WILDLIFE IN YOUR GARDEN
Our modern lives and increasing population have been placing the countryside outside our towns and cities under increasing pressure, with intensive agriculture, commercial development, new housing estates and more roads. The traditional habitat of our native wildlife is becoming uninhabitable as it is polluted by farm pesticides, or fragmented by new roads and housing developments.
The normal life cycles of birds, animals and insects are upset by agricultural techniques , which reduce available food and limit safe nesting sites. Short rotation crops are sown and harvested before insects can fulfil their short life cycles, which not only reduces their population success, but compromises the creatures that feed on them like birds and bats. This disturbed wildlife is now finding refuge in our gardens where there is less disruption and food is often served on a plate.
There are approximately 15 million private gardens covering over one million acres. If wildlife can be encouraged into just a small number of these, a network of habitats will develop and become an invaluable haven, and resource to preserve future populations.
We can reap enormous emotional rewards from encouraging wildlife to our own back gardens. This nature on our doorstep is becoming an important part of everyday life with many beneficial affects on increasingly busy and stressful lives. It has been scientifically proved that access to nature really does make us feel better. Stress levels drop measurably within as little as three minutes, when entering a park or garden. |
