A decade down on the farms

Quaffing wine by the river at Westminster with ministers and lords is a far cry from getting up at the crack of dawn to tramp around open farmland.

But the celebration which was held yesterday (Wednesday May 7) at the House of Lords was a just reward for the decade of work which has been carried out as part of the Volunteer and Farmer Alliance.

The project is not one many people are aware of, but over the past ten years RSPB volunteers from across the country have been quietly going about the business of surveying more than 4,250 farms. After they’ve welcomed the volunteers onto their land the farmers who take part in the scheme are presented with a map detailing the wildlife that lives on their doorstep.

Some of the facts and figures from the project put into perspective what has been achieved. 350,000 hectares of land - an area four times the size of Nottinghamshire - have been surveyed during which volunteers have walked the equivalent of four and a half times round the world and given 77,000 hours – or nearly nine solid years – of their free time to help out.

Environment minister Hilary Benn recognised the importance of the project in his speech to those who had gathered for the tenth anniversary reception.

“Farmland birds have declined fifty per cent since 1970,” he warned. “That’s a figure we should all take notice of.”

He went on to echo RSPB chief executive Graham Wynn’s words of thanks to all the farmers have got involved with the scheme, many of whom have taken the information gathered in their surveys and used it to put in place measures on their farm to protect farmland bird habitats.

But the last word from the day must go to from the small army of volunteers who are the footsoldiers of this project, and who have helped provide information which has proved invaluable in the battle to halt farmland bird decline.

Alan King from the Coventry and Warwickshire local RSPB group has been surveying farms since the project first started.

“We’ve seen all sorts of stuff,” he says proudly. “Hobbies and buzzards, wheatears, tree sparrow and little owls and yellow wagtail occasionally over the oil seed rape.

“It’s a great way of getting to meet the farmers and they’ve all been very cooperative and usually they’ve invited us to go back whenever we want to.

“For me it gives you the opportunity to do some really meaningful birdwatching.”

Well done Alan, and all the other volunteers, and farmers, who have helped make this project such a success. Here’s to another ten years…