Going, going, gone!  Over half of all UK wildlife species are in decline.  In Somerset  97% of flower rich grasslands have disappeared and a quarter of all flowering plants; 94% of all woodland birds are in decline with a third of woodland plants and only 0.05% of Somerset's precious wetlands are left. We urgently need to reverse this trend. That  was the message from the Conference and AGM of the Somerset Wildlife Trust held this weekend at Dillington House near Ilminster and hosted by Prospective MP for Taunton Deane  and Wildlife Trust Trustee, Rebecca Pow.

Over 150 members of the Trust attended the event organised by the Trust, whose headquarters is in Wellington. Keynote speaker, Dr Andy Clements, Director of the British Trust for Ornithology, highlighted the extraordinary changes our animals and plants have been going through for the last four decades largely reflecting the enormous pressures put upon them.  ‘We need to work with people to find solutions to the dramatic declines,’ he said.

 ‘These are devastatingly depressing figures’ says Rebecca Pow, rural affairs journalist and Prospective MP for Taunton, ‘of course there are many pressures on our land including the demands for housing all over the constituency, the need to increase food production and the drive for more roads, but if we don’t look after our fellow creatures and the biodiversity of the land out county will be poor indeed. We need to do everything we can to stop these declines and to work with organisations so that our wildlife can thrive alongside us.  The environment should not be seen as a barrier to economic development, in fact it is the opposite and a healthy environment should go hand in hand with a thriving economy.  We must have a balance and nature must be given a much greater priority in decision making. 

Many farmers in the county can no longer access grant funding for valuable countryside management work, especially on the Somerset Levels.  It would make a huge difference if grants for farming with nature were offered on a landscape scale, a bitty small scale approach will only isolate wildlife. Action has to be taken on a large scale to rescue our habitats and their associated animals, birds and plants. I shall certainly be raising this issue with Owen Patterson, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

PICTURE CAPTION: Trustees of the Wellington based Somerset Wildlife Trust, calling for action to rescue Somerset’s precious animals, plants, birds and their associated habitats at their annual AGM and conference held at Dillington House.

Picture credit: Alain Lockyer.