CONSERVATIONISTS are hoping to create England’s biggest native woodland by planting 100,000 trees in the Yorkshire Dales.

Snaizeholme, near the town of Hawes, was covered in woodland centuries ago but the 561-hectare valley is now almost barren (贫瘠的). Across the Yorkshire Dales, total tree cover amounts to just five per cent, the Woodland Trust has said, with ancient woodland making up just one per cent of that cover.

The trust wants to raise £8 million for a decades-long program that will see a restored forest providing habitats for threatened species such as woodland birds and black grouse. Planted trees will be mostly native broadleaved species such as alder, silver birch, down birch, willow, aspen, rowan, hawthorn and blackthorn, with montane species on the higher slopes.

Al Nash, who is heading the project for the Woodland Trust, said, “I love the Dales but the one thing it lacks in many areas is an abundance (丰富性) of trees. Here we will be giving nature and biodiversity a big boost and creating a rich variety of habitats. It is a rare opportunity to create a sizeable wildlife conservation area for the north of England. It’s clearly a wonderful opportunity to create something real that can be seen and touched in the Yorkshire Dales for the fight against climate change.”

The first stage of planting has already begun with funding from the White Rose Forest, DEFRA and corporate donors. More trees than needed will be planted as not all will survive in the windswept, rainy upland valley. They will be arranged at random and without plastic guards to help stimulate natural forest growth, the trust said.

Used clothing that you no longer wear can be donated to charities. And clothing with broken zippers or missing buttons can be repaired and worn again. But what do you do when your favorite shirt is too torn to wear or your socks have too many holes?

Every year in the UK, 336, 000 tons of unwanted old clothing and shoes are thrown out and sent to landfills (废物填埋场), according to Recycle Now. 【小题1】 So, instead of throwing away these old clothes, try one of these eco-friendly ways to give them a second chance.

One of the best ways to deal with unwanted clothing is to make it into something completely different. You can use pieces of old cloth as filling for pillows. 【小题2】

Another very good way to reuse old textiles (纺织品) made of cotton like T-shirts is to cut the clothing up and use it as cleaning cloths around your home. 【小题3】 And they are greener than using microfiber cleaning towels that drop fibers when washed.

Besides, animal shelters are always looking for used towels and blankets to keep their animals warm. 【小题4】 And while you are throwing away your textiles, remember that shelters could use donations of unopened pet food and things too.

【小题5】 Green Life is one of them. For a small fee, Green Life will ship you a bag that can be filled with up to 25 pounds of used clothing and sent to the company for reuse. When the bag is received, the sender receives a small amount of money to be used on the company’s website. Everything Green Life sells is made of recycled fibers.

When students from Lithgow visited wetlands near their primary school, they quickly picked up on a problem: there was nowhere for turtles.

“A bunch of students said there are no logs or rocks here, so where are they going to bask (晒太阳)?” says Associate Professor Ricky Spencer from Western Sydney University. The question was raised as part of a project in which year 5 and 6 students were attempting to understand their local environment and what it needed to thrive (兴旺). The students had just learned that in spring, turtles have to bask on a rock or log to create eggs.

The students are now conducting research and developing a proposal to present to their local council for the introduction of new basking areas, such as logs or human-made platforms. “That is pretty powerful, for year 5 and year 6 students to actually know how to make change,” Spencer says. “We want kids to understand why conservation measures are important.”

Led by Western Sydney University, the Turtles in Schools program aims to encourage an informed future generation that will take care of the environment. It is currently in a trial phase, with select New South Wales schools hosting turtles in classrooms and visiting nearby wetlands. By 2023, up to 10 turtle tanks will be installed (安装) in schools. By 2024, the program will be available to all year 5 and 6 classrooms across Australia.

By guiding experiments on topics such as growth rates and behavioural observations, and introducing schools to activities in their local wetlands, Spencer says this program could encourage students to actually carry their education forward to their day-to-day life.

Presbyterian Ladies’ College has been investing in facilities including a turtle pond for six years. They will be available for nearby schools involved in the Turtles in Schools program. “We want to connect students to the real world, to develop values to look after the environment. Our students become familiar with understanding our relationship to the natural world. We are connected to it. We rely upon it. It isn’t something dispensable,” the principal, Dr Paul Bergis, says.