Environment Agency appears to be a misnomer

These have prompted me to write about the way in which the Environment Agency, which manages vast tracts of riverbank where wild life and wild flowers could be accommodated and encouraged, seem to be actively working to the destroy our native flora and fauna.

The village in which I live is situated along the banks of the River Aire and is very near the confluence of the Aire and Ouse.

Wild flowers grow along the banks of the rivers and when the flora was managed properly, cutting the riverbanks in accordance with the growing cycle of the flowers, there were flowers, insects, bees, butterflies and birds in huge numbers.

Sadly, despite protestations from the public, the Environment Agency insists on mowing the banks at least three times a year, removing all trace of the wild flowers and resulting in very few insects and butterflies. In June 2009, a plethora of flowers appeared and what appeared to be thousands of bees descended upon them to gather nectar. At the beginning of July, the Environment Agency cut the vegetation, removing the food source and the bees and this, at a time when great concern had been expressed at the demise of the bee.

This year, the Agency has again decimated what was a wonderful display. If this is happening in lots of other areas, there is no wonder

that we are seeing vastly reduced numbers of flora and fauna.

Surely, our riverbanks should be areas where wild flowers and wildlife can thrive. It would appear that Environment Agency is definitely a misnomer.

At a time when budgets are being cut, it would make sense to revert to managing these areas in a way that improves the environment and the money saved could be transferred to more essential work or keeping the pumps working in the area around the River Hull, to give just one example.

From: Helen Cowling, High Street, Airmyn, Goole.

From Sheila Hill, Greenleafe Avenue, Wheatley Hills, Doncaster.

YOUR correspondent who wrote about rabbits in Bridlington Cemetery prompts me to a rabbit rant. On the allotment site where I have had a plot for over 30 years they have learned to hurdle the wire netting fences supposed to exclude them. They also grind the wire with their teeth for access at ground level and if a hole is blocked up, they will create another near it.

They kick aside planks and dig under bricks placed to stop them from setting up home under sheds.

During the recent cold winter, I assumed that the one good thing from it would be a drop in rabbit numbers. Wrong. They just adapted and became very catholic in their choice of food and more ingenious in obtaining it.

Trees were stripped of bark to a height that suggests the rabbits were standing on each other's shoulders – or that there were four foot rabbits on the loose. Frozen ponds and drainage channels helped rabbits from far and wide to home in on the allotments, joining those moving in from the adjacent sewage works and the rough ground alongside

the canal. This invasion resulted in destruction of winter crops.

Maybe the cold weather culled out the weak and slow-witted and we are left with a race of super-rabbits. Natural selection at work, I think. Interesting, but annoying.

Maybe the Bridlington rabbits are showing the same characteristics.

CW 24/7/10