Well, as we come to the end of the first full year covered by the Saving Special Places blog – what have been the highlights? Here are some of mine – but do add any you think I’ve missed. (There'll be second post tomorrow).
We’ve managed a post roughly every two and a half days – and at your end there’s been a good number of readers and, let’s face it, that’s the important bit! So from Simon Marsh (who writes the planning bits) and me – thank you for following our stories and, very often, stepping up to write or email in support of the special places we strive to protect.
2010 was dubbed International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) by the UN – and the narrative throughout the year was that the UK, the EU and the developed world had failed to meet the commitments, signed up to by Governments, of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010.
Back in February I wrote about World Wetlands day which takes place on the 2nd and coincides with Candlemas and I found some old country lore that ran ‘If Candlemas be fair and clear, there’ll be five winters in the year’ – spookily accurate!
Back then we were worried about the impact of the weather on some species and Dartford warblers is one that was knocked to a low ebb and now we’re in the midst of yet another hard winter, which is not good news. Bitterns often suffer in times of hard weather – and last winter we were putting out extra food for them. They came through the winter well and record numbers of males were booming their spring calls across several wetlands – at Dungeness bitterns nested for the first time, it was their misfortune (in PR terms at least) to pick the year that the a pair of purple herons became the first to nest in the UK just a reedbed away at the same site.
One of the pair of purple herons that choose Dungeness to nest - for the first time in the UK (picture by David Featherbe)
Dungeness has featured regularly in is blog as 2010 saw the lines drawn in the campaign to stop the expansion of Lydd airport. The focus now moves on to next February and the start of the Public Inquiry (and you can still your individual objection right up to the start of the inquiry on 15 February – here are the details).
Lovely shingle - the foundations of Dungeness
Dungeness is the quintessential special place – designated to the hilt, popular with the people who visit it and still threatened. The future for Dungeness, and the many other wildlife-rich jewels in our landscape, should not only be secure but also better recognised as fundamentally important for us all.
Whether it’s in supporting the tourist economy, providing protection from floods, safeguarding our water supply, pollinating our fruit and vegetables – our natural world is vital in supporting life, all life including out own.
All year we've been campaigning to ensure that nature gets a fair deal - Letter to the Future has been a great success, thank you if you added your name - if not then please consider it - here's the link.
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