A shortened version of this article will appear in the Summer newsletter:
As spring turns into summer and the temperature rises, slow down a little and appreciate the natural world around us, while we can. Recent news has shown the younger generation demanding the policy makers take climate change seriously with their extinction rebellion protests. Hopefully the policy makers will start to listen as these protesters are the voters of the future. In the last year there has been some frightening long term scientific reports printed, one from Germany studying insects on farms and one that looked at trends in 353 wild bees and hoverflies in Scotland, England and Wales over 33 years from 1980 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47698294. They both lead to sobering reading. A third of British wild bees and hoverflies are in decline, according to a new study. The study found 'winners' and 'losers' among hundreds of wild bees and hoverflies, which pollinate food crops and other plants. Common species are winning out at the expense of rarer ones, with an overall picture of biodiversity being lost. Lack of biodiversity in our countryside, means a lack of resilience to climate change and lack of insects to pollinate our crops and wild flowers, with a knock on effect on the animals that feed on them e.g. birds, fish, amphibians etc. A recent scientific review of insect numbers around the world suggested that 40% of species were undergoing 'dramatic rates of decline', with bees, ants and beetles disappearing eight times faster than mammals, birds or reptiles https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47198576.
So what can we do? The researchers say actions such as wildlife-friendly farming and gardening can have a positive impact on pollinators in both towns and the countryside. Use less insecticides and herbicides in the garden (at last the British government have banned neonicotinoid chemicals that harm bees, much later than other European countries, but other chemicals will follow). Get your new elected councillors and politicians to care about the environment, supporting farmers stewardship schemes that encourage more biodiversity on the farms, such as growing longer grass strips around fields to encourage insects and birds, such as ladybirds and skylarks. Some local scientists are experimenting with the best combination of wild plants species to sow on grass verges to help bees etc. They are not ‘messy’, it is uplifting to see orchids and oxford ragwort etc on my drive to work. Encourage schools and work places to have wild areas.
More importantly encourage the next generation to appreciate ‘the smaller things in life’, whether it is a ladybird (the poster star of the insect world), a hoverfly mimicking being a wasp ( they prey on small flies), a bee with its ‘yellow pollen legwarmers’, the wonderful shield bugs from a conifer tree or wonder at ‘cuckoo spit’ on grasses. Cuckoo spit is a mass of frothy bubbles on stems of plants to protect the froghopper insect inside (when I googled ‘cuckoo spit’, it said that the frog hopper rarely does much damage, but can be unsightly and so spray with a broad spectrum insecticide)!!! That reminds me of the summer there was a wonderful tree near to the Crown and Thistle pub, that was decorated with tiny silver and white threads, which had been produced by thousands of spindle ermine moth caterpillars hatching and had spread out on to the bench and bin https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8187248.silk-moth-tree-is-axed/. We went back as a family to take pictures, and two days later the tree had been chopped down and is now replaced. The newspaper article said the caterpillars had spread into the building, if this is true then it is a shame, hopefully the council has planted more spindle trees away from town centre.
Education and appreciation is the key, making the next generation love their nature and wildlife, maybe sign them up to a charity such as buglife.co.uk or get them involved in some local conservation talks or events. It would be lovely to think a future Britain may return to the ‘windscreen phenomenon’ of too many insects at night on our car windscreens. Environmentalists are concerned that each generation has limited experience of what’ biodiversity in the countryside’ really is. With the correct policies this can be reversed.
The final word is by our Natural History champion who is sometimes criticised for his tv programmes that show a positive view of the world around us, but always have a strong hidden environmental message.
‘If we and the rest of the back-boned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if the invertebrates were to disappear, the world's ecosystems would collapse.’
Sir David Attenborough
