Page 10 - Wildlife News August 2019

Conservation in actionHedgerowHavens ptoolTiskhmseiisbeymlpoerubothejearscntkiss
The Hedgerow Havens Project is a

Broadened partnershipbetweenBBOWTand
h o ri zo n s bunting,brownhares,badgersandbarnowls.
Aylesbury Vale District Council to advise
and assist local landowners looking to adopt
wildlife-friendly management. The project centres on
hedgerow habitat to benefit farmland wildlife such as corn

Our influence increasingly extends beyond Last year the project teamed up with charity Greenways
our nature reserves and out into the and Cycleways to facilitate planting a hedgerow along the
countryside beyond – an essential trend if new Waddesdon Greenway. Local volunteers helped to sow
we are to speed nature’s recovery wildflower seeds either side of the 3.5km track, amounting
to new wildflower-rich grassland totalling 1.4 hectares.
Meanwhile work at Watermead, north of Aylesbury, is
underway to restore floodplain meadow along the River
Thame and plant 135m of species-rich hedge.
Enhancing and protecting biodiversity on our nature reserves

is important, but so too is championing wildlife in the wider

countryside. By influencing other landowners and decision makers

we can achieve so much more for wildlife. Our aim is to see bigger

areas of land joined up to support wildlife on a truly landscape

scale, creating ecological networks that give nature the space and

resilience it needs to recover. Here are just a few examples of how

BBOWT is working to achieve that.

Oxfordshire Wildlife Sites
There are 384 Local Wildlife Sites
in Oxfordshire, with 87 new sites alonVgotluhnetWeeardsdpelsadnotnaGhreedegnewraoyw.
or extensions proposed. Together (BBOWT)
they make up almost 3% of the
county. The Oxfordshire Wildlife
Sites Project aims to survey,
designate and monitor the
condition of these sites, providing
conservation advice and support We offer advice to help
where needed. In the past three protect wildlife.
years BBOWT and partners the (ROBERT LEWIS)

Thames Valley Environmental
Records Centre have surveyed around 130 Local Wildlife Sites
with advice shared through on-site visits to landowners and
managers of 38 sites covering more than 900 hectares.

Advocates of nature Agnouordbafonrwpeilodpflloewaenrdmweialddloifwe.:
(KATRINA MARTIN/2020VISION)
BBOWT ensures that all decision-makers understand the value
of nature, so its protection and recovery is forefront in their Planning for wildlife
minds. We make regular contact with MPs and have secured
face-to-face meetings with all 21.The focus of current discussions Development is a growing threat to wildlife in the crowded
with local MPs is the Government’s upcoming Environment South East. Essential to reversing wildlife loss is protecting
Bill for which we are campaigning for the creation of Nature what remains outside of protected areas – an immense
Recovery Networks to better protect and join-up important challenge given the relentless development pressure.
places for wildlife. See opposite for how you too can help. Responding to this is the role of our three Senior
Biodiversity and Planning Officers. It’s a tough job but
OxfmoerdetEsaBstBMOWP TAnstnaeflfimeseemDboedrdss. they have a real influence. A recent review of responses to
(Debbie Lewis) comments made on planning applications in Berkshire found
that BBOWT’s feedback matched the final outcome either
wholly or partly in three-quarters of cases. In many instances
we have secured new habitat as part of development – for
example 19 hectares of meadow in Milton Keynes, or the
expected creation of nature reserves, meadow and potentially
more than 40 hectares of bird habitat connected to two
developments adjacent to Aylesbury.

10 Wildlife news / August 2019