ALL young people want to help save the whale, the tiger or the Amazon Rainforest.

Not many, however, can do this but it is just as important to protect our own backyard.

Recently an LET reader wrote to me to see if I would like to visit his home patch at Roe Lee which is close to Brownhill's roundabout on the dual carriageway leading to the M65 at Blackburn.

Running alongside the road John showed me a well-marked footpath which is common land and much used by the local people. We found a pond which is beginning to dry up as drainage ditches are being cleaned out. Roe Lee (the old name may have been lea) means fields where roe deer roamed. This delightful little mammal is still present in the area. John is in the process of compiling a diary of his sightings.

John's house is sandwiched between the road and the local school which itself is very environmentally aware. John's garden is a nature reserve in itself with little ponds, waterfalls, nest boxes and feeding stations. He has taken photographs of hedgehogs and grey squirrels, the latter coming running when they are called. Last summer he was sitting in the garden with his feet up when a sparrowhawk sat on his shoe until it realised where it was and then shot off at high speed.

I watched his wildlife, which is proof that conservation starts at home and not in exotic locations!

If other readers have their own nature reserves why not drop me a line and perhaps I can drop in for a chat.