Global warming poses ‘biggest challenge’ to National Trust

DELHI, India - March 23, 2015 - PRLog -- Year-long silverfish infestations, battered coastlines and other consequences of a changing climate mean global warming is now the biggest single threat to the National Trust, the charity’s head has warned.

“Climate change for us, and we see it all over our outdoor properties, is almost certainly the biggest challenge,” said Dame Helen Ghosh, as the Trust prepares to announce its 10-year strategy on Monday.

The 120-year-old organisation plans to spend about £1bn during the next decade conserving the properties and countryside under its care, a task Dame Helen said was complicated by the impact of climate change.

“We see large parts of our coastline falling off into the sea,” she said, explaining that fierce winter storms near the Trust’s Birling Gap visitor centre in East Sussex had caused seven years’ of erosion in two months, leaving parts of the centre just five metres from the cliff edge.

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The Trust’s grand houses are also being affected, said Dame Helen, who was appointed director-general of the organisation just over two years ago.

“Some of the bugs that we get in our furniture and in our books, for example silverfish, we used to only get those in the summer,” she said. “They used to be killed off in winter. But because the winters have got warmer and wetter we get those kinds of bugs all year round.” The Trust also has to deal with storms bringing down ancient trees and battering its buildings, she added.

The organisation, which describes itself as Europe’s biggest conservation charity, has a plan to cut its energy use by a fifth by 2020 and generate half of it from renewable sources by the same year.

It has already installed renewable power sources at many of its properties, including a solar hot water system at Chirk Castle in Wales and a wood-fired boiler at the 17th-century Dyrham Park mansion in Gloucestershire. But it has also fought against wind farms when they threaten to interrupt views of its properties, such as one planned near its Lyveden Elizabethan lodge in rural Northamptonshire.

Its former chairman, Sir Simon Jenkins, has described wind farms as a blot on some landscapes. But Dame Helen said the Trust did not necessarily oppose such schemes. “We’re passionate advocates for renewable energy,” she said. “We’re not on principle opposed to wind turbines but they need to be in the right place — and the right place isn’t in precious places like that or countryside that people love.”

In coming years, the Trust plans to work more closely with landowners and other partners to improve the management of some of Britain’s most important landscapes. It already owns about a third of the southwest coast, but believes more can be done to create corridors to help wildlife move safely around the area. It also plans to review the management of land in the Lake District National Park and look more broadly at innovative ways of managing land on a large scale.

The Trust looks after more than 250,000 hectares of land, almost 750 miles of coastline and more than 500 historic houses, gardens and parks. It has 4.2m members and its sites attract 20m paid-for-entry visits a year, while an estimated 200m people visit its outdoor areas.

Source: ft.com