permaculture

[Saor Stetler <saor@ycbtal.net>]

Gardeners can slow climate change

Experts appeal for the land around every home to become a sanctuary for 
endangered wildlife

Juliette Jowit, environment editor
Sunday June 11, 2006

Observer

Britain's gardeners are being asked to open up their borders, lawns and 
shrubs to help tackle the world's greatest environmental threat: climate 
change.

More than a million species in the world are in danger from a warmer 
planet - including many of the UK's birds and other creatures expected 
to lose feeding and breeding grounds - as warmer, drier summers and 
wetter, stormier winters become more common.

Experts have long warned that nature reserves will not help protect 
threatened species because habitats will shift with the weather. Now 
they are appealing to gardeners, whose land covers a greater area than 
all the special reserves.

'Every garden is a habitat for wildlife,' said Chris Gibson, a senior 
conservation officer for English Nature, which will launch its campaign 
at the BBC Gardeners' World Live show this week at the National 
Exhibition Centre near Birmingham. 'Even the most unnatural garden is a 
habitat for some natural wildlife and gardeners can do their bit to 
create little bits of habitat wildlife can use.'

Global warming is already causing problems for wildlife as the plants, 
flowers and insects that many animals and birds feed on and nest in are 
shifting their habitat and changing breeding patterns.

British birds are already showing signs of being seriously affected by 
the changing climate: 2004 was the worst breeding season on record for 
many seabirds, while the decline in farmland and woodland birds is at 
least partly attributed to changing weather patterns. There is 
particular concern for northern species, which have less territory to 
move into as they seek cooler climates.

'Wildlife gardening' - making gardens more welcoming to wild creatures - 
is increasingly popular with conservation-ists as a way of providing new 
habitats between breeding areas. Among the tips suggested by English 
Nature is planting pollen-rich and bell-shaped plants for bees, 
colourful flowers to attract butterflies, leaving log and leaf piles for 
hedgehogs, and spurning slug pellets.

Creating boggy areas or ponds can help amphibian species - one third of 
which are said to be threatened - and bats which feed off the insects.

The British Trust for Ornithology has issued detailed advice for 
gardeners wanting to provide habitats for birds, including how to put 
out a variety of food in different places throughout the year. For 
example, people can attract large birds with nutrients left on the lawn, 
secrete cheese and seed under shrubs for dunnocks and robins, and put 
black sunflower seed, premium-grade peanuts and sunflower hearts in 
feeders for finches, tits and sparrows.

Plants with berries provide food for birds in late autumn and early 
winter, and evergreen shrubs offer cover for nests, or other places for 
birds to hide from predators, advises the trust.

Each gardener and patch of land might seem too small to solve a global 
problem, but together they could make a huge difference, say the 
experts. Nearly two-thirds of British adults are gardeners - more than 
twice the number who watch football. The total area of UK gardens is 
also greater than all the national nature reserves, said Morag Shuaib, 
the Wildlife Trusts' project officer for Gardening for Wildlife, a 
scheme run jointly with the Royal Horticultural Society. 'It does make a 
difference because of that,' she said.

One problem the conservationists must overcome, though, is a perception 
that wildlife gardening is messy, although experts point out that 
attracting species which eat pests is a way of naturally protecting 
flowers, shrubs and trees.

Another is a tendency for gardeners to lure the most attractive and 
interesting creatures - ignoring 'the importance or plight of other less 
attractive or entertaining creatures', said Simon Thornton-Wood, the 
horticultural society's assistant director for science and learning.

Another issue highlighted by Gardening for Wildlife - and English Nature 
- is the need for gardeners to use less water. Tips include using water 
butts to collect rain, covering flowerbeds with bark or compost to stop 
them drying, allowing lawns to go brown if necessary - they 'come back 
even if you don't water them', said Shuaib - and planting 
drought-resistant plants and grass.

English Nature's Gibson suggested using more Mediterranean plants which 
need less water, such as sun roses, sage, sea holly, hardy geraniums, 
thyme and echinacea, though other experts fear native species might be 
crowded out.