Humble saviour

The UK has a significant amount of the planet’s peat resource, one of the most powerful carbon sinks known. We need to protect it and others, Herts Campaign to Protect Rural England

- Liz Hamilton

Normally I spend many hours out and about in the Hertfordshire countryside, testing and photographing walking routes to post on the Campaign to Protect Rural England Hertfordshire website and to feature in Hertfordshire Life articles. When lockdown restricted my freedom to roam, except very locally, like many others I spent a great deal of time in my garden. With the glorious weather, it was in some ways a delightful time despite so much terrible news.

I live on the edge of a small village in the Chilterns and try to garden with wildlife in mind. Over the last 70 years, the nation’s wildlife has been in decline due to urbanisation and the way the countryside has been managed. Although most of the UK’s 24 million gardens are small, collectively they cover more than a million acres. If these areas can be managed to attract wildlife, they represent a hugely valuable resource helping some of our declining species to survive. Some of the species I encounter in my garden – which people could also see in their gardens and local green spaces – feature in my regular posts on cpreherts.org.uk

Sometimes what we do in our gardens can be damaging to the wider environment. Here in Hertfordshire that is especially the case with how much water we use. Our supplies come from the aquifer which also feeds our precious chalk streams. This spring we had record-breaking sunshine, but the weather was also exceptionally dry. In England as a whole, only 17 per cent of the average rainfall for the month fell in May. The early June thunderstorms at least replenished my garden water butts, even if not much summer rain typically reaches the aquifer. By using less water in our gardens we can help to protect our chalk streams and their wildlife.