Sixty years ago, a professor called John Whittow set out with a few dozen students to survey the entire UK coastline, concerned that rampant post-war development and overtourism were putting Britain’s beaches and clifftops at risk. Undeterred by miles of thick bracken, barbed wire and neglected footpaths, they made their way around the coast and found that, put simply, much of it was in urgent need of protection.
On hearing the results of the survey, in stepped the National Trust. A mass fundraising campaign called Enterprise Neptune was launched on St George’s Day in 1965 – complete with flaming Armada beacons.
Named for the Roman god of the sea, the aim of the campaign was to acquire or put under covenant a substantial part of the Welsh, English and Northern Irish coastline, protecting it forever.
Public support flooded in. Tens of millions of pounds were raised in the years that followed. The appeal even became a storyline in The Archers.
The National Trust won’t sit by while our political parties fail the environment
Read MoreToday, as a result, we can all roam, run or paddle on 780 miles of coastline – 10 per cent of the total – protected by the National Trust, from the wild inlets of Cornwall to the Giant’s Causeway. And while it’s the Trust’s logo that’s emblazoned on the signs, really, it all belongs to the nation.
That same collective spirit is needed again now.
You don’t have to look far to notice that nature and wildlife are declining at speed. Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and bottom of the G7 in this regard. Climate change is causing chaos in our lives and landscapes. And millions of people face barriers to accessing green space. Unlike in the 60s, we don’t need a survey. The threats are abundantly clear.
So this year, the National Trust has launched a 10-year plan to address those big challenges. Over the next decade, we’re going to restore nature on a far greater scale than ever before. An area one and a half times the size of Greater London, to be precise. Not all of it will be National Trust owned-land – critically, we’ll have to work in partnership with many others, in their fields, woodlands and parks. But we are determined that all of it will be rich in nature by 2035.
It’s important that everyone feels part of this effort. We can’t do it without them. So today, we’re asking people to pitch in by adopting a plot of land at six beautiful places across the UK.
From £7.50 a month, you can help restore one of these nature “super sites”. Donations can help plant trees; restore and slow river flow; renew peatlands; reintroduce native species; and create new meadows.
Adopt a Plot’s six “nature super sites” are:
Peak District in Derbyshire Wallington in Northumberland Killerton in Devon Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire Eryri in North Wales Divis and the Black Mountain in Northern IrelandEveryone who adopts a site will get updates on the work we’re doing and see their impact grow. Gift it as a present, or donate yourself in the knowledge you’re protecting places of wonder and beauty for the next generation.
Give to Wicken Fen, which started out as a small plot of land when we bought it in 1899, and is now one of the most biodiverse places in the country. With people’s help, we can encourage even more wildlife to this growing oasis and protect what’s living there already from the ravages of climate change.
Or Eryri (Snowdonia), where rangers are working tirelessly to piece back to together remaining fragments of Celtic rainforest that once cloaked the West of England and Wales. Providing homes for wildlife, restoring our cultural landscapes.
Wicken Fen Nature Reserve (Photo: Loop Images/Getty)This simple idea goes to what’s at the heart of the Trust: generosity. For 130 years, people have given hours, weeks, even decades, of their time to fix footpaths in the rain, or welcome visitors into historic homes. They’ve given everything from a few shillings in a brown envelope, to an annual membership fee, to thousands of pounds in their wills.
Together, they’ve protected the views that inspired Wordsworth, Woolf and Christie, and the bathroom wall in Liverpool scribbled on by Lennon and McCartney, for generations who haven’t yet been born. And, back in 1965, they saved the UK coastline.
Today we need everyone’s help again.
Just as people clubbed together to save our coastal paths, beaches and shorelines sixty years ago, we need another collective push. It’s time to light the beacons again.
To adopt a plot of land, visit: nationaltrust.org.uk/support-us/adopt-a-plot
Hilary McGrady is director-general of the National Trust
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( UK nature is in crisis – and you can help )
Also on site :
- Beloved Country Music Star Pays Tribute To Classic Judy Garland Song With 'Somewhere Over Laredo'
- Why did rumours of a coup sweep Ivory Coast this week?
- Qasr el-Nil theater set to host ‘Sound and Image’ Umm Kulthum show on Thursday