February 2025

Fields. Uckfield, Framfield, Heathfield, Isfield, Maresfield, Rotherfield, Mayfield, Hartfield, Henfield, Cuckfield, Itchingfield, Staplefield, Lindfield, Netherfield, Westfield, Mountfield, Catsfield and Ninfield, are all places nearby where the trees have been felled. It is (was) our great Albion’s Andredes weald, meaning “the forest of Andred” a Roman region reduced and renamed Pevensey by Anglo-Saxons (meaning “River of [a man named] Pefen”). Anderida Forest extended over Sussex, Surrey and Kent. Settlers felled trees forming clearings to build villages. The clearings maybe got the local name first, assigned by the folk who created them. The village names then followed. Now, we have more clearings (fields) than forest, because further clearings allowed the ground to be farmed to provide food for the villagers. However, most food we now eat from day to day is no longer grown in a felled area down the lane. Much of it even comes from different lands, the Americas, Africa and Eurasia. Now, just short of 14% of the UK is woodland, up from about 9% in the 1980s. This increase is good, because it shows we are making progress with planting trees and allowing some ecological succession to progress from fields back to woodland.

In some ways, UK leads the way in combatting climate change globally. Our carbon dioxide footprint is better per capita ranked 70th/208 in 2023 (Wikipedia) than many other leading countries. However, our species decline record is not so good. Insect loss is particularly worrying, because they are an essential part of a balanced ecosystem. It is easy to make toxic chemicals that kill insects, and these chemicals are used to maximise crop yields, control flies, ants, and wasps, all to make our lives easier in the short-term. However, many plants and animals depend on insects to survive, including birds such as swifts and swallows that eat nothing else, and just about any land-bird species raising a family. E.g. just one family of blue tits requires up to 1,000 insects per day for about 20 days when nesting. Also, a rare bird of prey called a honey buzzard specialises in eating copious bees and wasps. No surprise that this bird is rare, because wild honeybees are also now rare, and we are good at killing wasps. Hot news – I saw a swallow (Pevensey Bay) hunting insects on 3rd January 2025!

Also, consider local places called …hurst; Penshurst, Staplehurst, Ticehurst, Hawkhurst, Goudhurst, Wadhurst, Lamberhurst, Speldhurst, Ashhurst, and Sandhurst. Hurst is probably Anglo-Saxon (German), meaning woodland thicket or wooded hillock. Forests in these localities are probably very old and home to biodiverse ancient woodlands. Humans are ecosystem engineers, whose ancestors lived and worked much closer to nature than us now. However, the further we get from nature, the less we consider its welfare, often writing it off as collateral damage as we build towards some “greater goal”. Ultimately, nature is our essential life support system. All things originate from nature.