:00:21. > :00:28.The New Forest in Hampshire. Once a Royal hunting forest, now one of
:00:28. > :00:32.the nation's great woodland treasures that we can all enjoy.
:00:32. > :00:42.And as it happens this is my own personal neck of the woods too.
:00:42. > :00:49.
:00:50. > :00:54.This is where I cut my teeth. It was a different world. Maybe one
:00:54. > :00:57.blue tit I can hear. Certainly not the buzz of insects. It is
:00:57. > :01:07.disastrous required. There are not the birds that used to be here.
:01:07. > :01:07.
:01:07. > :01:11.That is the truth of it. It's really really sad. Of all the birds
:01:11. > :01:13.in the UK it's our woodland ones which have suffered the greatest
:01:13. > :01:16.declines in the last two decades. Like the beautiful wood-warbler.
:01:16. > :01:20.Sleek-looking bird. Sadly its numbers are down by two thirds and
:01:20. > :01:27.it's on our red list of endangered birds. It's the same with the
:01:27. > :01:30.lesser spotted woodpecker. Of our three UK woodpeckers this is the
:01:30. > :01:33.rarest. Vulnerable too, the nimble marsh tit, and the lovely redstart.
:01:33. > :01:36.Climate change and loss of the birds' habitat in other countries
:01:36. > :01:46.may be partially to blame for their decline but important too is the
:01:46. > :01:57.
:01:57. > :02:02.You might think this is a beautiful glade but where are the flowers,
:02:02. > :02:05.where are the young trees? In the New Forest there is very little new
:02:05. > :02:15.forest. That is simply because everything from Viadana simply
:02:15. > :02:27.
:02:27. > :02:33.eaten away. -- from here it down. And caught in the act. The culprits.
:02:33. > :02:36.Some of the Forest's 1200 fallow deer. People love to see them but
:02:36. > :02:39.their voracious grazing has damaged the habitat for other species, like
:02:39. > :02:42.birds and butterflies. It's a problem in woodlands throughout the
:02:42. > :02:44.UK. With no natural predators the deer numbers build up. Here the
:02:44. > :02:48.Forestry Commission try to control them by culling but it's difficult
:02:48. > :02:51.to get some landowners to agree to it. It's the impact the deer's
:02:51. > :02:54.grazing habits have had on butterflies such as the stunning
:02:54. > :02:58.pearl-bordered fritillary that's particularly worrying. Once common
:02:58. > :03:01.throughout England and Wales, its survival here is highly threatened.
:03:01. > :03:08.Parts of the New Forest, like this enclosure I've come to, are now
:03:08. > :03:11.managed to help the butterflies by keeping the deer out. But Hampshire
:03:11. > :03:15.ecologist Adrian Newton believes more could be done to make the New
:03:15. > :03:20.Forest the vibrant stronghold for butterflies it once was. What is
:03:20. > :03:30.going on here? The more species you have the more butterflies you can
:03:30. > :03:34.
:03:34. > :03:44.have. This honeysuckle. The deer are door read. This would be very
:03:44. > :03:54.
:03:54. > :03:58.hard hit. Would this be like a hundred and 50 years ago? Many
:03:58. > :04:03.people came here. People would stick their business card on a tree
:04:03. > :04:07.to claim it. It was that important. Could we rebuild it? We could. It
:04:07. > :04:13.is not that difficult because we understand these things, they need
:04:13. > :04:23.food plants. So what are the plants need? They need well lit woodland,
:04:23. > :04:30.light coming in and not to be eaten. So we know good woodland management
:04:30. > :04:34.can make a difference. Keep the deer down, get the habitat right
:04:34. > :04:36.for plants and insects and the butterflies should flourish. Now
:04:36. > :04:44.I'm heading north to Gloucestershire to another of the
:04:44. > :04:47.UK's best-loved woodlands, the Forest of Dean. Just how
:04:47. > :04:49.passionately we feel as a nation about our great woodlands was seen
:04:49. > :04:53.earlier this year after the government announced plans to sell
:04:53. > :04:59.them. Some of the biggest protests were held here in the Dean. With
:04:59. > :05:07.strength of feeling like this, the Government backed down. So is the
:05:07. > :05:17.future of this great forest safe? Well if I'm honest with you I've
:05:17. > :05:19.
:05:19. > :05:26.got my doubts come up here and I'll show you what I'm talking about.
:05:26. > :05:29.Vast tracts of non-native, for plantation. From horizon to horizon.
:05:29. > :05:32.From the 1920s onwards great swathes of native broadleaf trees,
:05:32. > :05:38.mostly oaks, were cut down here by the Forestry Commission to make way
:05:38. > :05:46.for conifers grown for timber. And plantations like these, Douglas
:05:47. > :05:49.Firs have had a devastating impact on the forest's wildlife. It's
:05:50. > :05:53.pretty poor, it really is, there's some moss growing on these felled
:05:53. > :05:56.boughs, some of the saddest looking bracken I've ever seen in my life
:05:56. > :05:58.because so little is perforating through this deep dark dingy canopy
:05:58. > :06:08.I'm even more disheartened by what one local conservationist has
:06:08. > :06:19.
:06:19. > :06:24.I am even more disheartened by what one local conservationist has
:06:24. > :06:31.invited me to come and see. The Forestry Commission says it is
:06:31. > :06:36.committed to conserving wildlife. So why is still planting non-native
:06:36. > :06:40.Douglas fir trees here? It should be planted with nature species. Now
:06:40. > :06:45.with Douglas fir which originates on the west coast of America. It
:06:45. > :06:55.has no association with vertebra so when it grows tall there are no
:06:55. > :07:03.
:07:03. > :07:10.Is it an opportunity missed? If this were planted broadleaf it
:07:10. > :07:12.would see perfectly. Why is it not happening? Because the Parameters
:07:13. > :07:18.the Forestry Commission work till are basically economic parameters.
:07:18. > :07:22.They would argue it is a good thing for us in this country to grow
:07:22. > :07:28.timber but the question is should we grower it on one of our most
:07:28. > :07:32.important ancient forest lands? There must be other places to
:07:32. > :07:40.grower and the Forest of Dean. This should be native would land. What
:07:40. > :07:47.is the mix of assiduous against, for here? About 40 per cent, for.
:07:47. > :07:51.Our intrigued to discover how the Forestry Commission defence it's
:07:51. > :07:55.policy. Would it not be better to put more broad leaves in? These
:07:55. > :07:59.non-native things are not brilliant for biodiversity. We have some
:07:59. > :08:03.biodiversity benefits. They are different than those of broadleaf
:08:03. > :08:13.trees but they are important in other ways. So we maintain goshawks
:08:13. > :08:20.
:08:21. > :08:25.Would it not be better over all to replant purely with fraud Leeds?
:08:26. > :08:30.do not think so. We get a better return with con of the trees. They
:08:30. > :08:34.grow quickly, lot up carbon, have a rapid turnover which means we can
:08:34. > :08:39.influence landscape. There are many good reasons for social, economic
:08:39. > :08:43.and Obara mental reasons for planting, this. I would argue the
:08:43. > :08:48.main reason for planting these is cash. You're not putting this in
:08:48. > :08:52.the ground to help wildlife, this is a cash crop. Not specifically
:08:52. > :08:55.for wildlife, but not for cash either. We used about 60 million
:08:55. > :09:00.cubic metres of timber every year and that timber has to come from
:09:00. > :09:07.somewhere. Most of it comes from abroad. 85 per cent of it. Is it
:09:07. > :09:11.not right that we should grow some of that at Hove as well? Wildlife
:09:11. > :09:16.that genuinely needs these, this. I am not convinced. I am not
:09:16. > :09:19.convinced it could not fight a broad leafed alternative. As far as
:09:19. > :09:25.planting these things at the expense of our ancient woodland, I
:09:25. > :09:32.would rather not. It is trees like this that are really important.
:09:32. > :09:35.What an award beauty. In the UK we now only have two per cent of the
:09:35. > :09:41.ancient woodland we used to. On land it is our richest habitat,
:09:41. > :09:46.more things live here than in any other. We have been going on and on
:09:46. > :09:52.about the loss of trouble go rain forests where in our own backyard
:09:52. > :09:54.our woodland has been disappearing without a peep. It is a real shame.
:09:54. > :10:02.However, with the right management restoring ancient woodland that's
:10:02. > :10:08.been planted with conifers can work. They have cut this tree down and
:10:08. > :10:11.let the light in. Wood sorrel here, foxglove, violent, we have the
:10:11. > :10:18.pioneers, those plants which are coming back from the ancient
:10:18. > :10:21.woodland that used to be here. And, with restoration of the habitat
:10:21. > :10:31.there's a better chance for birds like the pied flycatcher and the
:10:31. > :10:32.
:10:32. > :10:37.nuthatch, which thrive in this kind Yet only one per cent of our
:10:38. > :10:42.ancient woodland is currently being restored. Have we got our
:10:42. > :10:45.conservation priorities right? Well, I for one think we've been focusing
:10:45. > :10:48.rather too much time and effort on some what shall I say, more
:10:48. > :10:55.favoured species Dormice have been dramatically in decline - their
:10:55. > :10:58.numbers have dropped by more than 50 per cent in the last 25 years.
:10:58. > :11:08.That's because of the loss of woodlands and hedgerows where they
:11:08. > :11:16.live. Special dormice bridges are being built to avoid disturbing
:11:16. > :11:19.their habitats. This one in Wales cost the local council �190,000.
:11:20. > :11:22.The big question we have to ask is with so much at stake are we
:11:22. > :11:26.spending a disproportionate amount of time and effort on the
:11:26. > :11:30.undeniably cute and cuddly? I've come to Paignton Zoo to find out
:11:30. > :11:37.more about why so much attention is lavished on these little mammals.
:11:37. > :11:40.Here they run a captive breeding programme. In the last decade
:11:40. > :11:50.they've re-introduced more than 600 dormice into northern counties of
:11:50. > :11:50.
:11:50. > :11:53.England where they'd become extinct. There have been the infamous
:11:53. > :11:59.dormouse bridges and people think they are too expensive, one little
:11:59. > :12:05.mouse crossing the road, is it worth it? It is hard to judge.
:12:05. > :12:10.Hopefully other animals will benefit. I cannot say about the
:12:10. > :12:15.cost. But I think it was an experiment worth doing and possibly
:12:15. > :12:20.vitally important. It may have got these animals into new areas and
:12:20. > :12:24.allowed populations to be more varied. We are getting numbers out
:12:24. > :12:27.there are more. They are developing the areas themselves and spreading
:12:27. > :12:32.out into areas that are not their prime habitat but they can manage
:12:32. > :12:38.in them and seen to be doing well. Is there a chance we are practising
:12:38. > :12:44.survival of the duties? We are using an attractive animal for the
:12:44. > :12:47.benefit of the others. By saving this one we will be saving natural
:12:47. > :12:50.pommes, waterways in that area, then we should be working to make
:12:50. > :12:54.sure those are suitable for the animals that also need it. To raise
:12:54. > :12:58.money for a project you need something like this to do it. It is
:12:58. > :13:06.important work. We got a step ahead before this animal became on the
:13:06. > :13:11.brink of extinction in this country. A lot of what Julian says makes
:13:11. > :13:15.sense. But I have to say and still not convinced when it comes to the
:13:15. > :13:19.cost of looking after this one creature. We asked one UK wildlife
:13:19. > :13:25.charity how much was spent in the UK on doormats conservation every
:13:25. > :13:29.year. They said they could not tell us. It worries me. Conservation
:13:29. > :13:36.should know how much it is spending. But there may also said they did
:13:36. > :13:40.not really want to tell us "because the figure might seem very high and
:13:40. > :13:50.that would not sound very good because the species is still in
:13:50. > :13:53.
:13:53. > :13:58.And whilst our attention is caught up with the fluffy and cute, some
:13:58. > :14:02.of our most fragile wildlife areas have been left in a shocking state.
:14:02. > :14:07.This is Dartmoor, not an area I know very well, but I have been
:14:07. > :14:10.told there is a big problem on these upland moors. Vast areas of
:14:10. > :14:15.blanket bog - it precious peat reserves that protect the
:14:15. > :14:21.environment by holding stores of carbon - have been drying out. And
:14:21. > :14:25.from what I can see, the wildlife seems to have been vanishing, too.
:14:25. > :14:30.We have been up here for a couple of hours. The only birds we have
:14:30. > :14:34.seen not two Swallows and they have gone from one horizon to the other.
:14:34. > :14:38.It is an ecological -- ornithological desert here. I don't
:14:39. > :14:43.know why I'm bothering. There is nothing to look at.
:14:43. > :14:47.The man charged with the job of restoring this sorry looking bog
:14:47. > :14:54.land is Andy Guy from Natural England. The most important impact
:14:54. > :15:01.on the landscape here have been overgrazing and burning. The
:15:01. > :15:07.numbers of sheep went through the roof up here. That had a really
:15:07. > :15:12.detrimental impact on the heath habitats. Burning, or swaling - a
:15:12. > :15:15.setting fire to the moorland vegetation - is an effective way to
:15:16. > :15:19.encourage the growth of fresh grass for livestock. But according to
:15:19. > :15:24.Natural England, the burns have been done too often and too
:15:24. > :15:30.extensively. Repeated fires, they say, are destroying the peat or
:15:30. > :15:34.blanket bog on the tops of the moors. This is a blanket bog, isn't
:15:34. > :15:39.it? The thing is, with the best of respect, this does not look like
:15:39. > :15:45.some of the blanket bogs that I have seen. There is no sphagnum
:15:45. > :15:50.moss, which has an integral part of that. The sphagnum is what burns
:15:50. > :15:54.the peat, so we are standing on five metres of peat, which has been
:15:54. > :16:00.built by sphagnum over the years. We can now see that sphagnum is
:16:00. > :16:04.pretty much absent. It is too dry? It is to drive for sphagnum at the
:16:04. > :16:14.moment, yes. This is a loose peat. There is nothing sticking. It is
:16:14. > :16:15.
:16:15. > :16:21.just washing away. It is a bit of a mess. Can it be fixed? It can be
:16:21. > :16:26.fixed, yes. We take a scoop of peat and put it in one of these channels
:16:26. > :16:32.across here to create a damn it, which will form shallow pools that
:16:33. > :16:37.sphagnum can colonise and start building peaked again. Quite
:16:37. > :16:42.honestly, I am staggered that such a large and important area for
:16:42. > :16:46.wildlife and the larger environment is in this sort of state. A �1
:16:46. > :16:53.million project, funded by the local water authority, is under way
:16:53. > :16:57.to re-wet 120 hectares of blanket bog on Dartmoor over the next five
:16:57. > :17:03.years. That should bring back the specialist bog plants - cotton
:17:03. > :17:07.grass, and the fascinating insect- eating sundew. But it is not enough
:17:07. > :17:13.- it is less than 2% of the total natural England say needs to be
:17:13. > :17:19.done. I have been looking around and this is the only healthy patch
:17:19. > :17:22.of sphagnum moss that I can find down here. If I take my blood as of,
:17:22. > :17:30.I can skip some out so that you can appreciate just how good at holding
:17:30. > :17:34.water this material is. -- take my gloves are off. It seems to hold
:17:34. > :17:40.more than its own volume in water and that is why it is so important
:17:40. > :17:45.for these blanket bogs. I will put this back in here and hope that it
:17:45. > :17:54.regenerates and that in time, this hall blanket bog can regenerate and
:17:54. > :17:59.there will be areas like this of green sphagnum covered in birds.
:17:59. > :18:06.They will be sweeping majestically across this blanket bog. There will
:18:06. > :18:11.be loads of lapwings. Yes, in my dreams!
:18:11. > :18:16.On Dartmoor, as elsewhere, wildlife has been lost as habitats have been
:18:16. > :18:21.destroyed. To stem the decline, I believe we have to manage that
:18:21. > :18:24.wildlife on a much bigger landscape scale - and I am not alone. It is
:18:24. > :18:29.exactly what ecologists who have been advising the government are
:18:29. > :18:33.calling for, too. Habitats in general are still crashing in terms
:18:33. > :18:38.of abundance and richness. How will we halt the loss of this
:18:38. > :18:43.biodiversity? What we need to do in this landscape scale approach is
:18:44. > :18:47.about changing philosophy. It is about understanding nature and how
:18:47. > :18:52.the natural environment works and trying to support the processes
:18:52. > :18:56.that lead to more habitats. We need to take a fresh look at those sites
:18:56. > :19:03.and their place in the landscape and how we are joined together,
:19:03. > :19:06.work with the landowners between those sites, to ride a farm at more
:19:06. > :19:12.or to build green spaces into new developments, and to provide
:19:12. > :19:17.stepping stones and corridors for wildlife to move around more freely.
:19:17. > :19:23.And one of the priority habitats to be linked up - heathland. What we
:19:23. > :19:27.have left of this habitat in the UK makes up a 5th of the entire total
:19:27. > :19:32.left in the world. It is special because of the fantastic range of
:19:32. > :19:37.wildlife that it supports, like this smooth snake, Britain's rarest
:19:37. > :19:44.reptiles. And the vulnerable Dartford warbler, which feed on
:19:44. > :19:49.insects in the gorse. Huge chunks of this habitat have vanished,
:19:49. > :19:54.swallowed up by urban development across the south. But now,
:19:54. > :19:59.conservationists are working to reconnected. To snatch a glimpse of
:19:59. > :20:03.this landscape scale conservation in action, I have come here to the
:20:03. > :20:08.RSPB's beautiful reserve in Dorset. They have a very ambitious project
:20:08. > :20:15.to join back together some patches of one of our most exciting
:20:15. > :20:21.habitats. We are standing on the bridge, with Wareham over in the
:20:22. > :20:26.mist. This is the backdrop of Dante's big idea. What is the idea?
:20:26. > :20:30.For the last 5,000 years, this was predominantly a heathland landscape.
:20:30. > :20:35.It is only in the last 100 years that it has been fragmented and
:20:35. > :20:39.lost through urbanisation, forestry and golf courses. Our ambition is
:20:39. > :20:45.to peace that back together and create a landscape that is
:20:45. > :20:51.connected and thriving. Heathland based, though, because this is a
:20:51. > :20:57.very special area? How long before we can have a sustainable area of
:20:57. > :21:01.heathland? We are talking 50 or 100 years but I am quite impatient.
:21:01. > :21:08.There is no reason why we can't deliver some parts of this project
:21:08. > :21:12.within five years. And restoration is effective. Three years ago, the
:21:12. > :21:18.RSPB persuaded and neighbouring landowner to cut down a large
:21:18. > :21:21.section of con others. Already, the land is returning to heath.
:21:21. > :21:27.Endangered heathland species like the woodlark are moving in. It has
:21:27. > :21:31.become a vital wildlife corridor, connecting suitable chunks of
:21:31. > :21:36.wildlife for other creatures, like the spectacular sand lizard. I
:21:36. > :21:41.don't know about you, Dante, but that animal takes a few boxes for
:21:41. > :21:46.me. It is stunning. The bright coloration at this time of year is
:21:46. > :21:50.tremendous. They are one of the species being less mobile that are
:21:50. > :21:54.going to become increasingly dependent on these corridors. If a
:21:54. > :22:04.catastrophe happens - a fire is always potentially one of those -
:22:04. > :22:06.
:22:06. > :22:12.you could lose the whole lot, and if they are joined up. Dot if they
:22:13. > :22:16.have connecting habitat, they can creep into other areas. People look
:22:16. > :22:21.at heathland as being a barren wasteland and I don't think people
:22:21. > :22:27.realise that it is so rare. It is restricted to particular
:22:27. > :22:29.temperature ranges and soil types. It is not a habitat that you can
:22:29. > :22:34.just decide to have some overbearing stead. You have got to
:22:34. > :22:42.have it where it is possible for it to exist. That is a very limited
:22:42. > :22:46.range of opportunities. -- to have some over there instead of. We know
:22:46. > :22:52.that if we joined at these places up, creatures like this will have a
:22:52. > :22:57.sustainable, healthy future. That has got to happen. If there is a
:22:57. > :23:04.duel on it our heathland that we have to look after, it is this one.
:23:04. > :23:07.I am giving it a 10 at of 10. It is this sort of reconnection between
:23:07. > :23:14.habitats that ecologists are now calling on central governments to
:23:14. > :23:18.fund. To halt the current loss of species in the UK, they say that
:23:19. > :23:25.the government needs to spend about �1 billion a year on biodiversity.
:23:25. > :23:27.That is about twice what it spends now. When you think about that �1
:23:27. > :23:32.billion investment in the environment, this is money well
:23:32. > :23:38.spent. Their national environment is working in ways behind the
:23:38. > :23:41.scenes all the time but we don't fully comprehend. But we know it
:23:41. > :23:51.that healthy, fun to international environment is a good thing to aim
:23:51. > :23:52.
:23:52. > :23:55.for. Spot-on. It is time to put some of these key questions to the
:23:55. > :24:00.Environment Secretary. First, I want to know about those awful
:24:00. > :24:04.Douglas fir trees. Why are the Forestry Commission still sticking
:24:04. > :24:09.in lots of non-native conifers, which are no good for wildlife and
:24:09. > :24:13.biodiversity? I am on the public record as saying about I think we
:24:13. > :24:17.should increase the rate of recovery of plantations on the
:24:17. > :24:21.ancient woodland site. When the broadleaf trees were chopped down,
:24:22. > :24:26.the genetic information is still in the soil and we can recover those
:24:26. > :24:30.sites and enhance biodiversity by doing that. How is the government
:24:30. > :24:34.going to meet its biodiversity targets went there are so many
:24:34. > :24:37.heavy cuts in your department? People like Natural England and the
:24:37. > :24:43.Forestry Commission - how will they do the job without the people and
:24:43. > :24:47.the funding? We are confident of being able to make good progress on
:24:47. > :24:51.enhancing biodiversity and helping to halt the loss of biodiversity
:24:51. > :24:55.with the resources, even though they are restrained. This is
:24:55. > :25:00.something where we can all get involved - not just the government
:25:00. > :25:07.but business, communities, individuals. All of us can do our
:25:07. > :25:17.part to do the best we can for biodiversity. A lot of your viewers
:25:17. > :25:21.
:25:21. > :25:27.do their part and this is something As far as I am concerned, our
:25:27. > :25:33.wildlife is on the brink. The question is, can we pull it back?
:25:33. > :25:37.In this series, I have seen how - on our farm land - a bird, plant
:25:37. > :25:42.and insect numbers have plummeted tutor decades of intensive farming.
:25:42. > :25:46.In recent years, we have paid farmers to try to bring back the
:25:46. > :25:51.wildlife. But although we have won a few battles, we are a long way
:25:51. > :25:55.from winning the war. For our marine life, a new conservation
:25:55. > :26:00.zones are being planned - but without effective monitoring and
:26:00. > :26:05.enforcement, they could be a wasted opportunity. And we have seen how
:26:05. > :26:10.wildlife has been lost from some of our best-loved landscapes - but we
:26:10. > :26:15.have also seen how we can restore and reconnect precious habitats. So
:26:15. > :26:19.I am optimistic, and yet pessimistic at the same time. Let
:26:19. > :26:24.me explain - I am optimistic because I think we know exactly
:26:24. > :26:28.what we have to do when it comes to wildlife conservation, and we have
:26:28. > :26:33.got the techniques to actually do it. But I am pessimistic because
:26:33. > :26:38.some of our wildlife charities seem to be pursuing out of date and
:26:38. > :26:43.distracting ideas, which are not as effective as they could be. I am
:26:43. > :26:50.also pessimistic because government is not giving enough money directly
:26:50. > :26:56.to wildlife conservation. But for me, the real truth about wildlife