Graham Usher urges Church of England to look into this ‘often very ancient land’, as it prepares to vote on increasing biodiversity

Graham Usher urges Church of England to look into this ‘often very ancient land’, as it prepares to vote on increasing biodiversity

Churchyards should be rewilded to increase biodiversity and to make them “places of the living, not just the dead”, a Church of England bishop has said.

Local parishes are responsible for about 7,100 hectares (17,500 acres) of churchyards in England. The C of E also owns about 34,000 hectares of farmland, mostly let to tenant farmers, and 9,300 hectares of forestry.

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    1•4 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Churchyards should be rewilded to increase biodiversity and to make them “places of the living, not just the dead”, a Church of England bishop has said.

    Graham Usher, the bishop of Norwich, said the church must “look at how the biodiversity of this often very ancient land, with very old trees and hedgerows attached to it, can be enhanced”.

    Usher suggested that areas of churchyards be left unmown to “allow sward and rare species of plants to grow up and flower”.

    There has been “steady movement … towards increasing biodiversity alongside evaluating and reducing carbon emissions on land holdings”.

    St Mary’s in Wargrave, Berkshire, has stopped regular mowing and strimming of grass to promote wildflower growth and provide habitat for animals and insects.

    Mike Buckland, the “eco church” lead at St Mary’s, said: “The scythe allows more control over what is cut when we want to encourage native wildflowers to reseed as well as reducing the carbon emissions to zero and the noise impact.”

    The original article contains 461 words, the summary contains 164 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!