Thread by @Right_2Roam

Watched Sir David Attenborough's #WildIsles last night and feeling simultaneously enchanted and depressed by the state of nature in this country? You're not alone. Here's why access to nature is the remedy we all need... 🧵1/11

Sir David told it like it is, "Only 13% of Britain is covered by trees. That's one of the lowest proportions in the whole of Europe." True. We are banned from the majority of woods in England, for the sake of 50 MILLION non-native pheasants shot every year. 2/11

Notice how the BBC filmed inside Blenheim Palace grounds to capture ancient oak trees? The public are often barred from such pretty places. The most beautiful and the most polluted parts of the country are off-limits to the public. To care for nature, we need access to both. 3/11

Many watching the gorgeous wildflower meadows scene might have predicted what Sir David was about to say: "In the last 60 years, we've lost 97% of this previous habitat". It was not the rambler who destroyed these meadows... 4/11

So we were delighted when he talked about the benefits of "nature friendly farming" to safeguard our these meadows. Farmers are needed to protect the future of the countryside and as in Scotland, should be supported to undertake access friendly, nature friendly farming. 5/11

And of course, the Right to Roam crosses borders. It was also wonderful to hear Sir David say "We are in just the right place to welcome migrants..."

The Right to Roam is for everyone. Whoever you are and wherever you come from. 6/11

Was also very satisfying to see (especially from the air) just how green this land really is. Only 9% of England is built upon. The rest is countryside. If this country its full, it's full of green space, but it's normally hidden by brick walls and barbed wire. 7/11

The nature crisis is a crisis of disconnection. Nature is not in decline because we have been let in, but because we have been left out. For too long, corporations and elite landowners have been destroying the countryside behind closed gates, while we were kept away. 8/11

At the end of episode one, Sir David stares at the camera and says we are "One of the most nature depleted countries in the world. Never has there been a more important time to invest in our own wildlife." We're also lowest of 14 European countries for nature connectedness. 9/11

We cannot defend nature if we do not care about it, and we cannot care about it if we cannot experience it. We've evolved on this Earth and are as much a part of nature as the golden eagle, the puffin and the dormouse. 10/11

So we ask you, take a leap of faith & join the Right to Roam movement today. With free, fair & informed access to nature, we forsee an island which is wild, where everyone feels invested in nature & where everyone wants to take care of it.

Visit righttoroam.org.uk 11/11