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Wessex Downs

Marlborough Downs forms part of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape and contains some of our most important habitats, including chalk grasslands, ancient woodland and rare chalk streams. Charlotte Smith and Sean Fletcher explore this rich landscape, which is home to one of the UK’s newest nature reserves – Bay Meadows. \n\nSean discovers how this new nature reserve was former grazing land destined for housing development, but instead transformed into a thriving wildlife habitat. He helps create otter holts and learns how these animals are crucial for the countryside, before joining a group of volunteers working to reverse the damage logging has done to a woodland nearby. \n\nCharlotte heads to the hills to learn about the myths and legends inspired by this landscape and finds out why a 374ft chalk horse was carved into a hill in the area. \n\nDatshiane Navanayagam visits Devon and Cornwall to investigate the problems facing rural communities trying to access NHS dental treatment, and in Suffolk, Adam Henson is celebrating ten years of the Big Farmland Bird Count, an annual event that encourages farmers and land managers to record bird species on their farms.

Source: BBC 1