Nature numbers on our doorstep

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Great Yorkshire Creature Count revealed how trees, lawns, ponds and flowers are lifelines for some of our most familiar and threatened wildlife. Clea Grady looks at the results

- Clea Grady

Between June 20 and 21 this year people from across Yorkshire counted the wildlife on their doorsteps within a 24-hour timeframe; out of their windows, and in their gardens, window boxes and yards. Stones were turned over, ponds were investigated, and flowerbeds and lawns were explored as participants in Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s first ever Great Yorkshire Creature Count discovered the often-overlooked flora and fauna that share our residential spaces. The results were announced on Yorkshire Day to celebrate the wildlife of our window boxes and yards.

It is estimated there are approximately 70,000 species in the UK, and 2% of these were found on Yorkshire doorsteps during the study. This figure shows us how vital our own outside spaces are for wildlife – they make up more of the UK’s green space than all the nature reserves combined – and why we must make the places people inhabit much more wild so that nature can recover.

‘Gardens can act as the refuges from which plants and animals can spread out into the countryside,’ says Professor Alastair Fitter FRS CBE, trustee of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Gardens can be wild havens for so many species; even our familiar and more commonly seen wildlife is under threat and needs support – now, more than ever.