NATURE CAN CO-EXIST WITH POTATO CROPS

摘要

The scope and scale of the wildlife on his Fen farm, revealed by a Nature's Choice environmental audit 15 years ago, was a surprise to potato grower Bill Legge. It also got him started on a conservation programme which led to a county award and put him in line for a national contest. The watercourse undulates banks of wild flowers, the very essence of the wildness and wet of which the poet* sang. Yet just over a year ago this wet grassland, home to snipe, lapwing and a host of water birds was producing a commercial crop of potatoes. 'Just shows what nature will do given half a chance,' says Bill Legge. This wasn't our best land by any means, and awkwardly-shaped, so we dug it out to introduce water and seeded it down to create habitat for winteringwaders and wildfowl. There's the result.'