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Yorkshire and the mighty Humber. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:28 | |
A dynamic landscape where vast skies take in views across low-lying | 0:00:28 | 0:00:33 | |
countryside and a dramatic coastline. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:36 | |
Out here in the Humber Estuary when the tide retreats, it reveals | 0:00:38 | 0:00:42 | |
this - a vast expanse of saltmarsh and mudflats. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:47 | |
Beneath is a banquet for the thousands of wading birds | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
that flock here, but to make sure there's enough food for them, | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
the marsh has to be managed and that is where these girls come in. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:58 | |
So I'm going to be finding out about a new project that's bringing | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
together farming and conservation. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:03 | |
It's not just the coastline that's a rich breeding ground for wildlife. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:08 | |
It can also be found in the most unlikely of places. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:12 | |
This is MoD Leconfield and it's where every soldier in the UK comes | 0:01:12 | 0:01:16 | |
to learn how to drive military vehicles of all shapes and sizes. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
But hidden away between the trucks | 0:01:19 | 0:01:21 | |
and the hangars is a small army of volunteers | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
doing their bit for wildlife and I'm here to lend them a hand. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
And obviously have a good nosy around, as well! | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
'Tom's investigating the dramatic decline of some of our most | 0:01:29 | 0:01:33 | |
'important plants.' | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
British wild flowers used to be everywhere, but in the last | 0:01:35 | 0:01:40 | |
70 years, many species and habitats have disappeared. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:44 | |
Though now, they're fighting back in the strangest of places. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
'Meanwhile, Adam's going on a shopping trip.' | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
A few years ago, I travelled out to Australia and saw some magnificent | 0:01:54 | 0:01:58 | |
herds of Hereford cattle and when I came home, | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
I had a dream that one day I'd be able to buy a herd of my own. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
And today, that dream might come true. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
Well, nearly. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
'The open-skied landscape of the Humber | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
'on the east coast of Yorkshire is a bird's paradise. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
'Its lush pastoral countryside takes in the Rivers Ouse | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
'and Trent as they flood into the North Sea. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:39 | |
'For centuries, people here have been defending | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
'the flatlands against an encroaching tide.' | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
And now it's home to another form of defence. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:58 | |
This is MoD Leconfield, the UK's only defence school of transport | 0:02:58 | 0:03:02 | |
and it's where every military driver must come to train before they | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
head off for active service. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:07 | |
Lying deep within the Humber countryside, | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
the MoD's taken advantage of this secluded and malleable | 0:03:22 | 0:03:26 | |
landscape to carve out a playground for vehicles big and small. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:30 | |
There are 1,300 on site of all shapes and sizes | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
and it's Commandant Colonel Rob Peacock's job to look after them. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:37 | |
So, Rob, what exactly goes on here? | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
This is where we take everyone from across defence, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
young soldiers, airmen, Royal Marines, | 0:03:43 | 0:03:45 | |
and we teach them everything they need to know about military driving. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:49 | |
You've got all sorts of vehicles, all shapes and sizes and a lot of them. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
People come here aged 17, 18, might not even have a car licence, | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
so we take them through the car licence, the early stages of getting | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
a truck licence, truck and trailer licence, but then the serious | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
business is we put them onto the military vehicles. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:06 | |
They learn on the MAN trucks, DROPS truck is the old stuff. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:10 | |
We've got the sort of Oshkosh fuel tankers over there. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
The point is, they've got to learn to drive in all conditions, day and | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
night, all sorts of terrain because they need to do this on operations. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
The driving part of it is almost the easy bit. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
We need to teach them to be soldiers on the battlefield, | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
it's just that they have to drive vehicles. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
'The reality of what these recruits are training for was brought | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
'home just a few weeks ago when a Mastiff, the MoD's most | 0:04:32 | 0:04:36 | |
'armoured wheeled vehicle was hit by a roadside | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
'bomb in Afghanistan.' | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
I feel very sorry for the families at the moment. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
We really shouldn't forget how tragic it is for them. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
But we do our very best to train them | 0:04:47 | 0:04:48 | |
in these vehicles in every condition we can think of. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:52 | |
Trying to replicate as closely as possible what's going to | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
happen to them in Afghanistan. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
And we need to wait and see what we can learn from that and see | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
if there's any tiny improvements we can make on the driving side of it. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
'Tens of thousands of soldiers have come through here in the past | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
'five years. Jason Figgett's been a DST instructor since 2006. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:12 | |
'After 15 years as a tank commander, | 0:05:12 | 0:05:14 | |
'he's now passing on his wisdom to the next generation. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:19 | |
'And today, it's my turn in the hot-seat. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
'Not in an armoured vehicle, but in our 4X4.' | 0:05:22 | 0:05:25 | |
Let's hope she's up to the job. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:27 | |
'It's not about speed, you know. It's all about control.' | 0:05:32 | 0:05:36 | |
OK, all we're going to do now then is come out of this area here, | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
just carry on, follow the truck. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:43 | |
So this is meant to recreate surroundings | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
and terrain that you will come across in a military environment. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:52 | |
Yeah, it is. Yeah. We actually bring all sorts of vehicles on here. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:57 | |
The Mastiff, the Foxhound, | 0:05:57 | 0:05:59 | |
but also our LGVs, our normal military trucks. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:04 | |
-Just watch these dips. -Yeah. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:06 | |
-Yeah. -OK. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:14 | |
What we're going to do now is accelerate and as you're going | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
over the brow of the hill, I want you to release the accelerator, | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
as you go over the tipping point. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
If you don't, you'll end up going back the way you've just come up. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
If you don't do it as we're on the descent, | 0:06:25 | 0:06:27 | |
-you'll end up balancing on top. -OK. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
OK, foot off the accelerator. Well done. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:37 | |
-Woo! -Did you like that? -Yeah, I liked that. -Good, good. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:41 | |
-That'll do you nicely. Nice and gentle. -Yeah. -So start to turn now. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
-Yeah. -Turn now. -Yeah. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:48 | |
-Turn now. -Straight. -Keep it nice and straight. -Yeah. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:52 | |
-There we go. -OK. -Cushty. -And we're going to go right again. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:57 | |
So this is very real training, but it's very real training for the | 0:06:57 | 0:07:01 | |
kind of terrain that you will face at some stage in your military career. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:06 | |
Yeah, we're now putting them into a cross-country environment, | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
which can simulate all the different types of conditions that they | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
could come up against, especially on operational tours. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
So with the kind of obstacles that they have got here, | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
at least they're getting experience prior to going into operations. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
So you've experienced this environment in places like | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
Iraq, Afghanistan, and all over the world and it's real, it makes sense. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
Yeah, especially with the urban village that we now have here. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:32 | |
Driving in built-in areas, | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
what you're constantly looking at is how you can escape, especially | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
if you're ambushed and the urban village here simulates that. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
And there we go. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
Jason, I really enjoyed that. How did I do? | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
I've really enjoyed being with you. Very good! | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
'Driving aside, there's more to Leconfield than meets the eye. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
'Later, I'll be joining some soldiers doing their bit for conservation. | 0:07:56 | 0:08:01 | |
'But first, wild flowers. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:03 | |
'Once a common sight in the British landscape, | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
'they've now become something of a rarity. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:08 | |
Tom's finding out why.' | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
After a bleak start to the year, | 0:08:16 | 0:08:19 | |
life is now returning to the countryside. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
Our beautiful wild flowers are being slowly | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
coaxed from their winter slumber. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
But the colourful jewels that once blanketed our landscape | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
are fading fast. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:32 | |
Wild flowers native to the UK have endured a steep decline over | 0:08:32 | 0:08:36 | |
the last 70 years and that means not only the loss of the flowers | 0:08:36 | 0:08:40 | |
themselves, but also habitats for animals and insects. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:44 | |
This is by no means a new problem. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:48 | |
In fact, it started during the Second World War. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
With chronic food shortages and rationing, | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
farmers were asked to produce more food for the nation | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
and growing more food meant using more land. | 0:08:57 | 0:09:01 | |
We've all dined out on the success of agriculture since the war, | 0:09:01 | 0:09:06 | |
but our need for food has drastically reduced | 0:09:06 | 0:09:09 | |
the amount of green space left for wild flowers to grow. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:13 | |
In England alone, | 0:09:13 | 0:09:14 | |
we've lost an astonishing three million acres of wild flower | 0:09:14 | 0:09:18 | |
meadows, taking some colour from our landscape and upsetting | 0:09:18 | 0:09:23 | |
a food chain that supports a huge variety of plants and animals. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:28 | |
And it's not just the amount of farmland that's had an impact - | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
it's the way we farm too. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
Here at the Millennium Seed Bank, it's Ted Chapman's job to | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
preserve the wild flowers we have for the future. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:41 | |
This is a wet meadow or fen, | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
-looking pretty glorious at this time of year. -Looks lovely. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
So farming's been getting a lot of the blame, | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
but how does that actually work? | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
Well, I think probably the key culprits there are modern | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
fertilisers and herbicides, which favours the grass | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
but it certainly doesn't favour the wild flowers. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:00 | |
And how bad is the loss? | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
It's been pretty catastrophic, to be frank. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
We've lost 97% of our species-rich wild flower meadows, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
since the Second World War. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
It's probably slowed a little now, but we really need to work hard to | 0:10:11 | 0:10:15 | |
prevent that further deterioration and reverse that decline. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:18 | |
The statistics are pretty stark. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:22 | |
Of around 1,400 wild plants in Britain, | 0:10:22 | 0:10:25 | |
45 are classed as critically endangered. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
101 species are endangered and 307 species are listed as vulnerable. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:36 | |
That means about a third of our wild plants | 0:10:36 | 0:10:40 | |
are edging towards extinction. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
Feels like the Secret Garden! | 0:10:46 | 0:10:48 | |
'Behind the scenes, Ted and his colleagues are going to | 0:10:49 | 0:10:52 | |
'extraordinary lengths to stop our wild flowers disappearing forever.' | 0:10:52 | 0:10:57 | |
By the look of it, we've got a mixture of the quite rampant | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
-and the very rare here. -Yeah. We've got some spring beauties here. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:05 | |
You started with the cowslip. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:06 | |
This will be reasonably familiar to many people. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
It's declining but it's not too endangered yet. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
Really important food plant for butterflies. So we mustn't lose it. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:16 | |
Next, we've got this lovely plant. This is the pasque flower. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:20 | |
Really associated with old undisturbed chalky grassland. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:24 | |
And it's just become so rare, so fragmented, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:27 | |
you'd be very lucky to see it in the wild. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
And finally, tell me about this one. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:32 | |
This is a favourite of mine. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:33 | |
This is the spiked rampion, the Rapunzel flower. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
-And this is a very rare species. -Great name - Rapunzel flower. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
When you say "very rare", what do you mean? | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
There are less than 300 of these surviving in the wild, we think. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
-Less than 300 plants? -Less than 300 plants in the wild. -That's tiny! | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
And the fact that there are such small numbers means it's in real | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
danger of becoming extinct in the UK unless we act fast to save it. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:59 | |
'Bringing each new seedling to life is a delicate operation. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:04 | |
'And Ted's trusting me to pot one.' | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
I feel quite a responsibility | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
if there are only 300 of these in the wild. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
There are 50 in there. I think I got that one OK. | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
'The work they're doing at the Millennium Seed Bank is vital, | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
'not just for preserving rare and endangered species of wild | 0:12:19 | 0:12:23 | |
'flowers, but to ensure the future of the creatures that rely on them.' | 0:12:23 | 0:12:27 | |
Those wild flowers are the basis of the ecosystem. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:31 | |
'Pete Burgess is a conservation manager for the Wildlife Trust, | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
'here in Devon.' | 0:12:34 | 0:12:36 | |
We've seen big reductions in the abundance of some | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
of our butterflies, over the past 50 years, | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
real significant loss of greater horseshoe bat populations | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
and they rely on all of those insects | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
which are coming from all of those pastures. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
'For Pete, there's no question - the decline in insects and even | 0:12:52 | 0:12:55 | |
'other larger animals is linked to the disappearance of wild flowers. | 0:12:55 | 0:13:00 | |
'But though many see farming as part of the problem, | 0:13:00 | 0:13:03 | |
'he thinks it's also a vital part of the solution.' | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
It's crucial that this area is farmed. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
We've got to maintain that balance between the biodiversity | 0:13:10 | 0:13:14 | |
and the production side of things. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
It's essential that we get that balance absolutely right. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:19 | |
Too little and this site would revert back to something | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
-that's less wildlife ripped. -You don't want to let it go back | 0:13:22 | 0:13:25 | |
to nature. That's not necessarily good for wild flowers. | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
No, we're reliant on agriculture to maintain what are cultural | 0:13:28 | 0:13:33 | |
-habitats. -It's quite a subtle balance. -It is. Absolutely. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
You've got to get that level just right in these sorts of areas. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
If you let this go without any farming, | 0:13:41 | 0:13:43 | |
the bracken would dominate first, then trees would come up. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:46 | |
Bracken would be the first thing that would really invade. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
The bracken would create this dense litter layer | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
and all of those really rich wild flowers just wouldn't be able | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
to get through that bracken layer. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:56 | |
So we've got to cherish the farming and cherish the flowers as well. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
Absolutely. It's getting that balance perfectly right. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
'But relying on changes to farming methods won't be enough.' | 0:14:03 | 0:14:07 | |
Our wild flowers and the animals that feed on them | 0:14:07 | 0:14:11 | |
have endured a quiet catastrophe, so what can we do to help? | 0:14:11 | 0:14:16 | |
Later on, I'll be on the road to find out. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
I'm on the Outer Humber, where the estuary meets the North Sea. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:37 | |
This unique salty landscape is being given over to farming | 0:14:37 | 0:14:41 | |
and I'm finding out how farming is giving back. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
This is a place both ravaged and nourished by the waves. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:50 | |
The Holderness coast, which stretches to the north, | 0:14:50 | 0:14:54 | |
is the fastest eroding coastline in Europe. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
But while the cliffs lose out to the sea, | 0:14:57 | 0:15:00 | |
the estuary has something to gain from all of this erosion. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
Sea water ladened with sediments from the cliffs is | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
deposited on the banks of the Humber, | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
creating one of the most fertile and richest breeding grounds in Britain. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:14 | |
Saltmarsh. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:15 | |
I'm meeting Andrew Gibson from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:24 | |
He's heading up an innovative project that hopes to | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
conserve the Welwick saltmarsh. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
Saltmarshes are a special habitat. It's a unique habitat, | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
it needs that twice daily saline water to push over and onto it | 0:15:34 | 0:15:39 | |
to maintain these succulent species that we see at our feet. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:44 | |
And so often, this is the type of habitat that is reclaimed. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:48 | |
We reclaim it for ports, for farmland, and it's being lost | 0:15:48 | 0:15:52 | |
in Britain and here we have a large expanse of it, but it's changing. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:56 | |
Let's have a look around our feet | 0:15:56 | 0:15:58 | |
and see what it is that the birds are coming here for. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
The plants that we have here are sea lavender, you have arrowgrass | 0:16:01 | 0:16:05 | |
and then you go onto these domes of frescura, saltmarsh grass. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
You can see the really special bit is there's only | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
a couple of centimetres difference in this height | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
and yet that changes the mosaic of the species in there. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
And with that, changes the mosaic of insects that are in there. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:21 | |
-And the birds that feed on those insects. -A lot going on then. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:25 | |
A hell of a lot going on, yes. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:26 | |
But this is a changing landscape. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:30 | |
Human attempts to drain the land and reclaim it for farming has | 0:16:30 | 0:16:34 | |
altered the dynamics of the saltmarsh. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
Taller grasses now dominate, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:38 | |
choking out some of the important shorter species. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:42 | |
What we have is this large expanse of land. How do you manage this? | 0:16:42 | 0:16:47 | |
How do you bring about positive change for wildlife? | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
You could do it with mechanical means, | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
you could do it with volunteers. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:55 | |
Often the Wildlife Trust uses lots of volunteers. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:58 | |
But to make it sustainable, you need grazing animals. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:01 | |
And what better way than having farming grazing animals | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
and involving the community that live on its boundary? | 0:17:04 | 0:17:08 | |
Andrew was keen that involvement included the next | 0:17:10 | 0:17:13 | |
generation of farmers. He had the sheep, | 0:17:13 | 0:17:16 | |
all he needed was a local young farmer to shepherd them. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
That's where Jack Johnson comes in. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:24 | |
Farming's in his blood. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:29 | |
He grew up helping his dad Charlie out on the family sheep farm, | 0:17:29 | 0:17:33 | |
started up by his great-grandfather, | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
a stone's throw from the saltmarshes of the Humber Estuary. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:39 | |
Now then, lads. How are we doing? | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
Good to see you, Jack. Hello, Charlie. How's everything? | 0:17:41 | 0:17:43 | |
Good, thank you. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:45 | |
'The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has loaned Jack and Charlie | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
'an area of the saltmarsh, along with a flock of sheep. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
'It's 17-year-old Jack's responsibility to look after them.' | 0:17:51 | 0:17:55 | |
Do you have your own set of traffic lights? Now, that's something! | 0:17:55 | 0:17:59 | |
That is amazing! | 0:17:59 | 0:18:01 | |
And so this is the first time in the history of your family that | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
-you've grazed sheep down on this marsh. -Yeah, it is. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:13 | |
-Did you feel a big weight of responsibility there? -Kind of, yeah. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
And these sheep are all registered to you, they are your flock, | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
-as such. -Yeah, they are. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:22 | |
So your dad's basically given you this responsibility. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
He can look after the sheep up there, nice and easy on the | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
fresh pasture up there, and then you get the challenges of the saltmarsh. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:32 | |
Yeah! | 0:18:32 | 0:18:33 | |
I know how it works, Charlie! | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
With the average age of farmers at 58, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
a project like this is invaluable in giving young people an opportunity. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:50 | |
Well, the first thing to do really is just to keep an eye out, | 0:18:50 | 0:18:53 | |
see whether any sheep have fallen or are stuck or anything like that. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
Then second thing is try getting them in the pen over there. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:01 | |
'Jack's been given 35 ewes to graze the saltmarsh, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
'which after five years, he'll have to give back.' | 0:19:04 | 0:19:06 | |
Come on, you've got your lambs, don't worry. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
'The cost of the upkeep falls to Jack and his dad, but any | 0:19:11 | 0:19:14 | |
'money they make from selling lambs for meat is theirs to keep.' | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
Basically, so we don't trample too much over the saltmarsh | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
and disturb any of the birds that may be in there, we just | 0:19:22 | 0:19:26 | |
slowly walk to the edge so the sheep funnel down through this gateway. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:30 | |
Now we pop them up there and into the corral. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
Lie down, lie down! | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
Did you um and ah quite a bit with the breed here cos obviously | 0:19:37 | 0:19:41 | |
you're not experienced in the world of grazing a saltmarsh? | 0:19:41 | 0:19:45 | |
Why go for mules? | 0:19:45 | 0:19:47 | |
We tried getting a mixture between a butcher's lamb and something that | 0:19:47 | 0:19:51 | |
would survive out here, but also it's quite good for producing meat. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:56 | |
So you as farmers are happy and also then on the conservation side, | 0:19:56 | 0:20:00 | |
they must be pleased. We've seen where they've been nibbling. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:04 | |
Yeah, I mean, them | 0:20:04 | 0:20:06 | |
being out there is to make it habitable for wildlife so it's | 0:20:06 | 0:20:10 | |
two balances, between the butcher's lamb and the wildlife. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
'At this time of year, the marsh is a busy stop-off point | 0:20:13 | 0:20:17 | |
'for a whole host of migrating birds, | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
'and an important breeding ground for many species, | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
'like roe deer and redshank.' | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
We've seen a lot more birds coming in in wintertime, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:27 | |
especially down where it's been nagged down at that far end, | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
and then hopefully they're going to keep on coming here. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:33 | |
'If all goes to plan, | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
'farming will help enrich this environment for flora and fauna, | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
'and Jack and Charlie will benefit, too, | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
'from sales of their tasty lamb.' | 0:20:40 | 0:20:43 | |
So, have you tried saltmarsh lamb? | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
-Er... No, not yet! -No?! | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
-Have you, Charlie? -No! -No! -First year, so no. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
-This is exciting stuff, then! -It'll be on the shelves before long. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
-Which one's going on the table? -Pick one! | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
-Pick one, we'll all get some lunch. -Pick a big one. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
'There's no substitute for hands-on experience like this, | 0:21:01 | 0:21:04 | |
'and it's great to see Jack's making the most of it. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
'He's not only finding out | 0:21:07 | 0:21:09 | |
'what comes with the responsibility of owning your own livestock, | 0:21:09 | 0:21:12 | |
'but he's helping to preserve this unique habitat | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
'for generations to come. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
'Later, I'll be meeting young female farmers | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
'hoping to make their mark in the farming world.' | 0:21:19 | 0:21:23 | |
'Here at MoD Leconfield, I've been experiencing | 0:21:28 | 0:21:31 | |
'the rough-and-tumble of a military driver's training. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
'But there's a whole lot more going on in this part of East Yorkshire | 0:21:34 | 0:21:37 | |
'than first meets the eye.' | 0:21:37 | 0:21:39 | |
This site has been owned by the military since 1937. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
There are 16 miles of off-road routes and 1,300 vehicles. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:46 | |
Last year, 18,000 soldiers trained here. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
But they're not the only ones passing through. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:52 | |
'Birds, thousands of them, love this not-so-tranquil paradise, | 0:21:56 | 0:22:00 | |
'and it's the job of MoD conservation officer Alan Bakewell | 0:22:00 | 0:22:04 | |
'to look out for them.' | 0:22:04 | 0:22:06 | |
Alan, why is this such a cracking place for wildlife, | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
because it's slightly unexpected? | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
It's the same as a lot of MoD sites. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
Because of the nature of our business, | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
they tend to be in sort of wild, secluded places. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:22 | |
This used to be an old World War II airfield, | 0:22:22 | 0:22:26 | |
and because of the fact it has been in Defence ownership for so long, | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
it hasn't had all of the agrochemicals and pesticides. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:34 | |
It's about as near to organic East Yorkshire as you're going to get. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
So it's such a natural environment, that's why the wildlife flocks here? | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
'Yes, that's right. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:42 | |
'We never know what we're going to find next on the site.' | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
-Do you manage the wildlife? -We don't manage it. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:47 | |
What we're really doing is surveying to see what species are on-site, | 0:22:47 | 0:22:52 | |
and we, as a group, have to rely on our expertise, | 0:22:52 | 0:22:56 | |
'but to actually assist us we get experts in. | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
'We learn lots and gain from all of their experience.' | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
-So even the MoD needs help sometimes with some things? -Even the MoD. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
'But with a site the size of Leconfield, | 0:23:10 | 0:23:13 | |
'it's not easy keeping track of all the wildlife that's coming and going, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
'so the conservation team has come up with a plan. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
'Retired Major Tim Cowley is heading up | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
'the tri-service bird-ringing initiative | 0:23:22 | 0:23:24 | |
'to monitor the birdlife here. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
'The project involves people from across the three services, | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
'the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force, | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
'who net and ring birds together.' | 0:23:33 | 0:23:35 | |
There are several benefits that come out of this. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:40 | |
First of all, we get to find out some of the birds that are here, | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
and we might find something we don't know is here. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
There are over 100 species of bird on this site. | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
'We also find out something about the condition of the birds, | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
'because if they are breeding they might have a brood patch, | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
'and we get to, if we're lucky, | 0:23:56 | 0:23:59 | |
'catch birds that have been caught before, which they call controls, | 0:23:59 | 0:24:02 | |
'and then we find out where this bird's been in the past,' | 0:24:02 | 0:24:05 | |
and maybe in future someone will catch the birds | 0:24:05 | 0:24:07 | |
that have been ringed here in the first instance. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
'As owners of nearly 600,000 acres of land across the UK, | 0:24:11 | 0:24:15 | |
'the MoD claims to take its duty of care for any wildlife | 0:24:15 | 0:24:19 | |
'that takes up residence very seriously. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:21 | |
'And it's encouraging to see how enthusiastic | 0:24:21 | 0:24:23 | |
'the servicemen and women are about the animals.' | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
And it's that enthusiasm that led to a rediscovery a few years ago | 0:24:28 | 0:24:32 | |
of a rare bird. I'm hoping I might see one. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
'Between 1997 and 2010, | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
'just three turtledoves were recorded at Leconfield. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
'But, this year alone, they've already counted seven. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
'This iconic songbird has declined by 93% in the UK since the 1970s, | 0:24:49 | 0:24:55 | |
'and it's a species likely to be extinct by 2020 | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
'unless we do something to save it. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
'I'm joining Chris Tomson from the RSPB | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
'to find out why these beautiful birds are in trouble.' | 0:25:04 | 0:25:08 | |
So, Chris, what's so special about the turtledove? | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
It comes here for the summer, it spends a third of its life here. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
'It's come all the way from Africa to try and breed in this country. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
-'That's pretty special. -It's very special, it's part of our heritage. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
'And it is a very attractive bird, and it's the quintessential | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
'sound of summer that's really disappearing fast.' | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
Why has there been this rapid decline? | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
Well, there's a number of problems. They're not finding enough food. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
'Having made that vast journey of 3,000 miles | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
'they can't get into good breeding condition' | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
so they're not breeding as frequently as we would like. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
They might get one brood off but for the population to actually increase | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
they need to get two, preferably three, broods off, | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
-and that's what's not happening. -So where's the food? | 0:25:45 | 0:25:48 | |
What did they have 100 years ago that they don't have today? | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
Weed seeds, basically. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:53 | |
Weeds is perhaps not the right word, it's wildflowers, | 0:25:53 | 0:25:56 | |
it's sort of traditional weeds that we're used to seeing | 0:25:56 | 0:25:58 | |
like birdsfoot trefoil, knotgrass, redshank, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
those sorts of things that these birds are feeding on. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:03 | |
Farmland is very efficient, it's very well farmed, | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
and lots of chemicals are used to control these weeds, | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
and so it's harder for them to find food. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:12 | |
Why is this such a good habitat for them here at Leconfield? | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
They've got the sort of habitat that they need to breed in. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
They're quite secretive, so they nest in scrub | 0:26:18 | 0:26:22 | |
or in this case they're in a small spruce plantation. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
All this, the trucks, the tanks, the cars, the lorries, the digging, | 0:26:26 | 0:26:30 | |
-doesn't put them off? -Well, they were here last year. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:33 | |
Tim Cowley tells me that there are six here today and a pair, | 0:26:33 | 0:26:36 | |
so there's six singing males, | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
so they've obviously voted with their feet, | 0:26:38 | 0:26:41 | |
-or with their wings, should we say? -With their wings! | 0:26:41 | 0:26:43 | |
I'll give you £1.50 if you show me a turtledove now. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:45 | |
If we look in the right direction we might see one. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
Come on, then, let's see. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:49 | |
This is very exciting. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:58 | |
You won't be able to see it because it's tiny, tiny, tiny, | 0:26:58 | 0:27:01 | |
the top of a tree just over there, | 0:27:01 | 0:27:02 | |
but you'll hear the song of a turtledove. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:06 | |
BIRDSONG | 0:27:06 | 0:27:07 | |
I didn't think I was going to get to see one. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
'To reverse the decline of these farmland birds | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
'the RSPB has launched Operation Turtledove. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:19 | |
'If you've spotted a turtledove this year, the RSPB want to hear about it. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:23 | |
'You can find details on that | 0:27:23 | 0:27:24 | |
'and how you can get involved in saving this bird on the brink | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
'on the Countryfile website.' | 0:27:27 | 0:27:29 | |
'Earlier, we heard about the dramatic loss of wildflowers | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
'across the British countryside. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
'Is there anything we can do to bring them back? Here's Tom.' | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 | |
'Nature's gems that stud our countryside. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:49 | |
'At least, they used to. | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
'There's been a dramatic decline in wildflower numbers | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
'in the last 70 years. One in three are moving towards extinction. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:59 | |
Modern farming methods often catch much of the blame | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
for the loss of wildflowers, | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
but, in reality, most disappeared when we were at our most desperate | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
for food, during and just after the last world war. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:11 | |
And, in recent years, | 0:28:11 | 0:28:13 | |
farmers have made some effort to encourage their return. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
'Farmers in Britain directly manage more than 200,000 acres of fields | 0:28:19 | 0:28:23 | |
'and field margins across the country where wildflowers can grow. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:28 | |
'But we don't have to rely on farmland. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:32 | |
'Across the UK there are plenty of other green spaces we could use.' | 0:28:32 | 0:28:36 | |
TRAFFIC ROARS | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
This little verge alone | 0:28:39 | 0:28:41 | |
has two nationally rare plant species growing on it. | 0:28:41 | 0:28:44 | |
'As founder of the wild plant charity Plantlife, | 0:28:44 | 0:28:48 | |
'Andy Byfield thinks roadside verges | 0:28:48 | 0:28:50 | |
'are the perfect vehicle for wildflowers.' | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
-Can verges really be good for wildflowers? -Oh, absolutely, Tom. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:57 | |
I mean, for starters, two thirds of all our flowering plants occur | 0:28:57 | 0:29:02 | |
on verges somewhere in Britain, which is a staggering total. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:06 | |
It's extraordinary, really, that, in what is such a barren habitat, | 0:29:06 | 0:29:10 | |
that you can get these flowers. But I'm learning that's the point | 0:29:10 | 0:29:12 | |
with wildflowers, they quite like it infertile, in a way, don't they? | 0:29:12 | 0:29:15 | |
Oh, absolutely. All these plants want is bare ground, short turf, | 0:29:15 | 0:29:20 | |
open patches when they come to seed, | 0:29:20 | 0:29:23 | |
so it's no different from your allotment or my garden. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:26 | |
'As well as being an ideal habitat, | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
'these man-made corridors do a lot of the work for Mother Nature, too.' | 0:29:29 | 0:29:33 | |
So much of the British countryside is a tiny meadow here, | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
a tiny meadow tens of miles away. | 0:29:36 | 0:29:38 | |
It's become so fragmented, the plants in those places, | 0:29:38 | 0:29:42 | |
and indeed animals in those places, can't really get from A to B to C, | 0:29:42 | 0:29:46 | |
but here, of course, what we're getting is the cars | 0:29:46 | 0:29:48 | |
coming down the road at high speed, | 0:29:48 | 0:29:50 | |
and what they do in their slipstream is just drag all the seed | 0:29:50 | 0:29:54 | |
from this junction to the next junction and beyond. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
So, just like seeds catching in the fur of animals | 0:29:57 | 0:30:00 | |
as they move around, they get moved in the slipstream of the cars? | 0:30:00 | 0:30:03 | |
And carrying really very rare things up and down the verges. | 0:30:03 | 0:30:06 | |
'Plantlife believes verges and the edges of railway lines | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
'are also the most viewed habitats in the country. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
It's recently launched a campaign to make councils aware | 0:30:14 | 0:30:17 | |
'of the huge potential for growing wildflowers. | 0:30:17 | 0:30:21 | |
'Here in Devon, in just one district, | 0:30:21 | 0:30:24 | |
'the council manages over 1,000 acres of roadside verges.' | 0:30:24 | 0:30:27 | |
If you multiply that across the whole country, | 0:30:27 | 0:30:30 | |
that's a vast area of potential wildflower habitat. | 0:30:30 | 0:30:34 | |
'Something environment manager Peter Chamberlain | 0:30:34 | 0:30:37 | |
'is taking full advantage of.' | 0:30:37 | 0:30:39 | |
So why have you brought me here? | 0:30:39 | 0:30:41 | |
I've brought you to one of Devon County Council's | 0:30:41 | 0:30:43 | |
special verge sites, one of 100 or so of our better verges | 0:30:43 | 0:30:46 | |
-that we have around the county. -And what's so special about it? | 0:30:46 | 0:30:49 | |
If we take a look at this verge here, | 0:30:49 | 0:30:51 | |
we've got a stunning display of spring flowers just in front of us, | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
-a lovely group of early purple orchids... -That's these ones here? | 0:30:54 | 0:30:57 | |
..and some glorious primroses. Yes, this is the early purple orchid. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:00 | |
And a lovely display of primroses in flower for us out in the open here. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:04 | |
They are quite beautiful. I can see one or two of the orchids here, | 0:31:04 | 0:31:07 | |
and I'm no plant expert, but looking at those I'd think, | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
"That's unusual, not something I expect to see out the car window." | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
-That's right. -So, what are you doing, or perhaps not doing, here | 0:31:13 | 0:31:16 | |
-that enables them to grow? -Over the whole of our road network, | 0:31:16 | 0:31:19 | |
which is almost 13,000 kilometres in length, | 0:31:19 | 0:31:21 | |
we've adopted a policy where we would only regularly cut | 0:31:21 | 0:31:24 | |
the first metre of a verge. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:26 | |
The remainder of a width of a verge would be left | 0:31:26 | 0:31:29 | |
and be cut only every two or three years, | 0:31:29 | 0:31:31 | |
therefore allowing a range of lengths of grassland | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
to develop over the verge. | 0:31:34 | 0:31:36 | |
13,000 kilometres? | 0:31:36 | 0:31:37 | |
One of the greatest road lengths of any highway authority, | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
so it is a massive length | 0:31:40 | 0:31:42 | |
and a massive area of habitat that we're managing. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:44 | |
So it's really important that we do get it right. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:47 | |
'From local councils to the Highways Agency, | 0:31:47 | 0:31:50 | |
'the people who manage British roads | 0:31:50 | 0:31:52 | |
'are starting to take notice of this potential.' | 0:31:52 | 0:31:55 | |
But how can we improve our own green spaces at a more grass-roots level? | 0:31:56 | 0:32:02 | |
'In Wandsworth, they're being asked to do just that | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
'by experts from the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew.' | 0:32:07 | 0:32:10 | |
Bees will travel 12 miles from the centre of Westminster | 0:32:10 | 0:32:13 | |
just to get food, because there's hardly anything there, | 0:32:13 | 0:32:17 | |
so they'll travel to sites like this just to get their food, | 0:32:17 | 0:32:20 | |
a bit of nectar from the wildflowers. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:23 | |
'This year, Kew is launching a national campaign called Grow Wild, | 0:32:23 | 0:32:28 | |
'which it hopes will encourage communities to transform | 0:32:28 | 0:32:30 | |
'inner-city spaces like this into havens for wildflowers.' | 0:32:30 | 0:32:35 | |
The growth of towns and the growth of cities, over-development, | 0:32:35 | 0:32:39 | |
has meant that a lot of spaces | 0:32:39 | 0:32:40 | |
which would have been quite natural spaces, brownfield sites, | 0:32:40 | 0:32:44 | |
have been lost to development. | 0:32:44 | 0:32:46 | |
So they would have been exceptionally important spaces | 0:32:46 | 0:32:48 | |
for wildflowers to take a natural refuge. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:51 | |
And the benefits that these bring here, the flowers themselves, | 0:32:51 | 0:32:55 | |
but also the people who live around? | 0:32:55 | 0:32:57 | |
Absolutely, getting people together to show what can be achieved | 0:32:57 | 0:33:01 | |
through a simple task like planting native wildflowers in an area. | 0:33:01 | 0:33:05 | |
The colour, the surprise it brings, | 0:33:05 | 0:33:07 | |
but also the knowledge that comes with it, | 0:33:07 | 0:33:09 | |
and they're working together and then looking back, saying, | 0:33:09 | 0:33:11 | |
"Wow, we created that, we rejuvenated that area ourselves." | 0:33:11 | 0:33:15 | |
And instilling a bit of pride in their own space, as well. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:18 | |
'Campaigns like this aim to inspire us all | 0:33:18 | 0:33:22 | |
'and they're seen as so important they're now attracting public money. | 0:33:22 | 0:33:26 | |
'Peter Ainsworth was once the Shadow Environment Secretary. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:29 | |
'He's now the UK chair of the Big Lottery Fund.' | 0:33:29 | 0:33:32 | |
The story of wildflowers, really, | 0:33:32 | 0:33:35 | |
since the war has been a pretty depressing one. | 0:33:35 | 0:33:37 | |
Are we in any sense turning that around? | 0:33:37 | 0:33:39 | |
I think we can turn it round. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:41 | |
You're right, it's been very depressing, you know the statistics. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:44 | |
Only 2% of the wild meadows that existed before the war now exist. | 0:33:44 | 0:33:49 | |
I mean, it is a shocking fact. | 0:33:49 | 0:33:51 | |
But, yes, with projects like this one, other projects | 0:33:51 | 0:33:55 | |
that, for example, Plantlife are engaged in, we can turn it around. | 0:33:55 | 0:33:58 | |
It takes effort, it takes time, and it takes money, | 0:33:58 | 0:34:00 | |
and it takes passion, too. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:02 | |
It takes the involvement of people who really care about this | 0:34:02 | 0:34:05 | |
and get the point about wild plants | 0:34:05 | 0:34:07 | |
and their importance to the whole of nature. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:10 | |
'If you want to find out more about the Grow Wild campaign, | 0:34:10 | 0:34:13 | |
'and suggest an area that you would like to see transformed, | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
'then check out our website for details.' | 0:34:16 | 0:34:20 | |
The classic chocolate box image of a floaty flower meadow | 0:34:20 | 0:34:24 | |
may sadly be vanishingly rare, but, with a bit of care and compromise, | 0:34:24 | 0:34:29 | |
we can provide great habitats for wildflowers | 0:34:29 | 0:34:33 | |
that fit with our 21st-century town and country. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:38 | |
Herefords, one of our most popular breeds of cattle. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:44 | |
This week, Adam's helping a friend out by looking at an entire | 0:34:44 | 0:34:48 | |
herd that's for sale. | 0:34:48 | 0:34:50 | |
First though, he's got a buying decision of his own to make. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:53 | |
He's found a White Park bull that would be perfect for his farm. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:58 | |
But an animal like this doesn't come cheap. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:01 | |
-We're looking for about 3,250 for him. -Are you? -Yeah. -OK. | 0:35:01 | 0:35:05 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:35:07 | 0:35:09 | |
I've only got a small herd of White Parks | 0:35:16 | 0:35:19 | |
and it's important that the genetics within the herd are constantly | 0:35:19 | 0:35:22 | |
refreshed to keep them all healthy. | 0:35:22 | 0:35:24 | |
The most important thing is the bull | 0:35:24 | 0:35:26 | |
I have isn't mated with his own offspring. | 0:35:26 | 0:35:29 | |
I recently went up to Leicestershire to look at a White Park | 0:35:29 | 0:35:33 | |
bull I was thinking about buying and having thought about it, | 0:35:33 | 0:35:36 | |
I've decided he was quite expensive and I've only got two cows | 0:35:36 | 0:35:40 | |
that are related to the stock bull I'm using at the moment. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:43 | |
So rather than using natural service to get them pregnant, | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
I'll use artificial insemination. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
That way, I'll know there are fresh genetics coming into the herd | 0:35:49 | 0:35:53 | |
and I'll have saved £3,000. | 0:35:53 | 0:35:55 | |
Artificial insemination will cost me a lot less. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:59 | |
The crops have been through a hard winter | 0:36:01 | 0:36:04 | |
and we're expecting a lower yield than usual. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:06 | |
Now that the weather is warming up, the wheat is starting to improve. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:13 | |
We really need to look after what we do have. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:17 | |
And one way to encourage growth is to feed it with nitrogen. | 0:36:17 | 0:36:20 | |
As well as 300 acres of wheat, I also grow 600 acres of grassland. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:30 | |
This is food for the animals, of course, not humans. | 0:36:30 | 0:36:33 | |
Thankfully, the grass is also beginning to thrive. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:37 | |
A few weeks ago, it was pale, yellow and lifeless, | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
but now it's much more green and lush, | 0:36:40 | 0:36:43 | |
which is great news for the animals. | 0:36:43 | 0:36:45 | |
As well as running our own farm, | 0:36:47 | 0:36:49 | |
we sometimes help out on neighbouring farms. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
And this farm here is quite close to where I live. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
And the new owners have asked us if we'll help them manage it. | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
They want to run it in a very sustainable way. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:01 | |
They've planted lots of trees and improved the hedges. | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
We've taken on the arables, | 0:37:04 | 0:37:06 | |
but we're also helping them run the grassland and a couple of weeks | 0:37:06 | 0:37:10 | |
ago, I got a mineral expert, Barry, to come and test the grass. | 0:37:10 | 0:37:14 | |
Shall we cut some grass? How much do you need? | 0:37:14 | 0:37:17 | |
Well, it's in great shortage, so it won't be too much! | 0:37:17 | 0:37:21 | |
I'll hold the bag. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:23 | |
What we need is a complete ration | 0:37:24 | 0:37:27 | |
so that it's got all the right vitamins and minerals in it. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
He's got the results to me, which are quite interesting. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:33 | |
It's quite low in sodium, in cobalt and selenium, | 0:37:33 | 0:37:39 | |
but high in things like iodine and potassium. | 0:37:39 | 0:37:42 | |
And if there's an imbalance in the minerals, it can affect the growth | 0:37:42 | 0:37:46 | |
rates of the cattle, the fertility, or how much milk they're producing. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:50 | |
So what we need is a balanced diet, | 0:37:50 | 0:37:52 | |
so Barry is going to put together a mineral lick bucket that the | 0:37:52 | 0:37:56 | |
cattle will feed on while they're out here grazing to make sure they | 0:37:56 | 0:38:00 | |
maintain their health and so what we need now is to get some cattle. | 0:38:00 | 0:38:04 | |
Sadly, the cattle destined for this grassland aren't going to be mine. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:12 | |
The owner will be my neighbour, Jane Parker, | 0:38:12 | 0:38:15 | |
who's asked me to look at some potential animals for her. | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
Jane and her husband are novice farmers | 0:38:18 | 0:38:20 | |
but they've done their research. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:22 | |
Because they're starting from scratch, they've got to buy | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
a whole herd, which is unusual when you're buying cattle. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:28 | |
And the breed they've decided on is the Hereford. | 0:38:28 | 0:38:31 | |
I'm heading over to Herefordshire now, to Ledbury. | 0:38:31 | 0:38:33 | |
The Hereford is a breed that I'm very fond of. | 0:38:33 | 0:38:36 | |
In 2005, I was fortunate enough to go out to Australia to see how | 0:38:36 | 0:38:41 | |
they've thrived out there. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:43 | |
'The cattle farms over there are nothing like I'd ever seen before. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
'They were so vast that helicopters had to be used to round up | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
'the 8,000-strong Hereford herd down from the dusty land.' | 0:38:51 | 0:38:55 | |
There's a freshly born calf down there. It's not very old. | 0:38:56 | 0:38:59 | |
But it's amazing how it's following its mother in. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:03 | |
'It was whilst working with the cowboys out there that | 0:39:03 | 0:39:07 | |
'I got a real appreciation for the breed. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:09 | |
'But stunning as Australia was, | 0:39:09 | 0:39:11 | |
'you can't beat seeing a Hereford in Herefordshire. | 0:39:11 | 0:39:15 | |
'Gerald Blandford is one of the UK's top breeders and I'm hoping | 0:39:15 | 0:39:18 | |
'he might have a few animals suitable for Jane's new venture.' | 0:39:18 | 0:39:22 | |
-Gerald, hi. -Hello, Adam. -They look lovely. Can we get a bit closer? | 0:39:22 | 0:39:25 | |
Yeah, sure. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:27 | |
-What have you got here then? -These are first calving heifers. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:30 | |
They've been out about a week. They've settled down well. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:34 | |
-They're lovely and quiet. -Yes. We're on a footpath at this very minute. | 0:39:34 | 0:39:38 | |
They have to be quiet with the public. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:41 | |
I suppose you're keeping Herefords because you live in Herefordshire? | 0:39:41 | 0:39:45 | |
Yes, partly. But they are the easiest breed to keep, the cheapest. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:50 | |
They do well on grass. They convert grass efficiently into beef. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:54 | |
Jane Parker, who's interested in buying the cattle, I've shown | 0:39:54 | 0:39:58 | |
her lots of different native British breeds and she's chosen the Hereford. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:03 | |
-She's made a good choice, hasn't she? -Of course. | 0:40:03 | 0:40:06 | |
Mainly because they're so quiet. | 0:40:06 | 0:40:08 | |
For a novice, you couldn't have a better breed. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:12 | |
Jane's decided to come and see the Herefords for herself. | 0:40:12 | 0:40:15 | |
Choosing the breed wasn't easy. She's looked at many different options. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:20 | |
We spent quite a long time getting to this decision. | 0:40:20 | 0:40:24 | |
We've even eaten some and enjoyed the results very much. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:28 | |
But we definitely fell in love with the Herefords. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:31 | |
They're a fantastic cattle to have, particularly for a family. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:34 | |
They're benign and docile. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:36 | |
For us, they fit very well with our model of sustainable farming, | 0:40:36 | 0:40:40 | |
where we obviously want to have the right | 0:40:40 | 0:40:42 | |
amount of animals on the land, but we also want animals | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
that are very efficient at converting food into meat. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:49 | |
How many cattle are we planning on starting with? Round about 20? | 0:40:49 | 0:40:52 | |
-Round about 20, yes. -And then build the herd up from there. | 0:40:52 | 0:40:55 | |
We've got a five-year plan based on as sustainable a model as we think | 0:40:55 | 0:40:59 | |
we can manage, whilst bearing profit in mind all the time obviously. | 0:40:59 | 0:41:04 | |
-And we thought we'd start with 20. -So when you're buying a cow, Jane, | 0:41:04 | 0:41:07 | |
you're not only getting the cow itself | 0:41:07 | 0:41:10 | |
and all the genetics that's with that that Gerald has built up over | 0:41:10 | 0:41:13 | |
years, but also she'll have a calf at foot that's suckling from her | 0:41:13 | 0:41:17 | |
and hopefully she'll be pregnant as well. You're buying three animals. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:21 | |
And the calf that's suckling will grow on quite quickly to bring | 0:41:21 | 0:41:24 | |
you in some money. | 0:41:24 | 0:41:25 | |
Although it's a big investment, the return will soon come. | 0:41:25 | 0:41:29 | |
Sounds terrific. | 0:41:29 | 0:41:30 | |
And also, what we're buying from you is 40 years of breeding. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:35 | |
Correct, yes. It makes me feel older than ever! | 0:41:35 | 0:41:40 | |
So, Gerald, we haven't talked about buying a bull. | 0:41:40 | 0:41:43 | |
What would be your advice? | 0:41:43 | 0:41:45 | |
You'll have to put a lot of thought into it. It will be half your herd. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:50 | |
Half of his genetics is in all your calves that are born, | 0:41:50 | 0:41:53 | |
so you need to buy a good male. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:56 | |
Well, I'll leave you two together, | 0:41:56 | 0:41:58 | |
so maybe you can pick up a few more tips, Jane. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:00 | |
-And perhaps even strike a deal. See you later. -Thank you, Adam. | 0:42:00 | 0:42:04 | |
'OK, so maybe I'm a bit jealous that Jane's buying the Herefords | 0:42:04 | 0:42:08 | |
'and I'm not. But it will be a big financial outlay for her. | 0:42:08 | 0:42:12 | |
'We're talking around £50,000 for 20 cattle of all ages. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:16 | |
'Luckily, Gerald will steer her in the right direction.' | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
It's been a great day to come and see this wonderful herd of Hereford | 0:42:19 | 0:42:23 | |
cattle and for Jane, this is a big investment. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:25 | |
She's a novice when it comes to cattle farming, but what she's buying | 0:42:25 | 0:42:29 | |
here are a wonderful herd with 50 years' worth of breeding behind them. | 0:42:29 | 0:42:34 | |
And a great brain in Gerald when it comes to Hereford breeding. | 0:42:34 | 0:42:38 | |
All she's got to do now is strike a deal. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
Next week, I'll be looking at working dogs, | 0:42:43 | 0:42:46 | |
including one with a bit of a difference. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:48 | |
Earlier, I was out on the exposed coastal saltmarsh at the edge | 0:42:53 | 0:42:57 | |
of the Humber Estuary with 17-year-old Jack Johnson. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
He's part of a scheme to encourage young farmers to get | 0:43:00 | 0:43:03 | |
firsthand experience of the industry. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
I'm heading deeper into Yorkshire where there's | 0:43:07 | 0:43:10 | |
something of a sea change happening at grassroots level. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:14 | |
Here at Bishop Burton Agricultural College near Beverley, there's an | 0:43:15 | 0:43:19 | |
irrepressible force at work amongst our next generation of farmers. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:23 | |
And it's all to do with girl power. | 0:43:23 | 0:43:25 | |
Bishop Burton has witnessed a surge in female | 0:43:25 | 0:43:28 | |
applicants for their farming courses. | 0:43:28 | 0:43:31 | |
One in five of their agricultural students are now women, | 0:43:31 | 0:43:34 | |
compared to less than one in ten five years ago. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:37 | |
17-year-old identical twins Vicky | 0:43:41 | 0:43:44 | |
and Lizzie Appleyard are studying for their level three | 0:43:44 | 0:43:47 | |
agriculture course and today, | 0:43:47 | 0:43:49 | |
they're preparing for the college's 52nd annual stockmanship show. | 0:43:49 | 0:43:54 | |
-Now then, girls. How are you doing? -Hello. -Lovely to see you. | 0:43:54 | 0:43:57 | |
-Who's this? -This is Delilah. -Why did you choose Delilah? -I like the song. | 0:43:57 | 0:44:01 | |
-You know the song. -Fair enough. And, Lizzie? -This is Miranda. | 0:44:01 | 0:44:06 | |
Right. Well, let me give you a hand with a bit of sponging. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:09 | |
We'll do the armpits down here. | 0:44:09 | 0:44:11 | |
Yeah, just get all the yellow patches. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:13 | |
As identical twins, you've chosen an identical profession. | 0:44:13 | 0:44:17 | |
Have you always been into it? Do you come from a farming family? | 0:44:17 | 0:44:20 | |
None of our family are anything to do with farming. | 0:44:20 | 0:44:23 | |
So in that respect, it's quite hard for us to get anywhere. | 0:44:23 | 0:44:26 | |
As well as being girls. | 0:44:26 | 0:44:28 | |
So we came into it through our auntie. | 0:44:28 | 0:44:30 | |
She got some lambs to look after and we spent a couple of weeks | 0:44:30 | 0:44:34 | |
looking after them and we were just hooked. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:37 | |
So would the ultimate goal then be for you two to have a farm together? | 0:44:37 | 0:44:40 | |
-That would be pretty cool. -It would. -We work brilliantly together. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:44 | |
So it wouldn't be a problem. We never fall out. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:46 | |
-And what would you have on your farm? -Sheep. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:50 | |
-Sheep! -Just sheep! -And a pink tractor maybe! | 0:44:50 | 0:44:53 | |
So all of your friends at your age, I guess on the girls side of it, | 0:44:53 | 0:44:58 | |
-not many of them would wander round farms. -Not really. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:02 | |
My friends would be sat there reading their Glamour magazine | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
and I'd have my Farmers Weekly. We're a bit different, I'd say! | 0:45:05 | 0:45:08 | |
Time for a run through for tomorrow's parade with | 0:45:11 | 0:45:14 | |
teacher Helen Martin. | 0:45:14 | 0:45:16 | |
-Oh, we've got a sitter. -We have! | 0:45:19 | 0:45:21 | |
-We've got a protest on our hands! -Well, what can you do | 0:45:21 | 0:45:25 | |
when you've got a big animal like that lying on the ground? | 0:45:25 | 0:45:28 | |
I'm afraid 500 kilos of cow has the final say in this case! | 0:45:28 | 0:45:34 | |
The girls are doing incredibly well, aren't they? | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
They're doing so, so well. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:38 | |
They seem to have that touch and Lizzie and Vicky | 0:45:38 | 0:45:41 | |
had them on a halter within two days. | 0:45:41 | 0:45:43 | |
Some of the lads couldn't match that at all. | 0:45:43 | 0:45:45 | |
Women in farming is nothing new, | 0:45:45 | 0:45:47 | |
but we've seen an increase in the amount that want to come in | 0:45:47 | 0:45:50 | |
and take top management jobs and actually build a career out of this. | 0:45:50 | 0:45:53 | |
They're lining up, so I'll let you get back to the class | 0:45:53 | 0:45:56 | |
and continue with the rehearsals for tomorrow. | 0:45:56 | 0:45:58 | |
-Thank you. -Good luck with it. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:00 | |
One example of Bishop Burton's new breed of business-minded | 0:46:02 | 0:46:06 | |
young women is 17-year-old Jess Graves. | 0:46:06 | 0:46:10 | |
She runs her own bacon business from home, Jess's Porky Pigs. | 0:46:10 | 0:46:15 | |
You're quite unique. There's not many students that are obsessed | 0:46:15 | 0:46:18 | |
-with pigs like you are. -I know. Really obsessed! | 0:46:18 | 0:46:21 | |
-When did that start? -When I was eight. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:24 | |
My dad bought me two little pigs and I loved them to bits. | 0:46:24 | 0:46:28 | |
And I sold them and I saw the money and thought, | 0:46:28 | 0:46:30 | |
"Oh, my God!" So then I bought some more pigs, like 25 and then 50. | 0:46:30 | 0:46:35 | |
-Even at the age of ten? -Yeah. I've never stopped. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:38 | |
So do you just come here to learn about pigs? | 0:46:38 | 0:46:40 | |
Or are you doing the wider business as well? | 0:46:40 | 0:46:43 | |
Pig nutrition and we do business management. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:46 | |
It's learning more about business. | 0:46:46 | 0:46:48 | |
'There are 23,000 female farmers nationwide. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:51 | |
'But Jess finds there are still some barriers for women to get over.' | 0:46:51 | 0:46:55 | |
I'm filling the troughs up here and my wellies are being nibbled. | 0:46:55 | 0:46:59 | |
-I thought you'd want the feed! -Yeah. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:01 | |
What is it about my wellies that are so exciting and lovely? | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
-Are you taken quite seriously as a young lady? -No. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:10 | |
They don't believe that a woman can do a guy's job. | 0:47:10 | 0:47:14 | |
You've got to like believe in yourself | 0:47:14 | 0:47:16 | |
and think that you can do it and just do it. | 0:47:16 | 0:47:19 | |
It's the eagerly awaited Bishop Burton Stockmanship Show. | 0:47:22 | 0:47:26 | |
Nearly time for Jess and the twins to display their wares | 0:47:26 | 0:47:29 | |
and Lizzie's up first. | 0:47:29 | 0:47:31 | |
I'm really nervous! Really nervous! I hope she behaves. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:34 | |
She's not behaving so far. | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
But Lizzie's heifer Miranda isn't playing ball. | 0:47:36 | 0:47:40 | |
As the rest of her class head into the judging area, | 0:47:40 | 0:47:43 | |
Miranda decides she's not having any of it. | 0:47:43 | 0:47:46 | |
I think she just got a bit freaked out with everyone | 0:47:46 | 0:47:49 | |
and decided she wasn't going to do it. | 0:47:49 | 0:47:51 | |
Meanwhile, her twin sister Vicky is having problems of her own. | 0:47:55 | 0:47:59 | |
After some conferring, | 0:47:59 | 0:48:01 | |
the judges decide to give Lizzie a second chance. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:04 | |
She gets to show in the same class as her sister | 0:48:04 | 0:48:07 | |
and this time manages to persuade Miranda into the arena. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:10 | |
The judges are looking for a well-kept animal | 0:48:13 | 0:48:15 | |
and good knowledge from their handler. | 0:48:15 | 0:48:17 | |
Vicky and Delilah seem to be making a good impression. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:21 | |
'In third place, Vicky Appleyard.' | 0:48:28 | 0:48:30 | |
Am I third? | 0:48:30 | 0:48:32 | |
-'Well done, Vicky.' -Yay! | 0:48:32 | 0:48:34 | |
Quite happy, actually. Least I came somewhere. | 0:48:36 | 0:48:40 | |
Better luck with Miranda next time, Lizzie. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:43 | |
And remember young Jack from the saltmarsh? Well, he's here | 0:48:43 | 0:48:47 | |
with his ewe, known simply as 3-2-1. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:49 | |
They pick up a silver in the sheep class. | 0:48:49 | 0:48:52 | |
Good result, done well, I think. Good enough. | 0:48:52 | 0:48:56 | |
It's a nice ewe, yeah, very nice. | 0:48:58 | 0:49:00 | |
Done well, it's done very well. Yeah. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:04 | |
Seeing the work ethic of these young stockmen and stockwomen, | 0:49:05 | 0:49:09 | |
I'd say the future of farming looks incredibly bright. | 0:49:09 | 0:49:12 | |
In a moment, Julia will be on night duty with the Army hoping to catch | 0:49:14 | 0:49:18 | |
a glimpse of an elusive animal that is making the most of MoD land. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:22 | |
Before that, let's find out what the weather has got in store for them | 0:49:22 | 0:49:25 | |
and us in the week ahead with the Countryfile forecast. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:28 | |
. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:57 | |
We've been exploring the Humber in East Yorkshire while | 0:52:10 | 0:52:13 | |
Matt has been meeting some young ladies who could be the future of farming. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:17 | |
I've been putting my driving skills to the test at the Defence School of Transport. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:21 | |
But it's not just driving that goes on here at MoD Leconfield, | 0:52:23 | 0:52:27 | |
there's wildlife conservation too. | 0:52:27 | 0:52:29 | |
It's happening during the day, and after dark. | 0:52:29 | 0:52:34 | |
I've been waiting for night to fall and now, armed with these night | 0:52:37 | 0:52:40 | |
vision goggles, I'm on a military mission with a wildlife twist. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:43 | |
Or is it the other way around? | 0:52:43 | 0:52:45 | |
If the picture is looking a little strange at home, no, | 0:52:47 | 0:52:50 | |
I haven't dyed my hair, it's because we're working in the wee small | 0:52:50 | 0:52:53 | |
hours and we're in infrared mode. | 0:52:53 | 0:52:56 | |
These are a truly incredible invention. | 0:52:57 | 0:53:02 | |
Sadly, I can't see what I would like to see. | 0:53:02 | 0:53:06 | |
It's not enemy combatants we're on the lookout for, it's deer. | 0:53:10 | 0:53:14 | |
The man leading the charge in tonight's operation is | 0:53:14 | 0:53:18 | |
ex-tank commander Jason Figgett. | 0:53:18 | 0:53:21 | |
Just as soldiers would use vehicles like this with thermal imaging | 0:53:21 | 0:53:25 | |
technology to spot the enemy at night, we are | 0:53:25 | 0:53:27 | |
using it to track deer for the Leconfield conservation group. | 0:53:27 | 0:53:32 | |
Why is it important to keep an eye on the deer numbers? | 0:53:32 | 0:53:35 | |
As you probably heard in the press recently, | 0:53:35 | 0:53:40 | |
they are saying there are too many deer in the country. | 0:53:40 | 0:53:42 | |
Some reports are saying we need to cull at least | 0:53:42 | 0:53:46 | |
half of the population. | 0:53:46 | 0:53:48 | |
As a member of the conservation group, | 0:53:48 | 0:53:50 | |
I am not here to talk about culling. | 0:53:50 | 0:53:53 | |
We're just getting an idea of what numbers we have got on the site | 0:53:53 | 0:53:56 | |
to see if it is sustainable, for what we've got on site. | 0:53:56 | 0:54:00 | |
What do you think? | 0:54:00 | 0:54:02 | |
I reckon it is about right at the moment, 20 to 30 for the size of the area. | 0:54:02 | 0:54:05 | |
-I'll erm... -Put your sleeping cap on and we can wait. | 0:54:07 | 0:54:11 | |
..cross my legs and bed in then. | 0:54:11 | 0:54:13 | |
I think it is fair to say that this is not one of the better nights | 0:54:17 | 0:54:20 | |
I have had out, wildlife watching. | 0:54:20 | 0:54:23 | |
Here we go, we've got two rabbits, no they might be deer, actually. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:27 | |
-I don't know. -They're hares! -They are hares. There comes another little hare. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:31 | |
This may seem a bit over the top to track deer | 0:54:33 | 0:54:35 | |
but it provides valuable information about the numbers on site. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:39 | |
It's also a good training opportunity for soldiers to use | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
thermal imaging and night vision equipment. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:44 | |
Nothing personal, Jason, but I'm going to try another tactic. | 0:54:44 | 0:54:47 | |
Thank you, good luck. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:49 | |
You'd better not see a whole load of them now. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:52 | |
Jason and the driving school are not the only ones using their kit to monitor deer. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:58 | |
The RAF are too, with this... | 0:54:58 | 0:55:01 | |
Tonight Squadron Leader Stu Gwinnutt and his crew are letting us | 0:55:04 | 0:55:08 | |
tag along as they do their bit for the conservation group survey. | 0:55:08 | 0:55:11 | |
Right, let's see what we can get from the sky. | 0:55:14 | 0:55:16 | |
'There's been a search and rescue crew based at MoD Leconfield since 1957. | 0:55:16 | 0:55:23 | |
'One of their jobs can be to assist police searching for missing persons, | 0:55:23 | 0:55:26 | |
'which is where their thermal imaging camera comes into its own.' | 0:55:26 | 0:55:29 | |
We're up. | 0:55:29 | 0:55:31 | |
This isn't all about the deer for you, is it? | 0:55:35 | 0:55:39 | |
No, not really. When the Defence School of Transport asked if we can see the deer | 0:55:39 | 0:55:44 | |
with our thermal imaging camera, we thought that would be a good | 0:55:44 | 0:55:47 | |
training scenario to replicate what we do for real. | 0:55:47 | 0:55:50 | |
So the deer is effectively simulating a casualty we might be looking for. | 0:55:50 | 0:55:53 | |
Quite handy really for all parties? | 0:55:53 | 0:55:56 | |
Yes, we get a free casualty to play with if you like, and it's unpredictable | 0:55:56 | 0:56:01 | |
because we do not know where the deer are going to be or how it's going to behave. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:05 | |
Just like for real if we're looking for a missing person. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:08 | |
-I've got a deer already. -Have you? | 0:56:08 | 0:56:09 | |
In our five o'clock. | 0:56:09 | 0:56:12 | |
How often do you see deer from the chopper? | 0:56:12 | 0:56:15 | |
Virtually every time we go night-flying. | 0:56:15 | 0:56:18 | |
It is quite common to see deer. | 0:56:18 | 0:56:21 | |
Sometimes, especially in the very small hours, | 0:56:21 | 0:56:23 | |
they're all over the training area. | 0:56:23 | 0:56:25 | |
How does it actually work, this equipment? It's a fancy bit of kit. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:30 | |
Basically, every body above absolute zero emits infrared radiation. | 0:56:30 | 0:56:39 | |
Depending on the properties of the body, we'll have | 0:56:39 | 0:56:43 | |
a different immersivity we call it. For instance, | 0:56:43 | 0:56:47 | |
-that target there, there are some cows in the field. -Yeah, sitting down. -Yeah. | 0:56:47 | 0:56:55 | |
So, if we were looking for a casualty, the casualty is | 0:56:55 | 0:57:00 | |
hopefully going to be a lot warmer than the area he is in. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:04 | |
This gives you a good indication of what a warm body looks like against a cold background. | 0:57:04 | 0:57:09 | |
'I don't know about those warm bodies, but this is one body in need of her bed. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:15 | |
It seems by land, by air, by day or by night, | 0:57:15 | 0:57:18 | |
the landscape of the mighty Humber holds its own hidden beauty. | 0:57:18 | 0:57:21 | |
That's it from high over the Humber. | 0:57:23 | 0:57:25 | |
Next week we are exploring the Tentsmuir Forest in Fife, | 0:57:25 | 0:57:29 | |
up in bonnie Scotland. | 0:57:29 | 0:57:31 | |
For now, this is Sergeant Bradbury signing off. | 0:57:31 | 0:57:34 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:57:52 | 0:57:55 |