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FEATURE<br />
A Call To Stand<br />
Up For Nature<br />
“A strimmer is to a butterfly what a chain<br />
saw is to an orangutan” – says wildlife<br />
saviour Nigel Witham<br />
<strong>The</strong> 59-year-old<br />
Battersea-born<br />
animal crusader<br />
has turned his<br />
Weald garden into<br />
a sanctuary for wildlife and<br />
happily shares his delightful<br />
videos and stills with a<br />
multitude of followers on the<br />
Nextdoor site.<br />
His garden has become home<br />
to a vast number of animals,<br />
from foxes to rare butterflies<br />
and owls to sparrowhawks, and<br />
he despairs at the way wildlife<br />
globally is being obliterated by<br />
“social inertia”.<br />
He does not believe the<br />
problem is just down to<br />
governments and added: “We all<br />
need to respect all life.”<br />
A keen prize-winning angler,<br />
Nigel has contributed to many<br />
fishing books and had his first<br />
article in Angling Times when<br />
he was just 18. He was even<br />
featured on ITN news after<br />
saving the life of a canoeist<br />
who had capsized in the River<br />
Medway.<br />
His love of wildlife was<br />
kindled in his childhood when<br />
the family moved to the country<br />
where he soon became intrigued<br />
by the vast array of wildlife. He<br />
recalled: “When I was about<br />
seven or eight I went with a<br />
friend to some grass land and<br />
it was just full of butterflies,<br />
there were so many of them.” It<br />
“When I was about<br />
seven or eight I went<br />
with a friend to some<br />
grass land and it was<br />
just full of butterflies,<br />
there were so many<br />
of them.”<br />
was not until this year that he<br />
recorded seeing his first-ever<br />
Purple Emperor butterfly.<br />
A commercial interior<br />
designer, Nigel would love to<br />
devote his entire time to saving<br />
wildlife but also getting the<br />
message across to everyone<br />
that they too can help to<br />
understand the importance of<br />
wildlife and saving habitats,<br />
whether gardens, fields, verges<br />
or churchyards.<br />
He despairs that his<br />
efforts to re-wild Goudhurst<br />
churchyard have failed. He also<br />
battles against the concerts,<br />
Christmas lights, and other<br />
commercialisation at nearby<br />
Bedgebury Pinetum, believing<br />
they seriously damage wildlife<br />
in an area which was originally<br />
devoted to special trees from<br />
around the planet, grassland and<br />
ponds.<br />
He said: “It would be easy to<br />
think my message is like pushing<br />
water uphill but I take succour<br />
from people supporting me.”<br />
TF<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Cake</strong> • <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2022</strong> 27
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