Chris Packham visits Northumberland Wildlife Trust's Prestwick Carr Living Landscape scheme. Located on the outskirts of Newcastle this large area conservation scheme is aiming to restore and recreate lost wetland habitat, creating new floodwater storage and increasing access to nature for local people.

Chris says: "The days of single-species conservation and wrapping Nature Reserves up for über-keen geeks like me are disappearing and now we have acknowledged that to make a sustainable impact we need to think big, on a landscape scale."

"It is schemes like this that offer a real hope in spite all of the problems we face. Its the intelligent, mature, structured, joined up solutions which will have a truly sustainable future. I found some fresh otter poo this morning and the dream is that one day a youngster will emerge from the urban fringe of the city, crawl through a hedge, hare over the marsh and have a lifetimes passion initiated by a ring of bright water with an otter in the centre of it."


For more information on The Wildlife Trusts' 100+ large area Living Landscape schemes across the UK go to www.wildlifetrusts.org/alivinglandscape