Square up to nature’s threat

A CAMPAIGN to boost nature in the Henley area is launched this week.

Nature2 is designed to encourage residents, schools and other organisations to each sow a 1m2 patch of native wildflowers.

The aim is to collectively add hundreds of square metres of pollinating plants, providing vital support for bees, other insects and wildlife.

The target is for 500 individuals and groups to take part in the community rewilding campaign, which is a joint initiative between Greener Henley, Henley in Bloom and the Henley Standard.

Greener Henley is providing free packets of native wildflower seeds to anyone wanting to take part. These can be collected from the Information Centre at the town hall from today (Friday).

All those taking part are asked to register their details at the town hall or on the Greener Henley website, so that a running total showing how many metres have been rewilded can be kept.

The seeds should be planted by the end of October in order to start seeing results from the spring.

Kate Oldridge, an organiser at Greener Henley, said: “We’re in one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, including Oxfordshire, and we’re seeing nature suffering.

“People hear the headline news and don’t know what to do about it and think it wouldn’t make a difference anyway, which is why this campaign is fantastic.

“The thing that excites me is the concept of being more powerful together. We all do something on our own that’s relatively small but when local communities come together it creates something bigger than the sum of its parts.

“Everyone can get involved, it’s not just for someone with a large garden. Anyone can put something in a pot or a window box, so that as a community we can create a ramping of up nature in and around town.” Diana Barnett, who is a member of Greener Henley and a Henley Standard columnist, made up the seed packets.

They contain a mixture of seeds of annual and perennial plants, including common agrimony, borage, clary, red and white clover, corn cockle, cornflower, ox-eye daisy, wild foxglove, knapweed, purple loosestrife, wild marjoram, meadow cranesbill, musk mallow, common poppy, ragged robin, sainfoin, field and small scabious, teasel, bird’s foot trefoil, kidney vetch, viper’s bugloss, yarrow and yellow rattle.

Mrs Barnett said: “Every little thing we do that helps adds to the bigger picture. In Henley we have quite a lot of green space — most people have gardens and there are good opportunities for creating areas for wildlife.

“We all know bees have been struggling, partly because of habitat loss but also pesticides and changes in the climate which affect what’s growing. We know we have to support smaller creatures. Apart from pollinators there are lots of other creatures these wild spaces support. For instance, ragwort supports 38 species. We take a lot of this for granted.

“If we can get everyone involved, including schools, businesses with a bit of a garden, groups, care homes, anyone with access to outside space, to consider planting some native plants or pollinating plants, it’s important we support that.

“The best thing is always a mixture of pollinating plants. You can also put autumn bulbs in now. You’ll see some flowers from spring if you put in plants like primroses or lungwort, which is a very early flowering plant that solitary bees looking for food like.”

Mrs Barnett said her garden had attracted many more insects and more wildlife since she established a wildflower area but stressed that it was important to be patient as the plants can take a while to establish themselves fully.

She said: “I had an existing flower bed that wasn’t doing terribly well and two years ago I put in a lot of wildflower seeds.

“Perennials take a bit longer to flower but we had a good year last year. This year wasn’t so good but of course it’s weather-dependent.

“Right now lots of the plants have gone to seed but if you leave them they’ll drop the seed and you’ll get more.

“This year I’ve decided not to interfere too much with garden. It’s fairly rampant and I’ve seen wonderful things.

“We have a pond we put in during covid and there are dragonflies and hoverflies and wasps and things. We do have other visitors and froglets. I think a lot of people would enjoy what visits their garden. Depending on the plants you’ll get different birds too.

“People don’t take time to just stop and look but get very excited when they do see something new. You don’t have to go into the countryside to see nature, it’s all around us and we should enjoy it and look after it so we don’t lose it.”

Professor Richard Fortey, a naturalist and author who lives in Henley and has spoken out about the loss of wildlife habitat and pollinators in the town, will participate in the Nature2 campaign.

He said: “I’m greatly in favour of it. I can certainly do a bit of my garden. It’s definitely better than having an over-controlled flower border as it’s likely to have a greater variety of plants that pollinators are interested in.

“I think it would be a fun thing to do to teach kids the value of plants to insects and insects to feed birds. I’ve tried something similar in the past and you’ve just got to make sure the grasses don’t take over. It’s not the same as letting your grass go mad but you do get lots of grass. Good luck with it.”

Henley in Bloom funded the cost of the wildflower seeds, which came to £195.

Catherine Notaras, who chairs the group, said: “It’s important that we think about replenishing and conserving and enhancing our wildlife areas, maintaining biodiversity and bringing back nature recovery.

“This is about a measured area where you can begin to think about it, observe it and take it as far as you want. It’s something that contributes to wildlife overall and the areas that are for our native species. It’s a very exciting thing to do.”

Nicola Lynskey, 53, from Shiplake, has joined the campaign.

She said: “It’s relatively easy to get involved. It’s not necessarily about having a bit of land, it can be pots, window ledges, anything, just to create an environment where we’re growing something that hopefully will encourage nature and and wildlife.

“The thing that really caught my imagination was the idea of a sort of corridor for insects. There’s a lot of areas now where we’re building, covering gardens and with decking and you name it, so there’s less and less space.

“I understand why that’s happening but if we could have a little bit of a corridor within an urban area, that’s the bit that got me.

“I’m one of those people that’s always a little bit sceptical but this idea caught my attention because if more and more people are encouraged, you can see that it can create a difference.

“Some ideas really do rely on many people doing something and you feel as if it’s never really going to materialise into anything whereas with this you can encourage younger people to do it and you can see things growing as it’s more visible. It’s an easy, easy thing for people to get involved in.”

Ms Oldridge said it was important for the campaign to succeed.

She said: “We have a very serious situation happening and it’s about all hands on deck, everyone needs to get involved. We’d like to see more happening at a national policy level promoting and restoring nature but we can take responsibility within our own communities. The campaign is also to raise awareness of the nature emergency wider than Henley as this is a global issue.”

• According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, pollinators contribute to 35 per cent of the world’s total crop production and nearly 75 per cent of the world’s crops which produce fruits and seeds for humans depend on pollinators.  A new report published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs shows there has been a decrease of 21 per cent in the UK pollinator indicator between 1980 and 2019.