The UK Biodiversity Action Plan

Today I have been doing a little light reading, the new Biodiversity action plan. This is a plan drawn up by a committee, for government, to highlight the species that are under threat in the UK.

What is most interesting, almost alarming that since the first one was drawn up ten years or so ago, the list has doubled in size, from over five hundred species to over one thousand. Yet while there is reason to be concerned, locally we do seem to have healthy populations of some of the animals listed.

Just yesterday I was able to share one of the pictures of a common frog taken yesterday, yet this amphibian is on the new list. Also listed are many species that I have seen myself in the local environment.

It will take me some time to read and absorb all the details, but one thing that makes me feel positive with what is happening locally, is that many of the planed projects in the wood, and in other places are being done specifically to help much of the Flora and Fauna that has appeared on the new list.

While that doesn’t mean we can be complacent, it does mean that the efforts of so many people are really important for the health of our countryside.

The picture is of a Diamond-back Moth plutella xylostella I don’t think its on the list but it just happened to turn up the other day and I was able to get this picture. What is remarkable is that it is only six or seven millimetres long.