MSN Environment Blog

Readers of MSN have intimated to me that they can be put off the whole notion of reducing their carbon-footprint when faced with a long-list of ideas and initiatives designed to help them. “Where do I start?” was the general tone of the e-mails.

 

My advice would be don’t try and save the world in one go; begin the process with one or two changes around the house, including recycling household waste, ensuring your property is well insulated and making sure you turn off lights and appliances when they are not in use. Please visit www.wasteconnect.co.uk  and type in your postcode to find out the nearest recycling facilities to you.

 

Encourage yourself with financial gain so that you can benefit personally as well as the world. Take your household electricity reading for 24 hours, then introduce the changes before taking another reading a day later.

 

Further to this, each household could endeavour to buy UK produce, thereby reducing the need for air and freight transport from all points around the globe. At www.wasteonline.com it is claimed that “a typical basket of 20 everyday grocery items from a supermarket could clock up over 100,000 'food miles' if you include air-freighted goods, such as sugar snap peas from Kenya, Danish bacon or New Zealand apples’. Food transport is a major contributor to greenhouse gases and global warming, so stick to the best of UK-grown seasonal food if you can.

 

My favourite way to reduce the carbon footprint in our household is to take advantage of seasonal freebies. It’s the perfect solution. You get to wear a ‘green halo’ and enjoy wonderful flavours for free. Right now, rowan (mountain ash) berries are ripe for the picking, but make sure you know which tree to harvest. You will need to move fast as the thrushes have already begun to feast. Check out www.the-tree.org.uk/  to make sure of your ID.

 

Follow my recipe for rowan syrup and you could easily make enough to keep you going for a year. It is sweet and sour, is delicious on pancakes and ice-cream, outstanding with game and if you add the syrup to gravy, your guests will never leave.

 

Bleak House Rowan Syrup is made purely from rowan berries and cane brown sugar. Preferably you should use recycled jars, and re-use three plastic bags to collect the berries. Three full standard plastic bags should provide enough for your own use and around 10 standard jars to give away as Christmas presents. 

 

Wash the berries and pick off any stalks. Place in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the fruit through a scalded jelly bag, pair of tights can do the same job. Leave to drip for at least 30 minutes and DO NOT squeeze the bag, the juice will become cloudy; be patient. Use 450g of sugar for every 600ml of juice. Warm the juice and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Simply boil gently until liquid reduces and reaches the required syrupy consistency. You could add apples and lemon juice to the mix. I made one batch this year with brandy. Two things to remember, do not eat rowan berries raw and avoid wild food you are not sure of. Visit www.seanthewood.com for other ideas. 

Two months down the line after the summer floods receded, it is only now that a more comprehensive picture is emerging, of how the wildlife in the affected areas has suffered.

Wildlife Trusts, and many other conservation organisations are still in the process of clearing-up after the devastation, a job which needs to be completed before any assessment of the long-term situation for some of the U.K’s rarest animals can be undertaken, but early estimates are not good.

The bittern, a scare brown heron, which only nests in four areas of the U.K. was virtually wiped out in Suffolk when seven of the nine recorded nests were washed away, and the young birds died in the low temperatures. "It was cold and wet right across the bittern's breeding range," said Mark Avery, the RSPB's director of conservation. "One wet cold weekend dealt a devastating blow to one of Britain's rarest birds."

The snipe, a long-billed wader, with cryptic-brown colouration, has been decimated by up to 50% in some areas; and this in the face of a declining population prior to the floods. Other waders to suffer include the lapwing and redshank.

The grey partridge, a medium-sized gamebird with a distinct orange face, has been hit particularly hard, according to the Game Conservancy Trust.

"The wet summer has been a total wash-out for young partridge chicks struggling for survival and urgent conservation action needs to be taken by all those with a responsibility for managing the British countryside," said Nick Sotherton, head of research at the trust. The grey partridge had already suffered an 86 per cent decline in the past 30 years and was on the brink of extinction in many areas.

The purple heron, a close relative of the common grey heron, was thought to be breeding in this country for the first time at the RSPB’s  Minsmere Reserve. The deluge possibly persuaded the birds to migrate back to Southern Europe.

"Purple herons are fantastic birds, one of the more charismatic members of the heron family, and certainly one of the most beautiful," said the RSPB's Graham Madge. "This would have been a new species nesting in Britain and we are extremely disappointed."

Mammals such as the water vole, already much reduced in number because of predation by the non-native American Mink, have also been hit very hard.

Brian Eversham, of the Bedfordshire Wildlife Trust said, "It's because many of the water vole populations are now small and isolated, if they are wiped out in an area, there may well be no other nearby population to re-colonise it."

The one small glimmer of hope for the water vole comes in the shape of Severn Trent's reserve in Gloucester where a population of water voles was introduced in 2005.

Jane Willmott, of the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust said: "The tide mark on the vegetation showed water levels had been about four feet across the reserve, and things didn't look too rosy for our resident water voles with no high ground nearby.

However I found evidence that water voles had been using rafts left on the water for us to check on them. It appears that some of the water voles had used the rafts as their very own Noah's Arks to escape the rising water levels.”

The reduction in small mammals, including voles and mice, has undoubtedly had an adverse effect on owls, especially barn owls, with many tree-hole nests being washed out. The Hawk & Owl Trust have launched an Adopt A Box scheme, check out www.hawkandowltrust.org for details.

One of the most beautiful butterflies, the extremely rare swallowtail, which only breeds on the Norfolk Broads, has had a poor season, not least because the flooding drowned many caterpillars, but also because their main food plant, milk parsley was flattened.

Gloucestershire’s ‘heartland’ nature reserves in the Severn Hams have been left devastated by the floods according Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, which has launched an urgent appeal for funds to help repair the worst of the damage before winter.

Now the floodwater has retreated, the Trust has been able to assess the impact of the flooding in this normally wildlife-rich area, but fear that nothing has survived.

Just as individuals and communities in Gloucestershire are recovering and rebuilding following the worst floods to hit the county in 200 years, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust needs to rebuild and repair the wildlife habitats swept away – but must raise £300,000 to enable birds, mammals and insects to return successfully.

“The people of the Severn Vale don’t deserve to lose their wildlife habitats on top of everything else,” says Dr Gordon McGlone, chief executive of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. “The Severn Hams nature reserves flood most winters, but not like this. The scene is still shocking. Everything’s covered in a filthy brown slime, the ditches choked by debris and the stench of rotting vegetation is overwhelming. But worst of all is the silence. It’s a wasteland. We have a tiny window of opportunity to get the restoration work underway before winter, which is why we’ve launched the appeal so quickly.”

The reserves affected represent a key strategic defence for the wild flora and fauna in the Severn Vale, and include Coombe Hill meadows and canal, Ashleworth Ham, Meerend Thicket, Chaceley Meadow and Mythe Railway.

Already a long-term corporate supporter of the Trust’s work has pledged a substantial amount of the money needed. Grundon Waste Management, an environmentally responsible company, has promised £250,000 over the next three years as long as it remains operational at its local site at Wingmoor Farm. But this still leaves the Trust with more than £30,000 to raise through an urgent Severn Hams Appeal.

If the appeal is successful, one of the first actions will be to appoint a warden to co-ordinate volunteers and contractors in a huge clean up task. Gates, fences and hides will need to be repaired, and rubbish and debris removed. The worst of the rotting vegetation has to be removed urgently so some of the more vulnerable species can return before winter, which is essential if they are to stand a chance of breeding again next year.

Among the species to have fallen victim to the flooding are ground nesting birds such as lapwing, skylark and redshank, which will all have been rearing young. Many 'low scrub nesters' such as chiff chaffs, willow warblers, sedge warblers, passerines and reed buntings will also have been washed away.

“Ultimately our aim is to connect the Severn Hams reserves with adjoining habitats to create one huge wildlife highway stretching the entire length of the Vale,” continues Dr McGlone. “Only then will vulnerable species stand a chance of survival, especially if severe weather events like this happen more frequently due to climate change.”

For further information on the appeal please e-mail info@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk or to check out your part of the country log on to www.wildlifetrusts.org 

If you have any stories or pictures to share about animals in the floods, domestic, farm or wild please e-mail sean.wood@talk21.com