In Ireland March 1st is the start of the closed season for hedge cutting. It is illegal to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy vegetation growing in hedges or ditches. The ban lasts until the 31st August under Ireland’s Wildlife Acts. This law is to protect nesting birds and wildlife during the breeding season.

We don’t have the same legislation in England and Wales but we do have the Wildlife and Countryside Act which states that it is illegal at any time of the year to intentionally damage or destroy an active bird’s nest. This applies to everyone. Of course, a good gardener or grounds person would check carefully before beginning to cut a hedge.

Sadly, there are still some people who don’t understand the link between encouraging biodiversity and helping all living beings survive – including humans. There is a mass of scientific documentation as well as excellent documentaries headed up by the likes of David Attenborough, to inform us that Britain has suffered a massive decline in our natural world. This decline has been noticeable even in my lifetime. Our amazing wildlife is vanishing before our eyes and it is up to us all to do something about it.

That is why it is heartening to hear of people doing what they can to help our natural biodiversity recover. The Henley in Bloom competition last year is an example of a change happening for the better. Time was, when these competitions were mostly based on horticulture and municipal planting. Nowadays the Bloom competition has equal weighting for Horticultural Achievements, Environmental Responsibility and Community Participation.

Our Town Council Parks and Recreation Team are keen to be as sustainable as possible, with changing their parks planting from annuals to perennials, more wildflowers, using peat-free or their own compost as much as possible. Not mowing grass verges as much is not laziness, it is giving our own biodiversity a chance of survival. Native wildflowers and plants are food and habitat for invertebrates – bees, hoverflies, butterflies, moths and beetles. They in turn are food for birds, reptiles and small mammals. All these creatures have a purpose in our ecosystem but our modern attitude believing we have a right to destroy living things, is threatening all of our survival.

In the next few weeks the Town Council will be publishing information relating to their plans for improving the biodiversity in Henley. These will include maps showing specific areas being managed for nature. Let’s congratulate the Council team for this forward thinking, for their foresight in planning for future generations – not just the here and now.

Greener Henley are hoping to be able to engage more people in identifying and understanding the wildlife in our gardens and green spaces. We are hoping to run some free citizen science sessions in the town to enable people to record what they find in their own gardens, green spaces etc. Remember you don’t necessarily have to go anywhere to find nature, it is right here under our noses!

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Regular readers to Going Green might like to know how the hunt for Plant Parents is going. We had our first Plant Party a couple of weeks ago, which was a great success. We now have 22 Plant Parents signed up to sow and bring on some good plants for pollinators, and for local people who want to do their bit for nature recovery in Henley and surrounding areas.

We have given out 54 packets of seeds for cultivation so far. That means that in the next few weeks we will be looking for Plant Fosterers who have space in their gardens to care for the ‘potted on’ plants.

Gardeners tend to be generous folk and so we have been offered various native plants to boost or help establish some metre squares for nature. To date the plants we have been offered are primroses, ox-eye daisies and foxgloves. We are hoping to have a Plant Swap soon – so please hang on to any extra plants for pollinators you may have in your garden. We will keep you updated.

And here’s some fantastic news just hot off the press! This morning Greener Henley’s Wildlife Working Group have been out sowing wildflower seeds at regular intervals all along the Greys Road embankment. These will supplement the wildflowers that already grow along there. We have also made a metre squared patch just the other side of the bus shelter as a Nature Squared Example so the public walking past can see what it would look like if they plant their own.

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Last year I spent a lot of time researching the effects of pollution on the natural world, in preparation for various activities for schoolchildren at the Environmental Science Fair held at the College. From my research I was able to produce some suitable hands-on exercises for students to experience.

Playing games and telling stories are effective tools for educating in a more subtle way than just delivering facts and figures. Think of the morals of Aesop’s Fables and the Hilaire Belloc’s ‘Matilda’. Following on from my research I wrote the following:

A Cautionary Tale for children to tell their adults:

“Haven’t you done enough damage already?”
“They can’t hear you Laurore, they’re not that sensitive.”
“Well, we’ve got to do something to stop them. They’ve destroyed the homes we’ve had
for generations, robbed us of our food sources so we have nothing to eat but grass
sometimes!”
“I know, I know all that and more,” sympathised Iris. “Soon there will be nothing left for our
young!”
The assemblage of lepidoptera stared at the Anthrops who were mindlessly going about
their arrogant business of interfering with the rest of life.
“Let’s check we have everything on the Danger List.” Deilephilia brought them back to
order.

Well there’s Alan,” said Sessia, “getting bigger and brighter all the time. We haven’t the
energy to keep going with so much light!”
“Who is Alan,” whispered a newcomer to his neighbour.
“Artificial Light at Night,” replied Zygia. “I hardly get the opportunity to lay my eggs as
everywhere is lit up like the sun all the time!”
“And don’t forget us,” moaned the glow worms hovering at the back, “ We are doomed.
We need the dark to find our mates.”
“Yes it’s exhausting for the diurnals and deadly for the nocturnals,” agreed Deilephilia.
“Water!” Eggar blurted out, “that needs to go on the list. I don’t know how the Anthrops
have done it, but there’s either too much with the overrains, or not enough when the
burning hot goes on for weeks.”
“Oh, yes,” they all agreed. “We get exhausted trying to find clean water.”
“While we are talking of water, can I remind you not to drink from puddles after the
overrains. They are poisonous from the Anthrops waste,” informed Biston Bet.
“Oh my wings!” swore Laurore. “It’s bad enough they have poisoned the air so our
antennae get clogged up – not the water too!”

The almighty bang that followed produced thick black nothingness.

The little girl finished reading and turned to her father,
“Well Dad, what are you going to do about it?”

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Thank you for reading.

Sowing patches of wildflower seeds on Greys Road Embankment.