Looking across Morecambe Bay from Lancashire towards Cumbria with the Lakeland hills mirrored in the shimmering tide its easy to see why this magnificent corner of England is amongst our most treasured landscapes. The rich mix of sea and land for fresh water and salt of low-lying valleys and distinctive hills support a wonderful array of wildlife. In spring, valleys still support a cast of breeding waders, lapwings and redshank, snipe and oystercatchers. In winter the Bay itself s one of the Europe’s most important wetlands for waders and wildfowl.
Here's Leighton Moss in the Foreground with Morecambe Bay stretching beyond.
It’s little wonder, then, that we’ve chosen this special place to launch one of the first projects under our Futurescapes programme. The programme, who’s motto is Space for Nature, land for Life, was launched in the summer in London and Morecambe Bay even featured on the cover of the introductory booklet.
A key theme of the launch of the Morecambe Bay project is tourism and the RSPB has been working with tourist interests in Morecambe for some time. The transformation of the front at Morecambe was inspired by the nature of the wonderful natural setting of Morecambe Bay. The day I spent with colleagues and the team of craftsmen and artists that created the new seafront counts as one of the most successful of my career measured in terms of changes in attitude and affection for part of our natural environment. The picture shows what can become of a boring old security fence!
But basing future tourism on the natural environment means that it needs to be looked after and it provides an opportunity to re-create lost landscapes and restore the wildlife that once depended on them – you can read more here.
The RSPB is already very active in the area (the project was launched at our Leighton Moss reserve) but we can only do so much – Futurescapes is about building partnerships about making the whole bigger than the some of the parts. In the face of the most severe spending cuts any of us have seen such an approach is essential – we’re ready to take up our role in the big society but we need to see the cuts applied to the countryside in ways that don’t scythe away the ability of this special area to grow its economy based on its wonderful environment.