Cambridge Nature Network, Cambridge Nature Festival and 30 Days Wild

Caroline Fitton, of the Wildlife Trust in Cambridgeshire, discusses get the job done to extend the region’s green spaces.

The Cambridge Mother nature Community was launched in May well 2021 and has due to the fact produced a productive start out towards a eyesight of increasing substantial parts of downland, fens, meadows, woodlands and waterways offering elevated organic areas wherever folks can working experience the countryside and mother nature on their doorstep.

Initial funding for the Cambridge Character Network is remaining supplied from the government’s Eco-friendly Recovery Challenge and Normal England – this backing has enabled the network to acquire forward 24 initiatives which will create or strengthen 90 acres of natural eco-friendly place by early 2023.

These assignments are being carried out by a wide range of organisations functioning collectively to develop much more normal habitats which are much larger and a lot more connected across the landscape and by means of the town.

Numerous projects have just lately been completed like the planting of a new woodland close to Coton, with much more than 2,000 trees planted by volunteers, the restoration of 58 attractive veteran willow trees on Sheep’s Eco-friendly in Cambridge, and the development of 20 acres of important chalk grassland habitat at Wandlebury Country Park – chalk grassland supports vital scarce expert species from vegetation to bees, beetles and butterflies. It’s hoped that this demonstration of tangible good results will be a springboard for even further mother nature recovery, mother nature-welcoming farming and wildlife-abundant suburbs and villages.

The Wildlife Trust’s conservation supervisor Martin Baker suggests: “The community has secured key funding this year by means of Normal England’s Mother nature Restoration Programme enabling us to commence offering some of the habitat generation prospects established out in our tactic report. Each individual undertaking will produce new or far better habitats for mother nature, ranging from conversion of acres of intensive arable farmland, expansion of country parks and nature reserves, to smaller assignments on school grounds in the town.”

James Littlewood, CEO of Cambridge Earlier, Current and Long term, states: “In the facial area of worldwide issues these kinds of as the decline of nature, our steps can occasionally seem meaningless except if they are part of a collective hard work. The Cambridge Character Network presents us a very long-phrase eyesight that we can all do the job to in our own means at our have tempo. We can already see a variance following the completion of some great tasks this calendar year. If we all do our bit, then collectively we will make a difference.”

Searching in advance there are assignments producing 150 acres of new meadows and woodland in the Gog Magog Hills, bettering habitat on the Bin Brook and ditches, and working with 5 universities to make improvements to their grounds for mother nature.

John Torlesse, Normal England manager for West Anglia, says: “I’m actually delighted that Purely natural England is in a position to help the Cambridge Mother nature Network.

“The normal environment in Cambridgeshire has turn into considerably depleted – it is very important that we function alongside one another to set back again wildlife into our lives, and to build extra destinations where all those who live and operate in and about Cambridge can practical experience mother nature and all that it gives us. This great project is doing just that by producing much more mother nature on a definitely ambitious scale.”

The community is dependent on a investigation report released previous 12 months in reaction to the swift expansion of Cambridge and the twin threats of the biodiversity and local weather emergencies: this report identifies the best options for the creation of new habitats that will help to supply the aspirations of increasing purely natural spaces by 50 per cent in Cambridgeshire by 2050.

This spatial strategy for nature is already helping to tell planning and policy creating, such as the Higher Cambridge Nearby Strategy and Cambridge Biodiversity System.

The intention is also to rejoice nature on our doorstep, as properly as the persons and organisations that do the job tirelessly for the purely natural planet – to this close a new Cambridge Nature Festival has been organised operating from May perhaps 27 to June 30, 2022.

Enjoyable and educational gatherings will be held in and close to Cambridge which include fingers-on actions, mother nature walks, stay tunes, art exhibitions and a lot more. Most functions will be no cost or reasonably priced delivered by a selection of organisations like Cambridge Past, Current & Potential, Wildlife Belief BCN, Milton Place Park, Nationwide Have confidence in, Cambridge College Botanic Backyard, RSPB and a lot more.

The partnership of organisations supporting the Cambridge Nature Network, all sharing an fascination in character and community access to it, has proven solid bonds, and conversations are now also below way with other landowners ranging from institutions these types of as the Cambridge College faculties and the county council to large farming corporations and smaller sized family members farms.

For even further particulars visit www.cambridgenaturenetwork.org and http://cambridgenaturenetwork.org/current-assignments/.

30 Days Wild

It really is that time all over again – when wallcharts get sprinkled, flecked, freckled and peppered with tips, wild notions occur and day-to-day small interactions with character just take seed then increase roots . . . 30 Days Wild is The Wildlife Trusts’ yearly nature obstacle to do a person ‘wild’ point a day each individual working day through June.

Each day Random Acts of Wildness can be anything at all from litter-choosing, birdwatching, planting seeds, puddle-splashing, you name it! Getting section in 30 Times Wild is scientifically established to make you really feel happier, much healthier and additional linked to nature. Signal up opens before long, from 4 May well to acquire section, with a thirty day period to approach and get ready. Check out www.wildlifebcn.org/30DaysWild.

For much more on the Wildlife Believe in in Cambridgeshire, how to aid wildlife in your area and to develop into a member, you should take a look at www.wildlifebcn.org/aid-us.

Read through much more from Caroline Fitton and the Wildlife Rely on BCN

The butterflies of Cambridgeshire: past, present and long term

Wildlife Rely on surveys Cambridgeshire’s guarded roadside verges

50 surveyors, 300 sites – but how numerous otters are in Cambridgeshire?