Giving nature the help it desperately needs

Colin Wilson from the Blackwater Valley Countryside Trust is asking for support with some local initiatives to help wildlife that is disappearing at a seriously fast rate?

As an example, 50% of Swifts, a bird that depends on human help, have disappeared from the UK in just 20 years. Over the same 20 years insects have declined by more than 60%, this includes bees and other pollinating insects. Insects form a critical element of our Eco-system, without them the whole of nature, certainly birds and even human life is threatened.

The Blackwater Valley Countryside Trust is trying to help reverse these trends and combined with the Camberley Society we are starting a new project (see Camberley Society News) to try to get Surrey Heath a much more friendly place for nature. Locally, focusing on Frimley Green, a swift hotspot,our Swift Project aims to help swifts by placing nest boxes for them on houses and other tall buildings. Many of their homes have been lost due to sealing and renovating of properties and unhelpful design of new properties. Swifts do not make a mess, most people don?'t know they have swifts living in their homes and they do no harm.

They need help:

• To find places, including people’s houses, to erect swift boxes in the area
• To lobby SHBC to incorporate important protections to help swifts and other wildlife into planning policies
• To support the new Swift Project (soon to be publicised) across Surrey Heath to look at ways to improve the lot of nature where we live.