Sharing good news - restoring the UK’s natural environment

With all the challenges going on in the world, and the tendency of mainstream media to focus on negative events, it can be easy to think that everything is doom and gloom. Rarely do positive stories reach the 6 o’clock news. And that can leave us with a skewed view of reality, which if we’re not careful can ramp up our anxiety.

But here’s the thing, there’s plenty to be positive about. As my hero, self-help guru Jack Canfield says, for every problem in the world you can be sure that thousands of people are working to solve it. Whether that’s overcoming poverty, cleaning up polluted environments, improving health and education, rebuilding a sense of community, empowering marginalised groups or improving mental health, there are countless projects that are doing just that. They just don’t get reported often enough through the mainstream media channels.

It's vital that we actively seek a balanced perspective, so we stand a better chance of maintaining a healthy mindset. It’s true that we have to work a bit harder to uncover news about good events, good people and good projects – but there’s plenty to celebrate. So, let’s take a look at some good news stories.

This month we’re focusing on a potential source of anxiety for many of us, and that’s the state of our natural environment.

There’s no doubt that there’s been immense harm done to our planet’s ecosystems in recent centuries. But, whilst it’s true that humans have had a detrimental effect on our natural environment, the good news is there are thousands of initiatives across the globe seeking to repair the damage. Here in the UK, one such initiative is rewilding.

Rewilding is a natural form of habitat conservation. It’s based on the premise that nature knows best and that, left to their own devices, natural processes will repair damaged habitats and restore healthy ecosystems.

We’ve all seen this in action on a small scale where a closed factory is left derelict, and within just a few years it’s covered in plants, shrubs and trees. That opportunistic plant life attracts birds, insects and animals to the area, helping them to thrive in what was once an urban landscape. As well as this accidental rewilding, there are many managed schemes throughout the UK that are transforming barren or unproductive land into wildlife havens.

And rewilding has incredible benefits. It helps to increase biodiversity, creating a nurturing environment for a wide range of plant and animal life to flourish. It’s pulling near-extinct species of plants, trees, insects, birds and animals back from the brink. It helps to restore the soil, prevent flooding, purify the air and even store carbon.

So what does rewilding look like in practice? It might involve restoring ancient forests, like at Dundreggan estate near Loch Ness in Scotland, where a 10,000 acre site is being transformed from an area grazed by sheep, cattle, goats and deer for centuries to a more ecologically sustainable wild forest. It might mean creating wildlife corridors as in the moor-to-clifftop scheme at Penwith in Cornwall, involving the coordinated activities of several landowners and local organisations. It can involve replacing unproductive farmland with a haven for free-roaming animals like cattle, ponies, pigs and sheep, whose different grazing habits create a richly diverse range of habitats for wildlife to thrive, like at Knepp Castle Estate in West Sussex. It might mean creating saltmarsh habitats like at Steart Marshes in Somerset, where coastal realignment and other improvements are helping with natural flood management and carbon storage.

Rewilding could be something as simple as creating a wildflower meadow or wildlife pond, growing crops that provide birdseed and nectar, or retaining stubble from harvested crops over the winter months to provide ground cover for wildlife and a source of food for birds.

Plus, of course, rewilded areas often generate local jobs in rural areas, through business activities like camping, wellbeing retreats, guided walks or rural workshops. These in turn support other local businesses like shops, pubs and restaurants. Win-win, and good news all round.

And we can all play our part too. There’s nothing like taking positive action to reduce our anxiety. So, if you’re concerned about the environment, here are 10 things you can do that will make a positive impact:

1. Support the many rewilding projects in the UK by making a donation. Or if they have the facilities, pay them a visit and maybe buy a coffee & cake at their café or a craft item from their gift shop.
2. Create a wildlife pond in your garden. That could be as simple as sinking a washing-up bowl into your lawn or flower border and letting nature take its course.
3. Grow bee or butterfly-friendly plants to attract pollinators.
4. Reduce the size of your lawn (they’re like a desert to wildlife) and extend the planting area so you can pack more wildlife-friendly plants in.
5. Include some bug homes, nesting boxes and hedgehog houses in your garden.
6. Catch rainwater in a water butt for watering the garden, it’s better for your plants and the local wildlife.
7. If your garden has a damp, dark area, leave piles of sticks or leaves to attract insects, toads and newts.
8. Choose peat-free compost for potting up your plants and seedlings.
9. If your garden’s big enough, plant a tree. It will provide food and shelter for a whole range of wildlife.
10. Create your own rewilding project, by setting aside a small area of your garden and letting nature take its course.

So, the next time you hear on the news that the UK’s natural habitats are disappearing and native species are going extinct, remember that there are hundreds of projects across the country that are actively restoring our delicate ecosystems. It’s not all plain sailing of course, and we can’t afford to be complacent, but there’s certainly plenty of good news on the environmental front.