East Meon Nature is new. What it is trying to achieve is not! All across our community, there are people working to nurture the natural world on our doorstep, recognising that its good health is essential to our own survival. The aim of the group is to bring these efforts together. We will achieve more working in a coordinated way than individually or in small groups. Efforts to help the survival of hedgehogs (numbers down 50% since 2000), skylarks (down over 60% since 1970), the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly (down 70% since 1976) or the Burnt Orchids (endangered) are more likely to succeed if they recognise the interdependence of animals, birds, insects and plants.
Of course, we sit below a network of experts managing our natural world, at government and county level, and through expert bodies such as Natural England, the South Downs National Park and the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. Our aim is to build on and support the work of these bodies, not to go our own way. But we also want to reflect and support your interests.
Some of the areas on which we think we might beneficially focus are:
- Habitat Improvement, whether that is managing better some of the wild areas for which we are responsible to support endangered species, or careful ‘wilding’ of some of our more manicured areas to introduce additional habitat. The village can look smart and loved, but still support a more sympathetic approach to the natural world on which we depend.
- Encouraging interest and understanding of the valley’s rich natural resources. Coronavirus lockdown has given us the time and quiet to hear and see more of the natural wonders that surrounds us. But there are many, across all ages, who are increasingly disconnected from the natural world in which we live. The group wants to encourage a greater interest and understanding, whether that is through talks organised by the group, whether by signposting to some of the excellent material that is available on line or whether through involvement with our school and young people.
Joining up individual efforts. Many species are terribly fragile because they have been driven back to small isolated sites that are vulnerable both to local catastrophe (eg fire) and to limited gene pools that are not viable longer term. Survival depends in linked sites with routes between them, whether that is our gardens, our verges, our hedgerows or our river banks. We can help to provide this resilience in nature by the way in which we manage and develop these assets.
Recording the natural world around us. Sightings of birds, animals and flowers are an important way of engaging interest and measuring the health of our environment. This can help us appreciate the rich diversity and wonder of the valley’s animal, insect and plant life. It can also support an understanding of the changes affecting them, through for example the annual Butterfly Count that enables experts to use our observations and those of our children to monitor the health of ‘signature’ species that show the wider health of our natural world.
We want to encourage your interest and involvement in these things. We want your help in nurturing and protecting some of the natural treasures that are such an important part of what makes the Meon Valley a wonderful place in which to live and visit. But we also want to understand and support the particular things in which you have an interest and to make them a part of our work. We are working with the Parish Council to develop a set of guidelines for managing areas in a more sympathetic and sustainable way. We’ll be sharing plans as we go and there will be an opportunity to feed into this. But we are keen to engage those who are interested early. So, if you would like to be part of the work of the group, or have particular interests that you think should be part of the focus of our efforts, then please get in touch using the website contact form. We need to manage our limited efforts sensibly to support those things that are special about our natural surroundings, and to focus on those areas where we can make a difference. But your support can transform what we might be able to achieve.