“I’m only one person. What can I do?” said eight billion people. If you’ve ever felt doubtful about your ability to make a positive change in the world, then our cover story in the new issue might help to shift your thinking.
The nature-lovers we meet there have each focused their attention on one species, be it the mammalian rock stars of the escalating rewilding movement, birds, plants, or even insects, whose charms may be considered more subtle.
For many of these people, their fascinations took root when they were children. Was there such a moment for you? I’ll never forget dissecting barn owl pellets when I was around eight, teasing out tiny bits of bone and fir on to a cloth: transfixed. I can still remember seeing the electrifying orange-red flash of a rag worm – exotic and snake-lake against the mud of the Solway Firth. And my dad’s excited grin as he pointed out the forked tail of a red kite, newly reintroduced at the time to the English Midlands where we lived.
