Modern Times British Isles: A Natural History


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Here in the British Isles, we have some of the world's most breathtaking landscapes.

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Their foundations have a history which stretches back millions of years,

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when the bedrocks of Britain were first laid down.

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The ice age carved and sculpted that bedrock, creating many of our lakes and valleys.

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And as the ice melted, the seas rose,

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shaping our beautiful coastline.

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As people prospered here, they tamed wild Britain to create

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the patchwork countryside of our green and pleasant land.

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And 200 years ago, the engines of industry stamped their own mark on the landscape,

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but even this wasn't the final chapter in our story.

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Some of the most important changes of all have happened in just the last few decades.

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The Eden Project in Cornwall.

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I mean, it must be one of the most impressive recent additions to our landscape.

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Some have even dubbed it the eighth wonder of the world.

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But for me, it's a symbol of the great changes

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which have swept across the British Isles in the last century.

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This was once the vast and muddy pit of an abandoned quarry,

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transformed in less than ten years into a fertile garden,

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The Eden Project shows our skills in turning wasteland into wonderland,

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but it also has an important message.

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It was built to tell the story of how we depend on the natural world,

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and how nature is affected by our actions.

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And it's that story, more than any other, which has shaped our homeland in the last hundred years.

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Our relationship with Britain's countryside stretches back thousands of years,

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but we've never been more aware of our impact on nature than in the last century.

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As we've become a more powerful force for change,

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we've also learnt to value and care for what we have,

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a journey of discovery which began in the woodland

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that once cloaked the British Isles.

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Even today, Britain's woodlands are special places. I love them,

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especially in spring, when the flora erupts with a sea of bluebells,

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and the sunlight glints through the fresh green leaves with all the magic of a stained-glass window.

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I reckon this natural beauty is among the best in the world.

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A walk in the woods is something we all take for granted.

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But at the beginning of the 20th century, British woodlands were in crisis.

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There was less forest in 1900 than there had been for 10,000 years.

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Another 500,000 acres fell during World War One,

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devastating what little forest was left.

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But as soon as the war was over, we began to try and redress the balance.

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Tree planting began on a massive scale,

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transforming huge areas of open moorland and heath, in the great reforestation of Britain.

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Our forests have more than doubled in size since the beginning of the century.

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Love them or loath them, we now have some of the largest planted forests anywhere in Europe.

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But most of this is not native oak or beech,

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but foreign, quick-growing species of pine and spruce.

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While these plantations boosted the quantity of woodland across Britain,

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they did nothing for the quality of forest habitat.

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This canopy is so dense that it cuts out all the light.

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The roots of these trees are so vigorous they suck out all the moisture and nutrition.

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Virtually nothing can survive on the forest floor.

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These trees were grown for timber, not nature...

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But up in the treetops at least,

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there can be a surprising amount of wildlife.

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Goshawks are only one of around 50 different birds which live in these plantations.

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There's one more creature that thrives in these pine forests.

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It's one of our most attractive and best-loved animals.

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The trouble is, it's fairly shy. Perhaps a few of these will tempt one of them down.

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It's a red squirrel, in full winter coat with those wonderful long, furry ears.

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I've caught glimpses of them on the Isle of Wight,

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but the closest I ever came

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was Beatrix Potter's Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin

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when my mum read it to me as a nipper.

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A few nuts on a tree stump there,

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and here they are, within six feet of me. It's amazing!

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Look at that tiny little hand!

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There are only a few places in Britain you can get this close to a red squirrel.

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Sadly, these beautiful animals have vanished from many woodlands,

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driven out by the introduced grey squirrel.

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Only in conifer forests do the reds seem to win out.

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So while these plantations might not be the prettiest places,

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they're a real godsend to some of our wildlife.

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HE CHUCKLES

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But it wasn't just forests that sprang up after World War One.

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Britain itself was being rebuilt,

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making a land fit for the returning heroes.

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These new and more spacious homes

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would be affordable to everyone.

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It was the birth of Britain's suburbs.

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This is the Becontree estate, built between 1921 and 1934

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to house soldiers returning from war

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and families from the over-crowded slum areas of East London.

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97 of theses houses went up every week

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and suddenly people had space,

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not just indoors, but outdoors too.

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They had these -

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back gardens!

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Britain began to bloom.

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It wasn't just flowers either. During the '40s,

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an amazing 10% of all the food produced in Britain was home-grown

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in gardens and on allotments.

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And it was among the leafy rows of an allotment that my affair with gardening began.

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I haven't stood on this patch of earth for over 50 years,

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but this is exactly where my granddad had his allotment.

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I remember him leading me through rows of peas and sweet peas

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from which dangled silvery lids

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of Cadbury's cocoa to frighten off the sparrows.

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It's almost as though time has stood still.

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But this is where I learnt the thrill of growing things.

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It's also where I found my first caterpillars,

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munching through the cabbages.

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Look carefully, and there's masses of wildlife in these little urban oases.

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In fact, these green spaces

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make up the biggest nature reserve in Britain.

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Added together, they cover a bigger area

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than all our national parks combined.

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And we can all help nature out,

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by digging a pond, for example, or putting up a bird feeder.

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Little things can make a big difference.

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And this is going to be my contribution

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to helping out one of the garden's most important residents.

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The timid little bumblebee is in trouble.

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Populations have crashed, three species have become extinct,

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and another nine are critically endangered.

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It'd be heartbreaking to lose the buzz of the bumblebee

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from our gardens and from the countryside,

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but with one of these, you can help them out.

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It's a bumblebee nesting box. There's even a transparent lid so you can see what's going on.

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Put the lid on, pop it underneath a shrub to offer it shelter

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and let the bees get on with it.

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The Second World War marked the beginning of the next great wave of change in our countryside.

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AIR-RAID SIREN

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This time, the battle came much closer to home.

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The bombing blitz of 1940 lasted for almost two months.

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But as our boys fought bravely back,

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they weren't just defending the people of Britain.

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Because World War Two

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also made the military into the custodians of the countryside.

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The MOD requisitioned huge areas of land for defence,

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and by 1945, they controlled a fifth of Great Britain.

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Some of our wildest corners came under military control,

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and off-limits to most of us, many have stayed wild.

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These areas are full of surprises.

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Nature thrives alongside the privates on patrol.

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These days, the military own a more modest slice of Britain.

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But even some of the land they've given back is helping wildlife.

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This massive structure is one of six shelters

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built to house cruise missiles

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during the Cold War here at Greenham Common.

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Underneath my feet, two metres of concrete, three metres of sand

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and tonnes of topsoil, all put together

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with the specific intention of resisting a nuclear attack.

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But the Cold War has ended, and the cruise missiles left more than ten years ago.

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So how do you turn a bleak old army base into a more natural landscape?

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Well, nature doesn't need much encouragement to reclaim what was once hers.

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Concrete and steel are no match for Mother Nature's adaptability.

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Even a barn owl has moved in.

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You can see evidence of his occupancy,

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not just from the droppings, but also from these -

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pellets.

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Those parts of a bird's diet that it can't digest, it regurgitates

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and expels through its beak.

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If you pick these apart, you can see what it's been feeding on.

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Small mammal bones, quite a lot of fur,

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all of it indigestible.

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When I was a kid,

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we used to water these under a tap and tease them apart

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and then lay out all the little tiny bones we'd find.

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Morbid little school boys.

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It's not just barn owls who make use of these old buildings.

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Phew!

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This might not be an ideal home as far as you or I are concerned,

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but it's been specially adapted to be hospitable

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to one particular group of visitors.

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That's why these rafters are here and lumps of fabric

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and pieces of timber fixed to the wall with gaps between them.

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There we are...

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Look at that.

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It's a noctule bat.

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It's one of our largest.

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Quite sleek. Blunt snout, little rounded ears.

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You can see why they're sometimes called flittermice.

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It's like a mouse with wings.

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Bats like this have moved in all over Greenham.

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I'll just let him go back to sleep.

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But the biggest change here is outside, peeling back the runway

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to help one particular plant.

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Large areas have been seeded with heather,

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and you can see the young plants springing up everywhere.

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It will take some time before these are mature,

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but eventually this whole area will become heathland.

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And when it does, it'll look like this.

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Britain has some of the finest heathland in Europe,

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but over the last 200 years, we've lost more than 80% of it.

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So, projects like this one at Greenham are of real value.

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And it's already attracting typical heathland wildlife.

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The pools created when the runway was removed are perfect for little ringed plovers.

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Only a squadron of damselflies are stationed at Greenham today.

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But there is one resident of the heath

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who still has a lethal weapon.

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They're often hiding under old pieces of tin like this.

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But in this case, they're not.

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Nope!

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An adder.

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Isn't he great?

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A wonderful black zigzag right down his back.

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It's our only venomous snake,

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but they're generally fairly timid and just slither away.

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This one's sitting there at the moment.

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They feed on lizards and frogs.

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I've just disturbed its afternoon nap.

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I'd better give him his hiding place back.

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From beginnings as an air base in WWII

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to a flourishing heathland in a generation,

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Greenham is a real success story.

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But the war also had more devastating effects on Britain.

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Many shortages were caused by the disruption to shipping,

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some of them disastrous!

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Queues were the norm, and even many basic goods were being rationed.

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We simply needed to grow more food, and that put huge pressure on rural Britain.

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Traditional farming gradually gave way

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to more modern methods.

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Tractors replaced the working horse on our farms,

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and with these new machines and chemical fertilisers,

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even poor soils could be farmed.

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Many wild areas were ploughed up to make new fields.

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Modern farming is on an industrial scale.

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I can't think of anything more striking

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to show just how much farming has changed

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than these prairie-like fields -

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vast monocultures with little room for nature.

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But things ARE getting better.

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Farming organically is one example of this.

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You can see the benefits in a field like this, at Vinehouse Farm in Lincolnshire.

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Instead of being doused with weedkiller,

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these rows of organic wheat are sown slightly further apart

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to allow mechanical weed control with a hoe.

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It's not so efficient as herbicide -

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you still get field poppy and mayweed creeping up -

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but not enough of them to compete with the crop,

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but sufficient to produce seeds and support insects

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that in turn provide a rich larder for countryside birds.

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But organic farming isn't the only way to help.

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Setting aside field edges

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and other wild corners makes a surprisingly big difference.

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Wild flowers and long grass attract bugs and butterflies,

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and provide food and shelter for small mammals,

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And replanting hedgerows dug up in the past

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provides homes for many more plants and animals.

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Some farmers are even growing crops just for the birds.

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This glorious display may be short-lived,

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but come winter, it'll provide food when there's not much else around.

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In fact, the sunflowers drew so many birds

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that the farmer here decided to start up a new business.

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Four years ago,

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this farm was producing 15 tonnes of this bird food a year.

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Now it's producing that much a week.

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It's an important part of the farm's income

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and proves you CAN farm to profit both people and wildlife.

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But wildlife-friendly farming isn't the only way that Britain's agricultural landscape is changing.

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Our lonely moorlands might seem untouched by human hands, but we've brought our animals even here.

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At Kielder in Northumberland,

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the wildlife had to make way as farming spread in the post-war years.

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Subsidies encouraged people to dig drainage ditches,

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or burn off the heather to provide better grazing for sheep.

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But drying out the moorland like this

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was bad news for the birds who came here to breed.

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They depended on the boggy ground and small pools

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to provide them and their chicks with food.

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As the moors have dried out, bird numbers have plummeted.

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But all is not lost. Over the last few years, the landowners here

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have been busy turning Kielder back into a haven for wildlife.

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The ditches have been allowed to fill in,

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the sheep have been moved off and the pools recreated...

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using this. Gelignite.

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If you want to make holes in the ground, this is the stuff.

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It's quick, effective, cheap and, to be perfectly honest,

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extremely good fun!

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All it needs is a bit of finishing off

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with my trusty spade. When the autumn rains come,

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it'll fill up, be colonised by moisture-loving plants and insects

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and become, where it once was a bit of a desert, an oasis of life.

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From uplands to lowlands,

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things are improving for wildlife in many of our farming landscapes.

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But back in the '50s, another problem was looming large.

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Pollution.

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Industry, sewage and agriculture all added to a noxious cocktail of nasties.

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In 1952, the London smog was so bad

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that it killed around 4,000 people.

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And many of our rivers were also sickened by this pollution.

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In 1957, the Thames was declared dead.

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Happily, things are much improved these days.

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New stricter laws have forced everyone to clean up their act

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and the Thames is now among the cleanest rivers in Europe.

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Nature has moved back in.

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And all over the British Isles,

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our rivers are the cleanest they've been for decades.

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We've spent billions of pounds

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on restoring them to their natural best.

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And one of the animals to have benefited the most is the otter.

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By the late '50s,

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the otter was fast approaching extinction in Britain,

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but with the clean-up of our waterways,

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their numbers have increased five-fold in just 25 years.

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And the work on our rivers goes on.

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Many were once straightened and dredged

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but are now having their natural curves restored.

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These volunteers are creating a new bank.

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In the narrowed channel,

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the faster flow helps clean the gravels on the river floor.

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That can help many of the river's smaller inhabitants.

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It sets the stage for a magical event.

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Adult mayfly only emerge on a few days each year.

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Their graceful ballet lasts little more than 24 hours.

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The flies provide a bonanza for many hungry hunters.

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Only in clean and unpolluted waters do so many small insects thrive.

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Back in 1953, it wasn't just the quality of the water

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that gave cause for concern.

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On January 31st, strong winds and bad weather

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combined to create a high tide three metres above normal,

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and the sea swamped much of eastern England.

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More than 300 people lost their lives,

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and many more were left homeless,

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struggling to deal with the chaos left by the flood.

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It was the greatest peacetime disaster in our history.

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To make sure such a catastrophe could never happen again,

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we built mile after mile of new sea defences.

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Barriers like this protect great lengths of our coastline from the sea,

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reassuring local residents

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and allowing the land inside them to be farmed.

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But their is a downside to all this.

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It may look like a slippery mud pit to you and me,

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but this salt marsh is paradise for some of our wildlife.

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Every handful of this gloop

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contains masses of tiny snails, worms and shellfish

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that make wonderful bird food.

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The creeks that crisscross the marsh are great breeding grounds for fish.

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The trouble is, sea walls are bad news for salt marsh.

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By cutting off the land from the sea,

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these man-made barriers are killing off the marsh.

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But the solution to this problem is surprisingly simple!

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In a few carefully-selected locations, we're knocking holes in the sea wall,

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allowing the sea back in, and sacrificing farmland to recreate marshland.

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And you can see here that it's already beginning to work.

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Last year, this was a barley field.

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You can see the remains of the stubble.

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But in just 12 short months,

0:31:110:31:13

it's already begun to be colonised by pioneer salt marsh plants

0:31:130:31:18

like this marsh samphire, which ironically is edible,

0:31:180:31:22

just like the barley.

0:31:220:31:24

But the big surprise is that knocking down the sea wall

0:31:240:31:27

and allowing the salt marsh to regenerate

0:31:270:31:29

might just be another way of controlling flooding.

0:31:290:31:33

If there's a dangerously high tide,

0:31:360:31:38

these marshes should act like a sponge,

0:31:380:31:42

absorbing some of the floodwater that might otherwise threaten towns and villages.

0:31:420:31:46

It's a way of working with Mother Nature,

0:31:460:31:50

giving the sea room to breathe.

0:31:500:31:53

So, everyone should be a winner -

0:32:030:32:06

less threat from flooding, more salt marsh

0:32:060:32:09

and more wildlife for us all to enjoy.

0:32:090:32:12

In fact, coastal landscapes like these

0:32:180:32:21

are of worldwide importance for birds.

0:32:210:32:23

Our salt marshes, sands and mud flats

0:32:310:32:35

provide vital winter feeding grounds

0:32:350:32:38

for more than six million wildfowl and waders.

0:32:380:32:42

It's one of our most magnificent wildlife spectacles.

0:32:490:32:53

Britain has many places of world-beating beauty,

0:33:310:33:35

and the '50s marked a milestone in their protection.

0:33:350:33:38

It was in 1951 that we began to recognise the importance

0:33:460:33:50

of our best-loved landscapes by making them National Parks.

0:33:500:33:55

The very first of these was the Peak District,

0:33:570:34:00

and it's now one of the most visited national parks in the world.

0:34:000:34:04

From the mountains of Snowdonia

0:34:100:34:13

to the romance of the Lake District and beyond,

0:34:130:34:16

these parks are a celebration of our countryside.

0:34:160:34:20

Who needs to go abroad when there's all this

0:34:250:34:28

right on your doorstep?

0:34:280:34:31

But however wild these landscapes look,

0:34:370:34:41

people play a vital role in looking after them,

0:34:410:34:44

and perhaps nowhere more so than in the Norfolk Broads.

0:34:440:34:47

If you like spending time on the water, this is the place to be.

0:34:530:34:57

There are over 115 miles of navigable channels here

0:34:570:35:02

and more than 40 lakes.

0:35:020:35:05

It's the perfect place for messing around in boats.

0:35:050:35:08

But if it wasn't for people,

0:35:110:35:13

many of these waterways would gradually be taken over by the reeds and sedges,

0:35:130:35:18

and the broads would begin to dry out.

0:35:180:35:21

For centuries, these fenlands have been harvested for roofing,

0:35:250:35:29

and the regular cutting has helped keep the plants in check.

0:35:290:35:33

But since the '50s, this has become something of a dying art.

0:35:360:35:40

So what's the modern alternative?

0:35:400:35:43

A giant mowing machine!

0:35:460:35:49

It might not have the romance of the old-fashioned method,

0:35:510:35:55

but it certainly does the trick!

0:35:550:35:57

I don't much like emptying the grassbox on the mower at home.

0:35:590:36:02

It must be tedious emptying this one!

0:36:020:36:04

It's specially designed for the fens, with rubber tracks

0:36:060:36:09

that don't sink into the damp earth.

0:36:090:36:12

With regular cutting, the fens are kept under control

0:36:120:36:17

which also helps some of the broadland wildlife.

0:36:170:36:20

Milk parsley, for instance,

0:36:210:36:24

can't survive in dense fenland where it struggles for light.

0:36:240:36:27

But where the reed has been cut down and grows back less densely,

0:36:270:36:32

then it thrives. I'm rather pleased about that.

0:36:320:36:35

It's the food plant of one of my favourite British creatures.

0:36:350:36:39

This tiny weeny little black caterpillar

0:36:390:36:45

grows up into something

0:36:450:36:48

altogether more spectacular.

0:36:480:36:50

The swallowtail.

0:37:020:37:04

The largest British butterfly,

0:37:040:37:07

and one of the rarest.

0:37:070:37:08

It's a first sighting for me.

0:37:080:37:10

It's an absolute thrill.

0:37:100:37:13

Just look at that! I've wanted to see one of these since I was a lad.

0:37:230:37:27

But they've become increasingly rare.

0:37:270:37:29

It only survives in this part of Britain

0:37:310:37:33

and its future's dependent on man's continued intervention in the broads.

0:37:330:37:38

Without management, all this wetland would turn into woodland

0:37:380:37:42

and the swallowtail, along with many other unique fenland species, would simply disappear.

0:37:420:37:47

All across Britain, we've learnt a great deal about caring for the countryside.

0:37:520:37:57

But we've made plenty of mistakes too. Even quite recently.

0:37:570:38:02

In Scotland's remote Western Isles, we've discovered

0:38:020:38:05

how even a seemingly innocent action can have devastating effects.

0:38:050:38:09

This is one of the rarest habitats in all Europe,

0:38:110:38:14

and today it's one of the windiest!

0:38:140:38:17

It only occurs in the Gaelic nations,

0:38:170:38:19

on the west coast of Ireland and north-west Scotland.

0:38:190:38:23

It's known by it's Gaelic name - the machair.

0:38:230:38:27

On the Hebridean island of Uist, this unique coastal grassland

0:38:280:38:33

has been farmed for centuries.

0:38:330:38:36

But never intensively. That's resulted in a scene

0:38:360:38:41

to make any botanist drool.

0:38:410:38:43

And for hundreds of years, many ground-nesting birds

0:38:460:38:50

have come to the machair to breed, like the rare corncrake...

0:38:500:38:53

..along with many wading birds.

0:38:590:39:01

But many of these birds are now under attack from an alien invader.

0:39:030:39:08

There can be over 100 of these hungry predators in a square mile of the machair.

0:39:100:39:16

They're surprisingly elusive, often lurking in disused rabbit holes.

0:39:160:39:20

But sooner or later, they have to come out to feed.

0:39:200:39:23

Hedgehogs,

0:39:430:39:45

introduced to the island in the '70s.

0:39:450:39:48

And they've developed a taste for eggs.

0:39:530:39:56

It's no laughing matter for these birds, destroying their nests.

0:40:120:40:17

The only solution is to hunt down the hedgehogs

0:40:170:40:21

and either kill them, or take them back to the mainland -

0:40:210:40:24

both controversial options.

0:40:240:40:27

It was humans who brought hedgehogs to these islands,

0:40:330:40:36

but it's the hedgehogs who'll have to pay the price.

0:40:360:40:39

This little chap faces either death,

0:40:390:40:41

albeit a humane one,

0:40:410:40:42

or an uncertain future hundreds of miles from home.

0:40:420:40:46

But one thing's certain - if the hedgehogs remain,

0:40:460:40:48

then the wild birds of the machair will face continued decline.

0:40:480:40:54

We have to make difficult decisions like these

0:40:570:41:00

even here in the wildest corners of Britain.

0:41:000:41:03

But they're even tougher where people have a greater impact.

0:41:030:41:07

There she is! CHILDREN GASP

0:41:090:41:13

In 1904, there had been only 8,000 cars in Britain.

0:41:130:41:19

By 1950, there were two million,

0:41:190:41:23

and that number had doubled by the '60s.

0:41:230:41:26

The fabulous Morris Minor 1000!

0:41:260:41:30

With more cars, we wanted more roads, and bigger ones.

0:41:310:41:36

Motorways arrived in Britain.

0:41:380:41:40

These giant highways

0:41:410:41:43

cut great swathes of destruction through the countryside.

0:41:430:41:47

The M1 was opened in 1959 and today we have 4,000 miles of motorway.

0:41:490:41:56

But nature still manages to put in an appearance.

0:41:580:42:02

Wild verges attract insects and small mammals -

0:42:040:42:09

food for kestrels.

0:42:090:42:11

They're a common sight on our main roads,

0:42:130:42:17

and on the M40, they get extra special care.

0:42:170:42:20

Five chicks.

0:42:210:42:23

These nestboxes make up for a lack of natural nesting sites.

0:42:270:42:31

And they're carefully monitored to see how the birds are getting on.

0:42:310:42:35

Each chick gets its own identity tag,

0:42:390:42:42

so researchers can follow up on these birds in later life.

0:42:420:42:46

Back in the nest, the chicks are left to express their opinion of recent events...

0:42:560:43:02

..and wait for mum to bring back dinner.

0:43:040:43:07

As you and I whizz past, it's hard to appreciate

0:43:170:43:21

just how remarkable these little birds are.

0:43:210:43:24

The chicks need a constant supply of food, keeping both parents busy.

0:43:300:43:36

But they almost seem to relish practising their hunting skills.

0:43:360:43:41

Just how do they keep their heads so still?

0:44:070:44:10

It's amazing.

0:44:100:44:12

One of Britain's natural wonders,

0:44:410:44:44

and we drive past it every day.

0:44:440:44:47

Roads are the veins and arteries of our modern world,

0:44:560:44:59

but the urban heart of Britain beats in our towns and cities.

0:44:590:45:04

Since the turn of the century, that urban sprawl has sprawled ever further.

0:45:050:45:10

We're one of the most intensely urban cultures in the world,

0:45:140:45:18

with 90% of us crammed into the concrete jungle.

0:45:180:45:22

London is most crowded of all -

0:45:240:45:27

7 million people packed into 67 square miles.

0:45:270:45:31

Every acre is worth more than £3 million.

0:45:340:45:37

But even here there's room for wildlife.

0:45:370:45:41

I'm eight miles from Euston station,

0:45:430:45:45

six miles from Big Ben and right under the flight path to Heathrow.

0:45:450:45:51

But I'm also slap bang in the middle of a great big nature reserve.

0:45:510:45:57

The London Wetlands Centre,

0:46:030:46:05

just round the corner from Hammersmith Bridge,

0:46:050:46:08

shows just how much we've come to value our wildlife.

0:46:080:46:11

100 years ago, this was a series of four concrete reservoirs

0:46:130:46:18

supplying water to the capital. But it was abandoned in the 1980s.

0:46:180:46:23

It could have become a housing estate or a factory site.

0:46:230:46:27

Instead, due to a spot of enlightened thinking, it became a little patch of paradise.

0:46:270:46:33

We've come a long way since 1900,

0:46:590:47:03

and of that we should be proud,

0:47:030:47:05

but not complacent. There's still plenty of room for improvement.

0:47:050:47:11

Even little things, like a new home for these sand martins,

0:47:110:47:15

can reap big rewards.

0:47:150:47:18

One way or another, we can all choose to play a part

0:47:180:47:23

in caring for our countryside.

0:47:230:47:25

The London Wetlands Centre is living proof that even in the middle of the urban jungle,

0:47:260:47:32

there's still room for wildlife.

0:47:320:47:34

A century ago, a place like this would have been unthinkable.

0:47:340:47:38

But today, it's part of a growing trend to enrich our landscape.

0:47:380:47:42

That's the sort of thing that gives us hope for the future

0:47:420:47:45

of the natural history of the British Isles.

0:47:450:47:48

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