By Stephen Le Quesne
I HAVE written rough drafts on this subject countless times, gone through phases and sentences in my mind. I know what I want to say, I am just not sure how to say it. I do not want to tone down how I feel and tackle this subject, but then again, I do not want to come across as someone who is just criticising without any substance. There is also the issue that even objective, constructive criticism does not really lead to change or provide a large enough spark to initiate new action and discussion.
So here it is… As an island, we do not really care about the health or state of our countryside. If our farmland, habitats, country lanes and all other aspects of our natural environment are there in some shape or form then we seem to be fine with that. When was the last time you looked at the fields, the trees and woods and thought about the biodiversity, the number of insects or what animals used to live there or can live there if we decided to let them?
I do not think we care enough about the environment, but I also think it is not really our fault as we are taught to forget about the natural world, to treat it as an abstract, as something to be controlled. In primary education, the natural world is largely ignored. We need to encourage young children to create a fondness and connection with it.
Do we put policies and projects in place to protect and enhance our natural environment? Or do we just take it for granted and leave it at the side? We seem to be happy to say Jersey is “beautiful” and “picturesque” but it is definitely more “clean beautiful”, than “nature beautiful”. We say one thing with words and seem to do another with our actions. As I have said previously, if we really wanted to protect bees, we would focus our efforts on banning and controlling the use of insecticides rather than battling the Asian hornet.
I am saying this as we had some fantastic nature news this month with the confirmation of a pair of breeding reed buntings at St Ouen’s Pond, the first time in 27 years that they have bred in the Island. I was 13 years old and the year was 1997 when reed buntings last raised young here.
However, If I were to ask someone to describe this bird, even draw it, I am sure that many would struggle. It is a beautiful, delicate little bird, but relatively unknown. This lack of ecological knowledge within society is all tied up within the concepts of Shifting Baseline Syndrome (a gradual change in the accepted norms of environmental conditions owing to a lack of memory of how they used to be), nature connection and our capitalist culture. There are many inter-connected threads.
Returning to the reed bunting, this brilliant achievement did not happen because of some defined project to reintroduce the bird, or through any sort of detailed plan for the species, it was mostly down to the continued and ongoing care the National Trust for Jersey gives to the St Ouen’s wetland and surrounding area. I am truly grateful that the work of the trust and its conservation partners has persuaded these birds to stay here and hopefully they will continue to do so. The problem is where else on the Island would be welcome for them? Where do we have the right habitat?
Whether it is our branchage rules, our intensive farming practices, the continued use of glyphosate and the lack of any chatter or talk about how we can use the science of rewilding, we are sitting on our hands and enabling the countryside to become quieter, cherishing the small pockets and taking for granted the limited nature we have. We can do so much better; I know we can.
I apologise for being so negative, but I also want to say it like it is. Being negative or pointing out the issues does not mean there is no hope, but I am a firm believer that we need to be upfront about things before we can solve them in a positive way.
One final thing. Last week I checked up on the status of the Countryside Enhancement Scheme, which is a unique pot of money that landowners can make applications to for grants to enhance and improve the environment for wildlife. It is or was the only real piece of funding available to landowners from the government and enables more intense, practical conservation work that is usually out of reach financially.
When I searched for the scheme on the government website, the message I received was “the page could not be found”. Has the scheme been scrapped without any notice? There may be genuine reasons, but feel free to make up your own conclusions about the message this portrays if the scheme really has been scrapped.
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Stephen Le Quesne is a naturalist, conservationist, forest school leader and nature connection advocate.
