
A wild swimmer's battle to clean up our rivers
Phillipa Cherryson
Sir David Attenborough has asked for our help – these are the things we can do.
The BBC series of Wild Isles has captured the UK public’s imagination with its footage of orcas, puffins, ancient oaks and tiny dormice. Now the presenter and campaigner Sir David Attenborough is asking for your help.
He’s joined together with three of the UK’s biggest conservation charities, The National Trust, the RSPB and WWF, calling on everyone to play a part in protecting the nature and wildlife of the United Kingdom.
The Save our Wild Isles Campaign says that if everyone works together, then nature can thrive again. There are practical things everyone can do, whether it’s planting wildflower seeds, getting involved in community projects or picking up litter. We spoke to gardening, food, outdoors and community experts to get the best advice on how to make a difference.
The BBC series of Wild Isles has captured the UK public’s imagination with its footage of orcas, puffins, ancient oaks and tiny dormice. Now the presenter and campaigner Sir David Attenborough is asking for your help.
He’s joined together with three of the UK’s biggest conservation charities, The National Trust, the RSPB and WWF, calling on everyone to play a part in protecting the nature and wildlife of the United Kingdom.
The Save our Wild Isles Campaign says that if everyone works together, then nature can thrive again. There are practical things everyone can do, whether it’s planting wildflower seeds, getting involved in community projects or picking up litter. We spoke to gardening, food, outdoors and community experts to get the best advice on how to make a difference.
David Domoney, is a RSPB ambassador, ITV’s This Morning resident gardening expert and co-host of Love Your Garden. He says: “All told, UK gardens and balconies cover around 4,000km2 (nearly a million acres), an area more than twice the size of Greater London – that’s huge! Imagine all that space transformed into stepping stones of wildlife-friendly havens. What a difference that could make for garden species such as starlings, bumblebees, and hedgehogs, all of which are struggling and need our help.”
Try planting sunflowers, lavender, or ivy. All of these provide food for birds and bugs in the form of pollen, berries, or seeds. Bird feeders are also a great way to see your local birds up close. Just make sure you clean them regularly.
Birds can’t sweat, so they need water in the summer to stay cool. A birdbath will provide them with somewhere to clean their feathers, which allows them to fly and keep warm in winter. Even a saucer of water will help – just make sure you keep it clean and provide a way for wildlife to climb out.
Bug hotels, log piles, or nest boxes all provide a home for your local species. Bug hotels and log piles can increase the local number of invertebrates. This in turn provides a natural food source to hedgehogs and birds.
Sarah Wilson is a garden designer and horticulturist, and host of the award-winning Roots and All Podcast.
She says: “Gardens make up a not insignificant part of the UK’s land area and it’s in these spaces that we can conserve and actively encourage our wildlife.”
Insecticides, fungicides and herbicides can have some negative effects on certain pollinators. If you’re finding it hard to manage areas of your garden without resorting to sprays, it may be time you took those areas out of cultivation and let them ‘re-wild’ or look at ways of relinquishing some control over how tidy they look.
Many insects love to live and feed in those untouched areas of the garden where things like old plant material and wood are left to rot down. But even in a small garden you can do something. Chop prunings up small and leave them under a hedge, sprinkle some grass clippings in that gap behind your shed or reuse woodier material on top of flowerbeds as a mulch.
Not enough is still known about how our gardening practices can help (or hinder) wildlife. You can help by searching on the internet for wildlife citizen science projects and becoming involved yourself in research like this.
Have a go at growing your own fruit and veg. Even a few herbs and salad leaves can make a difference and taste so much better than shop bought.
Use your garden as a place where you can observe wildlife up close. If you learn to appreciate their habits then you can pass that knowledge on to others, especially children, so they can inherit your love of the natural world.
Tom Hunt is an award-winning chef and writer. Hunt’s Bristol restaurant Poco has won numerous awards, including Best Ethical Restaurant.
Hunt says we can all make a difference by making changes to our diet which can help our planet and our health.
Julia Bradbury, the television presenter, walker and campaigner, tells us: “On my travels around the country I’ve been blessed to witness some of the incredible wildlife that calls the British Isles home.”
Bradbury adds: “But what if you want to see some of the wild wonders of Britain for yourself? My top tips would be:
Lisa Wells is a mountain leader and ambassador for Ordnance Survey, The Ramblers and Snowdonia National Park.
She has these practical tips to help us reduce our impact on nature and wildlife when out walking.
Lisa Drewe is the Chair of Whale and Dolphin Conservation and author.
She says: “Our coastlines are spectacular, but many of these precious habitats and wildlife are in danger and we can all make a difference by taking a few small actions.”
Rare and sensitive habitats, including our coastline, are easy to unwittingly disturb, and a few simple actions will keep them wild and free.
Drewe says the choices we make at home can impact our sea life too.
There are thousands of community-based organisations around the UK working to preserve and improve the countryside around us.
Robert Penn is a best-selling author and founder of charity Stump Up For Trees. It’s a community-based charity whose mission is to plant a million trees.
Penn says it’s important that we all get involved in protecting what’s around us.
“If you want to make a difference right now, you could do worse than plant a tree,” he says. “Trees give life. It’s hard to overstate their benefits. Trees provide food, better air and water quality, medicine, shade, sustainable timber, natural flood management and healthier soils. Trees also sequester carbon, but most importantly in today’s urgent conversation about saving our ‘Wild Isles’, the right trees planted in the right place provide wonderful wildlife habitat.”
Sir David Attenborough says: “The truth is, every one of us, no matter who we are, or where we live, can and must play a part in restoring nature. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed or powerless by the scale of the issues facing our planet, but we have the solutions. I am hopeful for the future, because although nature is in crisis, now is the time for action, and together we can save it.”
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Written by Phillipa Cherryson she/her
Published: Updated:
Phillipa Cherryson is a senior editor for Saga Exceptional. Phillipa has been a journalist for 30 years, writing for local and national newspapers, UK magazines and reporting onscreen for ITV.
Her passion is outdoor fitness. She’s a trainee mountain leader; an Ordnance Survey Champion; she organises walks and instructional events for South Wales members of online community the Adventure Queens and she’s vice chair of the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Local Access Forum.
She hated sports at school and only started getting the fitness bug as she reached her 50s. Now she loves mountain walking, trail runs, e-biking, paddleboarding and climbing. She also loves cake.