Plea for green army to save native wildlife

HERITAGE chiefs have drawn up the latest key battlefield in a crucial defence of the country’s increasingly threatened wildlife — your garden.

The unprecedented pressure on the landscape has pushed the once common species like the barn owl, corncrake, Irish lady tresses, the golden plover, marsh fritillary butterfly and six species of bumblebee to the brink of extinction.

The Heritage Council is to mount a campaign this week to galvanise a nationwide army of householders behind a plan to stem mounting casualties in an ongoing environmental onslaught. It believes amateur gardeners can help reverse the crisis posed by climate change, intensive agriculture and over-development by planting native and traditional plants.