A landscape surrounds a valley in which a wetland reflects the sky in which a reedbed sighs in the wind in which a bittern pumps itself up to boom out its mating call – a Russian doll of nature, each part supporting the next.
The bittern will very likely have benefited from direct conservation action to get its home just right, the wetland could well be a nature reserve, protected and managed for nature and loved by thousands of visitors and local people, the valley might be a protected area – designated because of its importance for nature but also farmed and providing a flood plain for a river in spate. And the wider landscape filled with the homes and lives and ambitions of the people who live and work there.
Bitterns are doing well – the nature reserve is working, but across the landscape the picture is patchy, a farm still has nesting lapwings and gets funding to support the family’s work through Countryside Stewardship, but elsewhere the landscape is quieter – less colourful, less rich in nature than it used to be.
This blog has focused on mainly on the best bits (for wildlife) of our landscape, those bits that have been recognised as special and given scientifically backed designations, but we’ve dipped into the world of nature reserves (the even better bits – at least the bits are special managed for nature) and we’ve looked outwards to wider landscapes.
A countryside rich in wildlife has to take a landscape approach, benefiting from the battles of the past which saved the best sites (at least some of them) there is real scope to build a shared vision with local communities, farmers and landowners, local businesses and partner organisations to start putting nature back.
Over recent months we’ve been building a team of great people across our landscape programme (which we call Futurescapes) and in the New Year we’ll be featuring their stories on this blog.
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