landscapes, we have mistakenly believed that we can solve our ecological crisis by farming differently. Yes, we can allow a bit more wildlife to live in farmland, but when scientists have measured the population sizes of wild species in different kinds of farmland, they have found, universally, that farmland of any kind is a poor habitat for most creatures. When we abandon our preconceptions, this is unsurprising: part of the reason why there are so many species on the planet is because most are specialists, occupying a particular niche which, moreover, is often created by other species – the huge complexity of intact ecosystems creates the conditions for new species to evolve, which promotes further complexity. Therefore, it’s inevitable that many of these species will disappear, and many others decline dramatically, whenever intact, complex ecosystems are replaced with simplified, farmed ones, regardless of the kind of farming practices we use. Or in other words, creating a genuinely rich ecosystem requires the reduction of farmyields to such an extent that it becomes impossible to produce any meaningful quantity of food, regardless of whether we might choose to label this as “regenerative”, “in harmony with nature”, or “traditional farming”. Furthermore, if we farm more land to produce a given amount of food, it is intuitive that the impacts on soils, carbon emissions, and water use are likely to be greater.

Farming is a necessity for our survival but it is, fundamentally, an environmentally damaging activity. To reduce its impacts on the other species with which we share the planet, our key goal should be to reduce the amount of land that we farm.

In terms of a national plan for biodiversity, then, we should restructure farm subsidies to create large areas primarily devoted to ambitious ecological restoration, and, by necessity, separate areas devoted to highly productive food production. Not only is this our best option for large scale nature recovery, but it is also one of the best options for reducing farming’s climatic impact.

As consumers, we should dramatically reduce the quantity of animal products which we consume. Getting a higher proportion of our nutrition from plants would enable us to substantially decrease the land area required to feed each person. We should reduce food waste as much as possible. It is outrageous that 30-40% of food is wasted, and we might as well eat all the food we buy. If we could implement measures to prevent the spread of disease, we could feed any remaining food waste, as well as some crop residues, to pigs and chickens, but the amount of meat which could be produced in this way would be much lower than what we consume today.

In general we should shift to a paradigm of “land for food and land for nature”. As the excellent book Rebirding suggests, Britain is uniquely weird in the extent to which we perceive farmland as our core wildlife habitat, and have no real ecosystems. If we are to address the truly cataclysmic biodiversity crisis, we need to be much more ambitious than simply making our farmland a bit better for wildlife.

So there you have it, my vision for rewilding Britain. Perhaps I have talked too much about farming, but I think this is the key issue – how can we restore Britain’s wildlife without simply destroying more of the natural world in other countries (which often hold more of the earth’s biological diversity) to feed ourselves.

So, going back through the scales. At the top, we have massive areas of truly incredible ecosystems, governed by herds of megafauna, flooding, vegetation succession, predation, and death and decay, built up from our existing remnants which still hold substantial wildlife. At the next level down, we have smaller areas of nature recovery where low densities of semi-wild herbivores create habitat diversity. At a smaller scale, we have corridors along our rivers thronged with ecosystem-engineering and flood-mitigating beavers, small mammals such as wildcats, pine martens, and water voles, and returning birds such as red backed shrikes, storks, and willow tits, which move between the larger nature areas and spill out into the surrounding landscape. And finally at the micro scale, we allow a bit more mess and wildness to grow, sustaining insects which may not save the world but nevertheless enrich our lives. Combined with a parallel effort to feed ourselves sustainably on less land, ambitious nature recovery could conceivably occupy half of Britain, and we would do our bit to once again make this a genuinely living planet.

By Josh Harris – Organising member

Twitter/Insta: @joshharriswild

November 27, 2020 brendenbeckett Nature Nearby, Our member! No Comments

The power of nature in a chaotic and digital world

Having grown up in a small town since the age of 6, I never realised how important having green space near me was until I moved to a city last year. I had to walk for 25 minutes to reach my nearest green space, which was a shock when I was used to having nature all around me. When I lived in the city, I missed being able to go out and walk in the woods, but more than this, I wanted the freedom you feel when you’re in green spaces, away from buildings and cars. Being in these physical spaces helps to give you mental space, to think and feel without as much noise and as many buildings and distractions. Being able to spend a little part of your day in nature will change your mood instantly, it will help you to feel calm and more relaxed (1).

I now live in the same town in which I grew up and even though I see them every day, there is always something lovely about seeing deer, red squirrels, hares, eagles, rabbits and chaffinches around you when you’re outside. Bird song is also known to help relieve stress and refocus your attention (2). You can’t help but smile when watching a red squirrel challenge itself to see how many peanuts it can fit in its mouth or when they chase each other around the trunk of a tree. There is so much joy to be found in seeing and hearing animals in their natural habitats and without green spaces, this becomes more difficult. There is no reason why these moments of happiness in nature shouldn’t be accessible to everyone.

Having nature on your doorstep is even more vital now, with so many people spending all day staring at computer screens when working from home or doing online university courses. Spending all this time connected means we are taking in much more information than we are used to, and it can be really difficult to process this. Being able to spend some time in nature each day, away from email pings and zoom calls, is essential for our mental health and our ability to process information and the events of the day. I know that for me, being able to spend time with my dog in the park or go for a walk in the local nature reserve after university classes is the perfect way to unwind and let my mind relax.

I am much happier now as I am back in my small town with nature on my doorstep, but it should not take living in a town or the countryside for this to happen. There is no reason why every city can’t have open spaces where residents can experience nature and all its benefits.

Written by Morgan Guthrie

Twitter: @morganguthrie35

(1)https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/nature-and-m ental-health/how-nature-benefits-mental-health/

(2)https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/04/birdsong-antidote-to-stre ssful-lives-dawn-chorus-day

November 23, 2020 brendenbeckett Nature Nearby, Our member! No Comments

Physical Access And Nature

By Monica Bhatia

We all know that nature is incredibly beneficial to people of all ages, for a variety or different reasons, whether it be physical health such as going for a jog, or mental health, such as taking some time to clear your head. Now, if nature is so helpful for anyone, why isn’t it accessible for everyone?

To begin, we need to address the question; what actually makes nature accessible? Accessibility is defined as the quality of being able to be reached or entered, and for people with disabilities, their requirements for being able to enter nature spaces are slightly different. Examples of some simple implementations that can make a green space be classified as open to all are:

Wheelchair rental
Disabled parking
Near public transport links (for those unable to drive)
Disabled toilets
Braille on maps and signs
Ramps for hides
Wheelchair friendly ramps
Keys given out for vehicle access gates

These small scale adaptations to the UKs green spaces could mean that more people can get out there and comfortably experience wildlife without struggle.

So if we know what makes a green space open to all, which green spaces have already taken on these adaptations? If we, for example, are looking at nature reserves, the statistics are as follows:
¹The UK hosts a huge 341 national nature reserves (224 in England, 74 in Wales, and 43 in Scotland), yet only a small portion of these have implemented the facilities above.

This statistic is incredibly saddening, because while some may believe that accessible green spaces are not of much importance, research by many trusts and organisations prove otherwise. ³Below is presented just why accessibility to these nature spaces is so important.

Upon knowing the vast array of the benefits nature provides, it makes the lack of green spaces such as nature reserves in the UK even more saddening – but not all hope is lost! There are many individuals and organisations trying to turn the tide. One example is the ⁴All For Nature & Nature For All campaign, started by a young girl living with cerebral palsy called Ellie. In her post, she explains that she has faced many disappointing experiences with inaccessible nature, stating that the location of her local nature reserve, linked with the inconsistent public transport timetable means she is unable to travel to and from the area, and her campaign sets out to ‘further educate those working in the conservation sector to make sites of natural interest as accessible as possible’.

Additionally, an example of a celebrity hero in conservation who has recognised the issue and is doing his bit is no other than Sir David Attenborough himself! In 1966, The Attenborough Nature Reserve And Centre was established – being best known for its birds, the reserve is incredibly accessible, hosting on site disabled parking and wheelchair friendly trails.

Finally, an organisation supporting the cause is us! Our #Naturenearby campaign is calling on governments to make nature accessible to ALL, so if you’re looking for ways to support the cause, be sure to sign our ⁵petition!

So now that you know who to support when it comes to making nature accessible to all, what can you as an individual do? I recently went to my local green space, and using the criteria of what makes a place accessible, took photographs and gathered a rough idea of how open-to-all it was. By doing this, you can inform friends and family with disabilities where they should consider going to be around nature, and if you really feel there are issues with the open spaces accessibility, with this information you could even write a ⁶letter or email to your MP!

1 – www.gov.uk>Parks, trails and nature reserves

2 – www.wildlifetrusts.org>Accessible nature reserves

3 – cvc.ca>Top 7 health benefits of being in nature

4 – #Attenborough90: Why nature should be accessible to all

5 – http://chng.it/DRqDtKm7Qd

Follow Monica HERE

November 18, 2020 brendenbeckett Blog, Nature Nearby, Our member! No Comments

Change.org post #LIVE NOW !!! #NatureNearby

We, the youth of today are fed up with the status quo, we’re dissapointed in the UK government for failing us on almost every part of the ambitious targets set for 2020 that were aimed at tackling climate change and saving biodiversity. We’re failing as a nation, as a global leader and as a visionary like we once were. We, as individuals should not have to feel like we’re in quicksand dragging something else down to keep afloat, funding needs to be given to this cause in abundance so that a nationwide approach can be adopted.

Park usage has increased due to COVID-19 and they’re often awfully kept, have a lacking amount of biodiversity, filled with litter and really feel unsafe at night. How is that possible in the 21st Century?
This shows a need to increase the quality of those areas as most parks have had funding cut for years.

We are supporting our Letter to the PM – which had over 50+ signatories from NGO’s, organisations and business with this petition for the INDIVIDUALS who want to support this message.
Two streams of support will showcase our message isn’t exclusive to those that would benefit from it but also that as a society we mean to change. The Government has released a 10 point plan as of today but we intend to ask for more, this was not enough for us.

Our CHANGE.ORG petition is now live!!!

Demand that the UK Government invests in giving everyone equal access to nature

Shariqa Zia, an organising team member for us speaks from the heart about our desperate need to increase nature access for all.

Sign the petition, share it and help bring #NatureNearby for all no matter where you live in the UK.

November 18, 2020 brendenbeckett Nature Nearby, Petition No Comments

Nature Nearby: Moving beyond nature ‘access’

A guest blog by Dr Sarah Bell, University of Exeter.

“I think nature has become more important to me in some ways, now that I find it harder to get to it… because it’s unnecessary that it’s harder to get to, so it feels like an unnecessary separation”

This is a pertinent quote from one of the participants in our two-year ‘Sensing Nature’ research project; a project that invites us to question how nature access and inclusion are currently understood and approached in research, policy and practice.

The project was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, from 2016-2018. Using an in-depth, collaborative research approach, it aimed to explore how people with sight impairment describe and experience a sense of wellbeing (or otherwise) with diverse types of nature through the life course.

What ‘nature’ is and what it means to people can vary according to the environments we grow up in, those we experience (or are excluded from) over time, and with the many stories that circulate about nature within different societies and across generations.

Since the 2003 Diversity Review, there has been growing momentum to nurture nature that is ‘accessible’ and ‘relevant’ to everyone. In 2018, the UK Government published its 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment, ‘A Green Future’. This plan explicitly calls for policies that ‘balance the needs of a growing, vibrant society with the ability to access green space’.

Despite such commitments, there remain stark inequalities – particularly along lines of disability, race, ethnicity and income – in who can shape, access and experience nature in its varied forms. Perhaps more critical attention is needed to whose versions of nature are prioritised in current access initiatives, in the name of what forms of nature connection?

Progress has been made in identifying groups who are typically less likely to engage with nature, for example through nationwide surveys, such as Natural England’s ‘People and Nature’ survey. Yet, these surveys tend to operationalise socio-demographic ‘differences’ as static variables to be ‘controlled’ or ‘adjusted for’, without necessarily exploring why or how inequalities in access have developed over time.

Valuable guidance exists for those keen to enhance nature access amongst varied groups. For example, the fantastic Sensory Trust has developed the widely used ‘Access Chain’ tool. This tool demonstrates opportunities for ensuring nature access plans relate to all parts of a visitor experience; from the moment someone decides to visit, to their journey to a site, their experiences in situ and their return home.

Despite a range of innovative nature encounters being supported through such awareness, many so-called ‘accessible’ nature experiences continue to segregate on the basis of perceived difference rather than fostering genuine social inclusion.

This tendency may reflect a failure to fully understand varied ways of sensing and making sense of nature, or to employ a diverse workforce within the sectors involved in ‘curating’ nature experiences; for example, in landscape architecture, nature conservation, access, management and interpretation roles. Indeed, how can people design for, manage or interpret nature experiences that they may not even be aware of?

It may also be a product of longstanding nature exclusion, intentional or otherwise. For example, there is growing concern about the imposition of ‘Green LULUs’, Green Locally Unwanted Land Uses, whereby planners do not engage with existing land use conflicts or the needs of historically marginalised communities. These interventions can fail to address histories of neglect or exclusion – or support meaningful participation in local land use decision-making – amongst underheard community members.

In our work during and since the ‘Sensing Nature’ project, we have tried to encourage a shift in people’s awareness of and approaches to disability and ‘difference’ in relation to nature access and experience; moving away from framing disability as an ‘access need’, and recognising it instead as a potential opportunity for creativity and shared learning.

Through nurturing a more diverse workforce and volunteer base, perhaps the nature sector could acknowledge past erasures and better harness the valuable knowledges that different people can contribute to nature conservation, management, interpretation and visitor experience roles? Perhaps we could better work together to transform the sector, to make the unseen or rarely felt qualities of nature encounter more compelling across varied backgrounds, histories and life circumstances?

If you would like to read more about the Sensing Nature project or the initiatives we have been working on since, do visit the project ‘News’ pages or feel free to get in touch via email (via Sarah.Bell@exeter.ac.uk).

November 18, 2020 brendenbeckett Nature Nearby No Comments

Author brendenbeckett