insideKENT Magazine Issue 23 - February 2014

EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK, WILDLIFE IS MISSING FROM THE PLACES IT ONCE LIVED. OF THE 6,000 BRITISH SPECIES ASSESSED RECENTLY, MORE THAN ONE IN TEN ARE THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION IN THE UK. TOGETHER WITH SUPPORT, RSPB ARE MAKING A HUGE DIFFERENCE TO THIS NUMBER, BUT THEY NEED YOUR HELP TOO. WHATEVER TIME AND WHATEVER SIZE SPACE YOU CAN OFFER, HERE ARE TEN SIMPLE STEPS THAT WILL SEE YOU GIVE NATURE A HOME THIS WINTER. © Eleanor Bentall (rspb-images.com) © Andy Hay (rspb-images.com) © Ben Hall (rspb-images.com © Eleanor Bentall (rspb-images.com) © Ray Kennedy (rspb-images.com) Step 8. Create nature corridors Helps: All garden wildlife Your garden is part of a bigger home for wildlife. Hedges, shrubby borders, and gaps beneath fences and gates link gardens together, creating nature highways and corridors. This allows all sorts of creatures such as hedgehogs and toads to move between gardens, and therefore raises the quality of wildlife for the whole street. Step 9. Be green Helps: All nature Here are three tips for gardening in an environmentally friendly way: • Avoid using peat – The peat you find in garden centres has been taken from some of Europe’s most valuable places for wildlife. By using peatfree alternatives, you help protect these precious places from destruction. • Avoid pesticides – If you have an insect pest in your garden, consider using a natural method to deal with it, rather than pesticides. Chemical pesticides can harm the plants and animals that will benefit your garden. • Get a water butt – Captured rainwater is much better for watering your garden and topping up your pond than tap water. RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) looks after more than 200 nature reserves, of which provide some of the best places for wildlife in the UK. From heathland to woodland, and reedbeds to farmland – all reserves are kept in ideal conditions for threatened plants, insects, birds, beasts, reptiles and amphibians. The UK-based charity tirelessly campaigns to protect species from damaging developments, and create the conditions they need to flourish. www.rspb.org.uk 129 Step 10. Tell RSPB what you have done Helps: Spread the word! Contact RSPB and share what you have done in your garden to give nature a home. This will encourage others to do the same and spread the word! RSPBLoveNature @natures_voice rspb_love_nat W&P

insideKENT Magazine Issue 23 - February 2014 | Page 129