A WILDER FUTURE VITAL STATISTICS


£430m 1km


The estimated value of services by pollinating insects for agriculture


Most bumblebee workers forage within a kilometre of their nest


80%


The increase in road traffic between 1980 and 2005


63%


Our new 10 year study of water voles shows that


national treasure ‘Ratty’ needs urgent help, and sensitive management of river banks, to survive.


rocket science. It requires no great eureka moment in technology: rather, a subtle shiſt in the minds of humans. We have relegated wildlife to the backwater of life – and it should be mainstream. We have made wildlife a luxury item, the first thing we lose when we chase that will-o’-the-wisp we call progress. But as we start to live with notions of connectivity, we can make for a kinder and richer landscape, a beter countryside and a beter country. It starts, oſten enough, with small individual


decisions: not using pesticides in your garden, accepting that a tidy landscape is a dead landscape and leting part of your lawn grow wild as a flower meadow, supporting measures taken by conservation organisations such as your local Wildlife Trust, and speaking up for wildlife whenever you get the chance, over cups of coffee and pints of beer. It’s also about our connections with wildlife and our connections with other people. We can do it. Only connect. Let’s resolve to live no longer in fragments.


The increase in


area treated with pesticides between 1990 and 2016


2km


Toads can travel two kilometres to reach their breeding ponds


Simon Barnes is an author with a passion for wildlife. He was awarded the Wildlife Trusts’ Rothschild medal in 2014.


With a bit of ‘soſt engineering’, the voles have returned and the connecting nature of the river has been restored.


4 in 5


Four out of five rivers (80%) in England and Wales fail to achieve ‘good ecological status’


1–2km


The distance most water voles travel to find food, shelter and mates


Join our campaign for a Wilder Future and help us put nature into recovery


wildlifetrusts.org/wilder-future Cumbrian Wildlife | September 2019 37


WATER VOLE: TERRY WHITTAKER/2020VISION, YELLOW IRIS: LIZZIE WILBERFORCE


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