State of Nature

As a new report confirms the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, it’s time to accelerate and expand conservation solutions.

Lagoon 4 at Rutland Water Nature Reserve

You could be forgiven for feeling depressed by the news this week.

On the same day the iconic tree at Sycamore Gap by Hadrian’s Wall was mindlessly felled, the State of Nature report was published sounding a stark warning: one-in-six species in Britain are at risk of extinction.

Birds face the most intense threat with 43% of species facing extinction.

As worrying as the data is – amplified by the news from Northumberland – the one positive is that it has put nature on the front pages and made conservation the front of mind solution.

As Beccy Speight, RSPB chief executive, said, “We know that conservation works and how to restore ecosystems and save species. We need to move far faster as a society towards nature-friendly land and sea use, otherwise the UK’s nature and wider environment will continue to decline and degrade, with huge implications for our own way of life. It’s only through working together that we can help nature recover.”

With this in mind, and having committed to learning more about what’s happening around us (see On Rutland Water), I attended Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust new members’ welcome event yesterday, finding out about the organisation’s work and join a guided walking tour of Rutland Water Nature Reserve.

I’m one of 4,000 people to have joined the Trust in the past four years, I learn, growing an organisation that now has nearly 19,000 members, 600 volunteers and 38 staff.

LRWT looks after 38 nature reserves across 3,000 acres, including 19 Sites of Special Scientific Interest, two National Nature Reserves and one Special Protection Area.

It sounds impressive and every project and volunteer hour makes a positive difference but, viewed on a map, the area under conservation management – combined with just 20% of farmland in agri-environment schemes – is alarmingly small.

After a presentation at the Volunteer Training Centre near Hambleton, Reserve Officer Matt Heaver leads us on a walk among some of the eight artificially created lagoons, five of which are new.

Rutland Water has become a globally important reserve for birdlife. Some 250 species have been recorded here.

Best known are the ospreys, reintroduced as part of a project that started over 25 years ago. Now there are 10 breeding pairs and, earlier this year, Rutland welcomed its 250^th chick.

All of the ospreys have now migrated to Africa, Matt tells us as we begin our walk below the banks of lagoon number 4 where the Rutland sea dragon, a 10-metre long ichthyosaur, was discovered in February 2021.

What’s impressive about the new lagoons is that the water levels can be controlled to optimise conditions for wildlife, also future proofing the site against climate change, including extreme heat in summer. Wigeon and pintail are returning now, he says, so water levels will be deepened.

On our way we pass piles of silver birch logs, a beetle bank.

Next, an area of actively managed woodland where nightingales breed, thought to be the endangered songster’s most northerly nesting place. (The population has been reduced to 5,500 males, the RSPB estimates.)

“We have confirmed breeding here,” says Matt, who tells us a female and juveniles were caught on site last year.

“The woodland is maintained for nightingales. They like thick, dense scrub for protection from predators, so the taller trees are felled and there is a continuous rotation of work.”

Also observed here are willow warblers, garden warblers and chiffchaffs.

As we walk on, Matt points out a flock of golden plovers, the first of the winter migrants to arrive. We raise our borrowed binoculars to follow the high-flying flock in tight formation.

The wide pathways between the lagoons and hides are like green corridors, protected on either side by sturdy wooden fences through which no human movement can be detected by wary waterfowl. We enter a hide and carefully lift the shutters, taking a seat on a long bench and resting our elbows on a ledge, steadying binoculars in our hands.

It’s like peering out from inside a letterbox. The wide-angle panorama, viewed right to left, begins with tall reeds and rushes, then blends into shallows divided by fingers of mud and grass. The still water, like chrome, reflects a steely sky.  

For a moment, the scene is one which you might expect Sir David Attenborough’s voice to describe as some faraway African lake. But this is Rutland Water near Manton, not Lake Malawi.

There are teals, mallards and a lone mandarin duck. There is also a group of great crested grebe and, most impressive to my eyes, great white egrets, the white heron. Forty-five were counted here last week, which is remarkable when you consider the RSPB says there are only 8-12 breeding pairs in the UK and 72 wintering birds.

“It’s only a matter of time before they are breeding here,” says Matt.

I’m transfixed by this tall graceful bird with a murderous spear for a beak, its ghostly white reflection shimmering in rippled water.

At a second hide, where we are able to view the bird close up, I lose all sense of location and feel transported to another place. Like a ballerina, one great white egret takes to the air, wings outstretched, floating elegantly and effortlessly across the water, out of sight from prying eyes.

We wander back slowly to the Training Centre learning that water voles, 90% of which have been lost over the past 30 years, are now being introduced.

Otters have also found their way to Rutland Water and four or five families are now resident around the reservoir.

“One was spotted this morning,” says Matt.

I’m heartened to hear of the conservation successes at Rutland Water and appreciate the significant effort and investment required to make it happen.

And that’s the point. Conservation does work, it can restore habitats and contribute towards the turnaround in species decline. But there needs to be visibility and understanding of the issues we face as well as commitment and cooperation to make projects happen and then sustain the work.

While Rutland Water Nature Reserve and the work of the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust is undoubtedly a wildly successful case study for how to conserve and promote nature, we need to see protection and proactive land management on a much larger scale so that we can live with nature all around us, as part of nature, not have to take car journeys to reserves to observe it.

The good news is that in a week dominated by bad news, there are solutions and the wherewithal to turn things around. We just need to do it faster and on a larger scale.

• More information: Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust

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