Rebirding: Winner of the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation: Restoring Britain's Wildlife

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Elsewhere community groups such as the Totley Swift Group in Sheffield have erected nearly 100 nesting boxes in recent years, nearly a quarter of which have been used by the birds to nest. Ideally any nesting spot for swifts needs to be north-facing, sheltered, and at least five metres off the ground (the higher the better for the fledglings’ first vertiginous flight). These are birds which are seriously declining, but in a way they are still here and not yet at the desperate fragmentary population stage,” explains Ben Stammers, people and wildlife officer at the North Wales Wildlife Trust. “They are still present in most towns, villages and cities. It is the perfect time to try and help them and they are a species we can help.” Bold in vision and clear in purpose, Benedict MacDonald shows how we can transform and return the UK’s wilderness to its full glory, without sacrificing people or their own livelihoods, but rather by enriching rural economies and transitioning away from dying and decaying industries. It’s remarkable to read that despite what our eyes see, the vast majority of British national parks are dead, deserts devoid of any substantial birdlife, left in the hands of forestry or deer keeping that have no benefit to birds and natural wildlife. MacDonald shows how with a few reädjustments, large areas of the UK’s former grouse lands, Welsh hills, and the Somerset levels can be transformed into wonderful wilderness preserves, the envy of Europe and America. He boldly plots out even the return of Dalmatian pelicans by 2060!

When considering this technique for yourself or your child, be sure to weigh the evidence against the risk. While a few hours of supervised shallow breathing will probably not hurt you, there is little to no evidence that it will lead to a definitive, cathartic experience.History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people but the appalling silence and indifference of the good. Our generation will have to repent not only for the words and actions of the children of darkness but also for the fears and apathy of the children of light. Some revolutionary (to me) ideas within this volume: For the longest time that fact that humans had either wiped out or outcopeted by stealing the food source of all the large herbivores that used to exist within the British landscape did not matter, because the local, nomadic, in tocuh with nature type of farming that humans practiced meant they engineered the landscape in much the same way as these extinct species did. This in turn meant that a whole cascade of species of birds, insects and other could continue to thrive in Britains mosaic of habitats (wood pastures, scrub grasslands and wetlands). It was only after the industrial revolution that we started to implement ideas of hughest yield, monoculture farming that everything went down hill. At the end of WW2 the CAP (common agricultural policy) paid farmers to manicure their farms and thereby removed huge chunks of habitat for birds and their food stuff (seed and insects). In countries like Poland and to a lesser extent Germany, where either this traditional type of farming is still practised, or where the systematic manicured natural state was not encouraged, birds and insects that have gone extinct in Britain are still thriving.

This is a wake-up call to the blanket use of dangerously toxic agricultural chemicals. So meticulously informed, rigorously researched, yet accessible to the mainstream, Carson’s writing paints two evocative pictures through her suite of characters, from the robin to the gypsy moth. Yes, the indiscriminate spraying of pesticides such as DDT was detrimental to this planet’s ecology and our own health. Yet Silent Springemphasises that we have the power to call for change. One of the most important arguments he mounts is that the large mammals he calls “landscape architects” must be returned to Britain – bison, wild boar and the predators that influence their density and distribution are what maintained European diversity over millennia. There is one place in Britain where this great experiment is being run – Knepp Estate in West Sussex, 3,500 acres where primitive breeds of cattle, pigs and ponies have been left to roam. Let’s be the first generation since we colonised Britain to leave our children better off for wildlife Benedict Macdonald This is the story of how Britain became a factory,’ Benedict Macdonald writes in this remarkable work of horror and hope. The result is astonishing. Some of Britain’s rarest birds and butterflies now thrive at Knepp, and habitats lost for generations are returning. Tiny Knepp is now outshining many much larger, supposedly natural areas, in terms of its biodiversity. Yet many of the people living around Knepp have objected to the changes. Some see the new emerging landscapes as untidy and the resort of weeds (which is by and large untrue), while others feel that the messiness is profoundly unBritish. Such attitudes remind us of how difficult the job of rebirding Britain will be.The author creates a fantastic vision for the restoration of nature and wildlife to Britain, much of which is certainly achievable. However, he does position himself as the authority on the subject, suggesting that it is nature conservation charities who are the ones that need to bare the brunt of the responsibility, despite previously pointing out that it is big industry that has created the problems.

He talks about game farms and hunting being a sustainable way to lower meat producing co2 emissions, and the damage to the countryside that cattle and sheep farming has. Consuming Venison rather than Beef. I understand the logic of the argument- deer wild feed whilst cattle have feed that is grown in South America shipped to the UK. Deer are gentle nature lovers, cattle trample everything in sight. Deer live a wonderfully wild life until they are shot in the head; cattle get milked, prodded, live in cramped sheds, get pumped full of meds that pass through manure that end up in the soil and waterways. I'd argue a better way of lowering meat consumption would be to stop eating meat. Swifts are surprisingly long-lived, on average for 10 years and sometimes double that, and possess an incredibly powerful migratory instinct which we do not yet fully understand. That means the birds that alight here from Africa each May will in all likelihood be the very same ones that left the previous year. Even in my own childhood, small tortoiseshell caterpillars were incredibly easy to find – now you can see fewer than ten in the course of an entire summer. Consider that this therapy isn’t something most licensed psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors would recommend.So getting this book to key landowners, particularly estate owners, the Forestry Commission and decision-makers, is going to bekey.