Kent Tonight Special: Kent’s Woodlands
If you go down to the woods today, will they still be there? Kent Wildlife Trust, the county's largest conservation charity, has launched a record fundraising campaign this autumn. They're raising half a million pounds to protect 'the Garden of England'.
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00:00Hello, and welcome to this Kent Tonight special. I'm Joe McFadden. Today, Kent's woodlands
00:28under threat. If you go down to the woods today, will they still be there? Not if they
00:34reach crisis point, says the county's leading conservation charity. Kent Wildlife Trust
00:39has now launched their biggest ever fundraiser. They're trying to raise nearly half a million
00:44pounds by mid-November to protect woodlands across the county. Our reporter, Thomas Copeland,
00:53went to South Bleen to find out more. I've come to South Bleen, an 800-acre wood a little
00:59outside Canterbury. I'm meeting the woods' lone warden, Will Douglas. He says he has
01:05something special to show me. It's a bog. Will, you've taken me here to this bog. What's
01:11so special about this? This is a lowland bog, which is an incredibly rare habitat in Britain.
01:16There's ferns, mosses, dragonflies, amphibians. There's birds that come in here that feed
01:22off those things, and loads of those species will not be found anywhere else. And this
01:25bog is just one of loads of delicate ecosystems in these woods. But Will tells me he's worried.
01:32A proposal from housing developer, Shaptor, would bring an 1,800-home village to the edge
01:37of South Bleen, boasting a new primary school, shops, restaurants and more. Will, the houses
01:43have to be built somewhere. Why not here? Well, Kent Wildlife Trust acknowledge that
01:48development is needed and we need more houses. This is the largest area of ancient woodlands
01:52in the southeast. From the perspective of the wildlife, thousands of people coming to
01:56the local area is going to have a huge impact. So they're going to bring along thousands
02:00of cars, thousands of dogs. There's going to be pollution. And thousands of people coming
02:04and using it recreationally is going to completely change the context of the entire woodlands.
02:08Now, the housing developers say they hear the concerns voiced by Will and the Kent Wildlife
02:13Trust. They say they care about preserving the South Bleen and they have preventative
02:18measures like buffer zones in place to protect this land. That battle will continue, but
02:25the Kent Wildlife Trust say it's not the only green space that's under threat. And they
02:29have a mass fundraising campaign happening this autumn to do something about it. I'm
02:34going to find out more. At Kent Wildlife Trust HQ in Maidstone, head of income generation,
02:41Talia Sharon Gates has quite the task on her hands. We're trying to fundraise £475,000
02:47by the 18th of November. This is the biggest target we've ever had for an appeal. It's
02:51something totally unprecedented for us that we wouldn't do it if we didn't need to. Unlike
02:56previous appeals, Talia says this time they're raising money to use on all of their reserves
03:02across Kent. Some of the biggest challenges are pollution. We have a lot of fly-tipping
03:07dog walkers, potentially not keeping dogs on leads or managing them around livestock.
03:11And another one is development. So too much development can cause nutrient runoff into
03:16the habitats. But also there's things like the loss of ancient woodlands that we might
03:20see at the Lower Thames Crossing should that go ahead. And back at South Bleen, I find
03:24another problem of my own. Now, Will, you told me you had no staff here. What are these?
03:30Yeah, so these are our short-legged dexter cows. They're an Irish breed that were brought
03:34up especially because they love to live in bogs. And they're here as our 24-7 staff members
03:40on site. The only downside? The mass. Thomas Copeland for KMTV.
03:47South Bleen isn't the only woodlands under threat in Kent. Proposed plans for the Lower
03:53Thames Crossing, a new road connecting Kent and Essex through a tunnel beneath the Thames,
03:58would see the Sean and Ashenbank woods disrupted to make way for the project. The tunnel, which
04:04could cost up to £8.4bn, aims to ease congestion on the Dartford Crossing. But it threatens
04:11to destroy Kent's ancient woodlands. More than seven hectares of trees, says the Wardland
04:16Trust. Earlier, I asked the newly elected MP for Dartford, Jim Dixon, about the environmental
04:23costs the crossing could have. Well, this is a vital piece of national infrastructure,
04:28as you say. Really important to my residents in Dartford in terms of alleviating gridlock,
04:33but also incredibly important to the national economy. We only have one crossing east of
04:38London over the Thames and we badly need another one. That said, it's always incredibly important
04:44when you undertake big projects like this that you think very hard about what the effect
04:49on biodiversity, the environment, the climate is going to be. And I'm very confident that
04:56this project has absolutely minimised the environmental and biodiversity erosion that
05:03we might previously have seen. And there are lots of examples of how this is best
05:07practice in that respect. So you mentioned climate, so actually there are several concerns
05:12about emissions and pollutions, which as we know affect climate, impact climate change.
05:16Shouldn't we be focusing more on green solutions rather than roads and more pollution? Well,
05:21I think we need better transport infrastructure in the country as a whole. So none of what's
05:26happening here is about not trying to get goods to move by rail and by other means,
05:33by water and by sea as far as possible. But it's absolutely clear we need the additional
05:39capacity or actually the air quality that you're seeing at the present crossing, which
05:44is dreadful, will remain and will get worse. I think the way it's being built is a real
05:52example of how we can do these things well in the future. So for instance, the construction
05:58is all done by hydrogen technology, that's very low carbon. So new generations of tools
06:04and plant to get the thing built will run really without any carbon impact at all. And
06:10the route has been chosen to try to minimise any environmental impact as far as possible.
06:16But destroying all these hectares of ancient woodland, so these ancient woods, they're
06:20some of the best at soaking up the carbon dioxide and converting it to oxygen. And even
06:25if you do build, plant all these new trees, construct all these new natural habitats,
06:30it still won't offset the loss of these environmental trees. So isn't it actually a negative?
06:37Well, the original plans had a much larger tree loss than the final plan. So the tree
06:44loss in the plans that are before ministers to be decided on on Friday, they are 70% fewer
06:51in terms of the loss of trees. A total of 40,000 trees will be lost, which is a big
06:56number and over a million will be planted with new woods and new community planting
07:04settings. Lots more hedgerow, for instance, which is great for biodiversity, more ponds,
07:11bridges to link different parts of the habitat, both north and south. So I think overall the
07:17environmental impact is significantly mitigated and actually we're going to get some better
07:23biodiversity and some better environmental impact as a result of the work we're doing.
07:30Jim Dixon there on the Lower Thames Crossing. Now, picture going to the GP about your mental
07:36health and then being prescribed time in nature. A trial called the Green Prescribing
07:42Scheme sees patients being given opportunities to spend more time in the great outdoors.
07:47It's thought to be the largest project of its kind in the world and a new report says
07:52it works. 8,000 participants felt a positive impact on their mental health, while some
07:58even described it as better than medication. Tom Spencer has more.
08:04I've come down to Trossley Country Park to meet up with Medway Valley Countryside Partnership.
08:08It's one of the many Kemp woodlands where the partnership organises free wellbeing walks.
08:12So for those attending, why are woodland walks so fulfilling?
08:16There's something very special about being in the middle of a woodland. It's just so
08:20peaceful and you're surrounded by nature and the birdsong you can hear and the smells that
08:25even after rain, it doesn't matter if it's raining or sunshine, whatever, it's just so
08:29calming and I think that's just so important. You almost don't get, I mean you do get that
08:34anywhere in nature, but there's something extra special about woodland.
08:38Green spaces are so important for mental health that they're being used in a major government
08:42scheme. Over £5 million has been put into green social prescribing where GPs can offer
08:47nature activities as a remedy for those facing mental health challenges. A new report shows
08:51how it's benefited over 8,000 people in England. A co-author of the report explains how.
08:57People were saying things like it helped them to feel joyful. Other people said that
09:03it helped them in ways that their medication maybe didn't. There were all sorts of exciting
09:10things around surfing, around open water swimming, care farming. Green social prescribing isn't
09:18an alternative to medication. What we may find in some cases is that people can reduce
09:25medication, in some cases people will engage further with health services.
09:30At the end of the day, scientists, academics and policy makers will always debate what's
09:34good for our mental health, but for most people, getting outdoors just makes them feel really
09:39good and makes a world of difference, even on a day like today.
09:43Through charity fundraising, the Medway Countryside Partnership says their walkers also reap similar
09:48benefits to the government initiative.
09:50As part of the Involve Kent project as well, they do have social prescribers and green
09:57prescribing is one of the things that they're starting to do more of now. There are people
10:01who maybe are on medication, maybe find it difficult to get up in the morning and they
10:07still keep coming out week after week, which shows the importance and how much they're
10:11getting from being out in nature for a day.
10:14Well I'm certainly feeling good. Tom Spencer, KMTV.
10:20And finally, from the country to the seaside, Kent has plenty of natural beauty to offer.
10:26The Garden of England spoils its residents for choice, so where are the best spots to
10:30unwind outdoors? We sent Sam Cochran to Westgate Gardens in Canterbury to ask locals their
10:35expert opinions.
10:36Hi, today we're in Canterbury Town and City Centre in Westgate Gardens to find out where
10:42in Kent people like to go to connect with nature and if there's any mental benefits
10:47to being out in nature. Let's get to it.
10:49I live out in the countryside near a place called Bodgham, Elmstead, near Wye. Lots of
10:55nature around in that area.
10:56I love Lansgate. Lansgate. The beach is absolutely marvellous.
11:00I like to go to Clousewood and Victorywood.
11:03I like to go to, you know, Danejohn Gardens. I also like to go to Westgate, like here.
11:11So I think for me, I actually quite like going by the canal. It's the water and the green.
11:16I love walking. I think walking is very good. It stimulates the endorphins, which helps
11:22brain health, mental health.
11:24When I struggle, I go out for a walk.
11:26I think it's very important to go outside and, you know, engage with the natural world.
11:32You can switch off and just be in a different world for a while.
11:36Well, that's all we have time for. There's plenty more content for you on our social
11:41media platforms. I'm Joe McFadden. Thank you for tuning into this KMTV Kent Tonight
11:46special. Until next time, goodbye.