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| | | From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
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|  | | Black poplars | |
Helen Mark travels to Buckinghamshire to meet people who are making a difference, either by trying to preserve the wildlife and landscape of the county, or by maintaining an ancient craft which would otherwise die out.
She begins in the village of Mursley with Roger Jefcoate, who has made it his personal mission to plant black poplars wherever and whenever he can. Inspired 30 years ago by a radio programme which highlighted the danger the black poplar was in, he has worked ever since to save the tree made famous by the landscapes of Constable. Although half the UK population of black poplars grows in the Aylesbury Vale, there is, inexplicably, a great imbalance between males and females, which grow happily in equal numbers in other parts of the country. Roger loves the idea that he is recreating landscape and that the fruits of just a few minutes' planting work on his part will be visible on the Buckinghamshire skyline for years to come.
Wim Visscher, of William Cowley in Newport Pagnell is the last parchment maker in the UK. It's an ancient craft, and is sustained largely by the restoration trade and by the demand from calligraphers and, more recently, from interior designers. Parchment is also used for one copy of every Act of Parliament, although even that was recently under threat until MPs voted to continue the traditional practice.
Wim takes Helen through the parchment making process, showing her how skins are washed, stretched on frames, scraped and finally cut to make the end product. He's looking for a successor to learn the trade and, eventually, to take over the business.
Ian and Margaret Robertson have reason to be proud of the patch of land by the Grand Union Canal near Aylesbury where they meet Helen. It was largely through their efforts of counting badgers and brown hare, and joined by others carrying out similar surveys of birdlife, that the site, rich in hedgerows and black poplars, was saved from a 1600 home development. Ian Corbyn, of the local wildlife trust, explains that given the amount of detail called for at public enquiry, it is largely thanks to people like the Robertsons that open spaces like this are protected - and that there really is no substitute for individuals getting out there and doing it themselves.
Buckinghamshire Badger Group
Wildlife Trust
Finally Helen meets Mike Collard, who has been called in to help lure four young swallows from a factory from where, warm and well-fed on insects in the roof space, they haven't seen the need to migrate. While all attempts to catch them in mist nets or to draw them out with taped bird song have failed, he says that there's only so much you can do to point nature in the right direction. He has more success with his bird ringing work in the back garden, keeping tabs under licence on garden birds which pass through by catching them first in very fine mist nets, before ringing them, weighing them and releasing them until the next time and building up a valuable record of how local birdlife is doing.
British Trust for Ornithology
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Z to Z Britain
Open Country looks back 2003
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