UK heritage hit by climate change, warns National Trust
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Version 0 of 1. Rare book collections, stately home gardens and 18th century tapestries are among the heritage being affected by a changing climate, the National Trust has warned. More erratic weather, changes to rainfall and rising temperatures are already having an impact on National Trust properties and land, the organisation said, forcing it to find new ways of managing the heritage in its care in the face of climate change. It has seen its insurance claim as a result of extreme weather increase in the past decade, with monthly claims values increasing more than fourfold, and the number of claims made each month more than double between 2005 and 2015. Problems the Trust has faced include the discovery of mould and spider beetle in the rare book collection at Lanhydrock, Cornwall, prompting the installation of damp proofing and environmental controls in response to more changeable weather. At Nymans, in West Sussex, drought has forced the garden team to use less water and capture more rainfall, but while storage capacity was increased to 80,000 litres in 2007 and later to 150,000 litres, the system ran dry this year for the first time in seven years. There are now plans in place to increase water storage capacity further so that the gardens can be watered through the summer even if it stops raining in April. Warmer winters have affected the National Trust’s plant conservation centre in south west England, reducing the cooler period when grafting plants for its important garden collections is possible. And at the Vyne in Hampshire, wetter weather and intense rainfall led to water coming through the windows on the west facing side of the mansion and damaging six Soho tapestries dating to 1710, which cost £60,000 to repair, the Trust said. The Grade I listed property now needs major renovation work to protect it and its contents from further damage. Elsewhere the Trust is managing land to prevent flooding and creating habitats to protect wildlife from a changing climate, a new report called Forecast Changeable has shown. Helen Ghosh, director general of the National Trust, said: “The impacts of climate change are clear to see at Trust places, whether from increasingly erratic weather events or from long-term changes in temperature and rainfall distribution affecting countryside and buildings, gardens and collections. “The risk of permanent damage to landscape and heritage as a result of not planning for a future with a radically different climate is ever increasing.” |