Back To Nature

A radical project at Knepp Castle shows that what wildlife needs is space

- Fiona Reynolds

I’VE seen abundance and it’s good. At the time insects should be most visible —flying, splattering our windscreens and getting in our eyes and ears—all we hear is evidence that populations of butterflies, bees and bugs are crashing around us.

My mother recalls clouds of butterflies as a child and our garden was full of cabbage whites and tortoiseshells when I was young. Today, we exclaim when we see our first (solitary) brimstone, marbled white and red admiral of the year.

What are we doing about it? There’s a mix of reasons for their decline, including habitat loss, intensive farming, pesticides, new roads and housing estates. Just as bad is our compulsive tidying of patches of neglected woodland edge, old meadow or playground corners that used to be full of wildflowers and, as a result, insects. We’ve systematically, if accidentally, wiped out the wrinkles and crinkles that gave places character and provided refuges for wildlife.