Latest news with #LancashireWildlifeTrust
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Boltonians urged to 'embrace nature like never before' this month
A wildlife charity has urged Boltonians to 'embrace nature like never before' during June. The Lancashire Wildlife Trust (LWT) has billed its annual 30 Days Wild event as the "UK's biggest nature challenge", as it encourages children and adults to connect with their surroundings. From planting wildflower seeds to listening out for different types of birdsong, each activity is free and aims to help people discover the fauna and flora that often go unnoticed under their noses. "It can be something simple like feeding the birds in your garden - at the moment I have 20 or 30 starlings visiting every day and that's pretty wild,' said LWT's head of campaigns and communications, Alan Wright. 'You could go for a walk in the country to identify trees, birdsong and wildlife. [There's] lots of song thrushes and roe deer around at the moment. 'Popular activities include getting up early for a noisy dawn chorus or getting involved in bat walks on nature reserves.' Now in its 11th edition, 30 Days Wild has grown from a modest 15,000 participants in its first year, with more than a million people having taken part in the events since its inception. The LWT expects at least 5,000 people across Lancashire, Greater Manchester and North Merseyside to take up the challenge. It also coincides with the Manchester Festival of Nature in Heaton Park, which takes place this year on Sunday, June 29. 'Activities can be at both ends of the energy scale - lying on your back and looking up at clouds for an hour or climbing a hill, while walking the dog,' Alan added. 'Every activity will be good for your mental and physical health. 'It also means more people are getting out appreciating the brilliant wildlife on your doorstep, especially if you are visiting Longworth Clough near Belmont, Summerseat Nature Reserve in Bury, Bolton's brilliant parks or following the Kingfisher Trail between Bury and Salford.' This year's 30 Days Wild features two branches – one child-friendly option and another aimed at adults, with everything from activity guides and competition badges to daily idea emails for those who sign up on the charity's website. 'It is important that we persuade more than one in four people take actions for nature to help reverse the biodiversity crisis affecting our planet," Alan said. 'Taking part in 30 Days Wild is helping to save the world.'
Scotsman
05-05-2025
- General
- Scotsman
How unseen army of old Christmas trees are playing key role in protecting coastal town from beach flooding
This video More videos A new documentary explains why you are likely to see so many Christmas trees in the sand dunes, and how they protect the coastal town from flooding. Keep up with the latest new videos with the Shots! Newsletter. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... If you've been for a day at the seaside, you may have noticed used festive saplings at the top of the beach. But how did they get there, and what are they for? It's no accident. Volunteers plant Christmas trees in the sand dunes | Lucinda Herbert A new documentary looks into why used Christmas trees get part-buried in the sand on parts of the Lancashire coast - and how they are protecting the town against floods. In the 12 minute programme, video journalist Lucinda Herbert interviews people involved in this unique coastal project - which is likely to pique the curiosity of holiday makers, day trippers and dog walkers alike. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Volunteers plant Christmas trees in the sand dunes | Lucinda Herbert The Shots! TV exclusive also goes into the trenches with some of the hard-working volunteers who spent the day burying the 2,000+ trees over a three day ceremony. Organised by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, the event was attended by groups of volunteers from all over the North West - including corporations and environmental groups. Watch Building The Sand Dunes on Shots! TV Freeview channel 262 and Freely channel 565 at 7.30pm on Sunday, or on-demand at now. Volunteers at Trinity Hospice collect Christmas Trees and drop them off in St Annes North Beach car park ready for the planting ceremony. | Lucinda Herbert
Scotsman
05-05-2025
- General
- Scotsman
How unseen army of old Christmas trees are playing key role in protecting coastal town from beach flooding
This video More videos A new documentary explains why you are likely to see so many Christmas trees in the sand dunes, and how they protect the coastal town from flooding. Keep up with the latest new videos with the Shots! Newsletter. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... If you've been for a day at the seaside, you may have noticed used festive saplings at the top of the beach. But how did they get there, and what are they for? It's no accident. Volunteers plant Christmas trees in the sand dunes | Lucinda Herbert A new documentary looks into why used Christmas trees get part-buried in the sand on parts of the Lancashire coast - and how they are protecting the town against floods. In the 12 minute programme, video journalist Lucinda Herbert interviews people involved in this unique coastal project - which is likely to pique the curiosity of holiday makers, day trippers and dog walkers alike. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Volunteers plant Christmas trees in the sand dunes | Lucinda Herbert The Shots! TV exclusive also goes into the trenches with some of the hard-working volunteers who spent the day burying the 2,000+ trees over a three day ceremony. Organised by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, the event was attended by groups of volunteers from all over the North West - including corporations and environmental groups. Watch Building The Sand Dunes on Shots! TV Freeview channel 262 and Freely channel 565 at 7.30pm on Sunday, or on-demand at now. Volunteers at Trinity Hospice collect Christmas Trees and drop them off in St Annes North Beach car park ready for the planting ceremony. | Lucinda Herbert
The Guardian
02-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘A win-win for farmers': how flooding fields in north-west England could boost crops
'I really don't like the word 'paludiculture' – most people have no idea what it means,' Sarah Johnson says. 'I prefer the term 'wetter farming'.' The word might be baffling, but the concept is simple: paludiculture is the use of wet peatlands for agriculture, a practice that goes back centuries in the UK, including growing reeds for thatching roofs. 'There would have previously been a lot more vast, wetter, boggier areas of peatlands and fens, especially in north-west England and other regions,' says Johnson, the head of peatland nature recovery at the Lancashire Wildlife Trust (LWT). But over the last few hundred years, she adds, those have been converted 'into what we know today as conventional drainage-based farming, or for development, or from peat extraction'. In the past British farmers were even paid by the government to drain peatland for agricultural use, especially after the second world war. The UK is now recognising, far too belatedly, how precious those habitats are. 'When peatlands are still wet they are a massive store of carbon, but as soon as you drain them that CO2 is going back into the atmosphere,' says Johnson. More than 80% of the UK's peatlands are damaged or degraded and most lowland peat has been drained and converted to agriculture, at a cost to the environment. 'Some of the biggest emissions from farming are from agricultural peat soils,' says Johnson. 'Three per cent of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions come just from drained lowland agricultural peat – it's a really small proportion of UK land that is making up a massive amount of our greenhouse gas emissions.' This realisation is driving an international €10m (£8.4m) wetter farming project – Palus Demos – in which previously drained peatlands will be rewetted, with farmers helped to grow crops that thrive in boggier conditions. 'It's not about flooding the land and we're not asking farmers to take land out of production,' Johnson stresses. 'We restore the naturally higher water table to rehydrate the peat soils, but the land remains in agricultural use. We're trying to find that win-win for the environment and farming.' Demonstration sites are being developed around north-west England, in traditional peat-cutting areas in Ireland's Midlands and outside Amsterdam in the Netherlands by partners including Natural England, LWT, the University of Amsterdam, Manchester Metropolitan University and others. How does the project rewet the peatlands? 'We use a series of measures, such as blocking existing drainage ditches, removing underground field drains and also by installing bunds, which are waterproof barriers made from compressed peat that run under and above ground and allow us to keep the water where we want it to be,' says Mike Longden, the peat programme technical lead at LWT. 'We also use weirs and irrigation systems which allow us to move water where it's needed.' The crops being trialled include foods such as cabbage, blueberries, rhubarb and cranberries, and non-foods including bulrushes, which can be used as a building material and in textiles – Ponda, one of the project's partners, has developed a process to turn their fluffy seedheads into a sustainable eco-textile used for filling padded jackets – and sphagnum moss, which can be used for horticultural compost. Scalability will be crucial, with farmers and consumers unlikely to be keen on higher production costs or food prices. 'Ideally, we want this to be 100% win-win,' says Johnson. 'But this is a trial. We don't know all the answers yet. Looking at the economics is really important. We're looking at how to make wetter farming as profitable, if not more profitable, than current conventional, drainage-based farming.' LWT is also exploring green finance options, including carbon-offset schemes such as Wilder Carbon and the IUCN Peatland Code, and countryside stewardship payments from the UK government's sustainable farming incentive (SFI), which could pay for farming at a higher water table, though SFI has been paused. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Farmers may find wet, boggy land harder to farm in the short term, making it more difficult to access land to sow crops, manage or harvest, says Johnson, but some were already struggling in certain areas with drained peat soils that had become unproductive. All the land being used for the LWT trials was coming out of production because it was difficult to farm. 'It was making farmers no money so they had sort of given up on it,' says Johnson. 'If rewetting is a way to bring land back into production, that can also help farmers.' The Europe-wide Palus Demos project started in early 2025, with results expected in 2029. As well as crop yields, greenhouse gas emissions will be monitored to see how much carbon could be saved by converting land from drainage-based use to paludiculture. The results from LWT's Winmarleigh carbon farm project in west Lancashire have already shown an 86% reduction in CO2 emissions just from rewetting the peat. LWT is now 'actively engaged with Defra to consider what could be done differently on agricultural peat soils for farming benefits and environmental benefits', says Johnson. 'We are working with policymakers and engaging with the National Farmers' Union and other farming groups.' Rewetted peat soils could form part of a 'mosaical landscape' alongside more conventional farming, Johnson suggests, in which 'core conservation areas could be buffered by wetter farming areas that are still productive and bringing in income for farmers'. If the trials are successful, paludiculture could be implemented more widely. 'It would be amazing to see wetter farming rolled out across peatlands worldwide,' says Longden. 'In the UK, we have large areas of drained agricultural peat in the north-west but also in East Anglia, the Somerset Levels, the north-east and beyond. 'There's peat right across huge swathes of northern Europe, North America and even in the Tropics. In all these areas, there will be possibilities for wetter farming.'
The Independent
02-04-2025
- The Independent
The top places to see bluebells around the UK this spring
Britain 's woodlands come alive in spring with the vibrant hues of bluebells, transforming forest floors into breathtaking carpets of blue. But where are the best places to witness this spectacular natural display? Here are a few prime locations to consider for your springtime bluebell walk. The woodlands at Blickling are carefully managed through the winter months to ensure plenty of sunlight reaches the ground, producing a glorious show of bluebells in late April and early May. Head to the Great Wood and you'll come across a sea of bluebells whichever way you look, while enjoying views of the spectacular hall and lake. The majestic Jacobean mansion and ancient yew hedges sit at the heart of a magnificent garden and historic park in the beautiful Bure meadows. Hatchlands Park, Surrey There's plenty to explore in this sweeping parkland of ancient oaks and ponds, offering 422 acres to explore every day of the week 363 days a year (and open on Sunday, April 27 for the charity, the National Garden Scheme). With a choice of circular walks of varying length, (1km to 5km), you can immerse yourself in a haze of bluebells on one of the trails, enjoy wood anemones and blossom, and spot mammals, birds and insects along the way. Ideal for a family day out. Ashridge Estate, Hertfordshire This 5,000-acre area of the Chiltern Hills (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) with beech and oak woodlands, commons and chalk downlands, supports a rich variety of wildlife and features amazing carpets of bluebells in spring, rare butterflies in summer and fallow deer that rut in autumn. Aughton Woods, Lancashire A visit to Aughton Woods, an ancient woodland and nature reserve managed by Lancashire Wildlife Trust, will bring peace and solitude to any visitor. Five miles north-east of Lancaster, you'll find swathes of azure bluebells catching the light through the trees, but also primroses, foxgloves and ferns. Listen out for chiffchaffs and chaffinches, watch out for five species of tit as they flit from tree to tree and woodpeckers as they hammer into the bark of trees. Visitors to the bluebell woods of Clumber can take a 3.5 mile circular route starting in Hardwick village, through several areas of woodland areas covered with bluebells in spring. The park, which for more than three centuries was the country estate of the Dukes of Newcastle, is carved out of the ancient forest of Sherwood and offers a fantastic expanse of parkland, heath and woods covering more than 3,800 acres. Powerstock Common, Dorset This gem of a nature reserve, tucked away among the fields and lanes of rural West Dorset, is home to an impressive list of rare and protected species among an intricate mosaic of unimproved wet and dry grassland, scrub, woodland and small copse. In spring the woodlands are alive with birdsong and sprinkled with a carpet of bluebells, wild daffodil, herb-paris and early purple orchid. Along with the mix of habitat types, the abundance of 'edges' where woodland, scrub and scattered trees meet open grassland are particularly important for foraging bats, with the site supporting several rare species. In spring, English Heritage 's Belsay Hall breathes new life into the stunning Grade I-listed gardens, with daffodils flowering freely, while the woodland pathways come alive with carpets of bluebells and primroses. Explore the Quarry Garden as ferns unfurl and rhododendrons burst into vibrant pinks and purples. Hinton Ampner, Hampshire Bluebell lovers should enjoy a four-mile Dutton Estate walk to take in the ancient woodland and admire a dazzling display of native bluebells and wood anemones carpeting the woodland floor. The bluebell displays here are among the best in Hampshire, being far-reaching and densely packed, making the colour very intense. Within a 30-minute stroll across picturesque farmland you'll find yourself in beech woods, which in late April and early May are carpeted in scented native bluebells. The delicate flowers fringe broad woodland paths, so you can enjoy the blooms all around you. From around mid-April and throughout May you only need to take a short walk through Serpentine Wood to discover an eye-popping carpet of bluebells, which cover the woodland floor. Visitors can also enjoy a bounty of pink and white blossom in the park and gardens through to May. Spring is among the best time to explore the gardens of this English Heritage property, which is full of surprises and family-friendly features. Masses of bluebells adorn the woodland floors and wildflower lawns, as well as other spring-flowering bulbs. In the past 30 years Brodsworth's extensive gardens have been restored with brilliant bedding, formal topiary, a fern-filled dell and quirky garden buildings. Murlough National Nature Reserve is home to one of the most stunning beaches in County Down and there are paths running through the dunes and heathland. The landscape serves as a stunning backdrop for wild flowers in spring, including a dazzling display of bluebells in the woods. Dinefwr is the only parkland National Nature Reserve in Wales, covering an 850-acre estate, and is bursting with colourful flowering plants – especially in spring when the woodlands across the parkland are carpeted with thousands of bluebells. One of the most spectacular displays can be seen on Rookery Ridge or follow the Cattle Trail to see these delightful flowers throughout May. A beautiful woodland walk around 50 acres of native bluebells and primroses in a delightful setting bordering the Green Water river with tumbling waterfalls. Great outdoor space for children to run and explore and splash in the burn, under supervision, of course.
