Hampshire

The team are in Hampshire, where Matt Baker hears about a project championing the use of local wood, as more people using locally sourced timber leads to better-managed woodlands, and that means more biodiversity. John Craven hears how oysters are being reintroduced to the Solent in a bid to revive stocks. The Solent Fishery was once the largest in Europe, but oyster fishing was banned five years ago when annual harvests plummeted from 200 to 20 tonnes in five years. On the shoreline around the Solent, Ellie Harrison hears about an innovative project to study coastal erosion. She meets Sasha, who uses radio trackers placed into stones on the beach to follow their movements. Tom Heap looks at how new technology and smart machinery could put UK farmers at greater risk of cyberattack. Adam Henson and Charlotte Smith travel to the Shetland Islands to meet the third and last finalists for the Countryfile Farming Hero Award 2018.