I have lived in my village for over 40 years. It is in an attractive area by a tidal estuary. Over my 40 years here i have seen it become overused and gradually worn down by human activity. Mostly it has been trashed. Dumping of waste, Barbecues on the local river beach leaving broken bottles etc, ( I cleared it up after watching the locals walk past it tutting, fat lot of good that does, ) our local so called protected ancient woodland being felled for mineral extraction and then the area that was saved as a small woodland reserve being dug up by local youths to make bike jumps
Although the felled area has been laid out with small lakes to provide a nature reserve i fear this will go the same way as the rest of the area especially as planning permission has been given for 150 new home adjacent to it. ( Green belt land or so i thought ) This can only lead to more wayward youths roaming the area once the newcomers start breeding.
I have developed my garden as a haven for wildlife, you name it iv'e had it. With the building of properties behind my garden a tenth of a mile of hawthorn hedging will probably be removed. This has acted as a wildlife route from the nearby woods.
The neighbours look at you blankly when the situation is explained so i don't hold out much hope for support from that direction. Of at least six young blackbirds that hatched this year only two survived but can't be sure that even they survived. The reason is one persistant local cat. Having located one of the nests with 3 young it came back after i had chased it away and killed them. How many other species of nesting bird has it killed ? Well aimed bricks do not deter it.
I think you will understand why i would just like to sell up and give up.
Hi David and welcome to the forum.
Firstly, I can understand your frustration regarding cats, many of the other forum members have similar problems and have tried a number of different ways to reduce the impact. However, please be aware that throwing bricks at them isn't wise. Any deterrents you use must not cause harm to the cats as they are pets. If you want to find out some ways to deter them have a look at our web page here and also try a high powered water gun instead, this has proved a very effective safe way of deterring cats.
Littering of local wildlife sites and beauty spots is a widespread problem that is incredibly frustrating, credit to you for stepping up and taking action. You are not alone, whilst many people may not get involved, there are a network of people out there that do, maybe you could join up and collectively make a difference to your local area, have a look at the links here for the Keep Britain Tidy campaign.
Nature is important, both to the wild animals and plants and to human quality of life. Protecting the sites that mean so much to us is important and if you have strong feelings for a site then write to your MP and ask them to make sure that the correct policies are in place to make sure that they are protected. Have a look here at our latest call to action as a result of the Chancellors comments last week.
If the site is being proposed for development and you wish to save it, we have guidance on how to go about opposing potentially damaging developments here. Hedgerows are afforded some level of protection, read about this here, if you have concerns about what will become of this hedgerow, it may be worth speaking to Natural England about it as the loss of a connective habitat feature may have far reaching consequences for wildlife like bats that may inhabit the area.
I hope that these bits of information will be of interest. Please don't give up, you are not alone out there and you can use the forum to throw ideas around and ask advice.
Best wishes
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Hi David
I share your views and feelings entirely - most of what you have written I could have said myself.
As for selling up and moving.. where can you go - there are very few 'safe' areas for wildlife left and those there are seem to be increasingly under threat.
CJ
This could become the no hope page ........ Must keep smiling.
There were useful suggestions from the moderator and will pursue these.