'Small triumphs' in LincolnshireWildlife Trust quest to rewild UK landscape

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A Lincolnshire project is restoring native flora and fauna to the area and it’s just the start of a UK-wide environmental drive

A small patch of Bourne North Fen in Lincolnshire provides an intriguing contrast to the vast stretches of wheat and rapeseed that surround it. Untended for years, this little piece of land is now covered with grass and reeds surrounding a wood of willow and alder.

Last week, between downpours, this tiny six-hectare plot bristled with wildlife: a cuckoo called insistently; the occasional booming sound of the bittern – one of Britain’s rarest birds – could be heard; a hare ambled around.

It is a tiny paradise, set in some of England’s most intensely farmed landscapes. And if Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust has its way, there is likely soon to be a tenfold increase in this activity at Bourne North Fen.

The trust is now negotiating to take over 60 hectares of surrounding farmland, currently planted with field beans, and return it to natural fen. Reed beds would be restored, river water would be cleaned and increasing amounts of carbon would be captured by flourishing plant life.

For good measure, more rare species are likely to return – following the example of nearby Willow Tree Fen reserve, where cranes have begun breeding for the first time in 400 years in Lincolnshire.

It is an encouraging picture, although the Bourne North Fen rewilding can have only a modest impact on its own. Sixty hectares is a minuscule area compared with a local landscape that has been transformed by farming over the years and has allowed Lincolnshire to produce more than 20% of all foodstuffs grown in the UK.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/23/hares-cranes-bitterns-small-triumphs-in-the-battle-to-rewild-britains-landscape

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Beware of crocodiles and gators, it will never be the same once that happen 

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Never thought I’d see my county of Lincolnshire on GagaDaily.

Truly a moment.