Encouraging a biodiverse parish
The results of Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count 2023 have been released, revealing a better picture for butterflies than had been feared.
Although the headline figures look good, with an increase from the previous years surveys this is offset against a declining general trend in butterfly numbers, with species dynamics changing in response to climate change.
Check out the full story on the results at Butterfly Conservation.
Molescroft Wildlife Network were invited by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to share their presentation stage and stall at the Beverley Ecofair in October. Held at Beverley Minster, the Eco Fair also featured the Gaia artwork by Luke Jerram, a seven metre wide illuminated globe created from detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface.
Over three thousand people attended and Helen and Angie were kept busy on the stall, with Dan’s slideshow of our activities playing all day. Helen also joined the #TeamWilder talk from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to highlight the benefits of working together for nature.
YWT has produced a handy, downloadable, PDF guide for their events page at: https://www.ywt.org.uk/our-events covering all YWT events from October 2023 throuh to March 2024. The downloadable guide can be found here.
Catch up with a free Yorkshire Rewilding Network webinar presented by Derek Gow.
Derek Gow is a farmer turned nature conservationist who is not only in the process of rewilding some of his 300 acre farm, but has played and continues to play a significant role in the reintroduction of the Eurasian beaver, the water vole, and the white stork to England. A well-known author on such topics, and favourite of government agencies, he is currently working on a reintroduction project to re-establish the wildcat in England.
For information on this Yorkshire Wildlife Trust event please visit: https://www.ywt.org.uk/events/2023-10-15-autumn-teamwilder-empowerment-day
Everyone is welcome. You don’t need to be signed up to #TeamWilder to join in!
These events are designed to inspire you to make a difference for wildlife at home and in your community!
Join our summer Empowerment Day to find out how you can become involved in #TeamWilder and play your part in creating a wilder Yorkshire.
By joining in, you’ll…
A wonderful community post from “Nature On Your Doorstep” RSPB blog on how to help wildife in your outside space this autumn:
Six rules are suggested:
With summertime drawing to a close, there’s still time to take part in the RHS ‘Check a Sweet Chestnut’ project.
RHS want to know where there are healthy and unhealthy sweet chestnuts across the UK so they can understand how far sweet chestnut blight and oriental chestnut gall wasp have spread since they were first reported. The information you provide will help us to produce an up-to-date map of healthy and unhealthy sweet chestnut trees and tell them whether their actions to control the spread of blight and gall wasp are working.
This year, between National Plant Health Week in May and National Tree Week in November, the RHS, Defra, APHA, Forest Research and Observatree invite you to submit data on sweet chestnut health to the UK tree health-reporting platform, TreeAlert.
Full details on the RHS Citizen Science page.
Since 2021, the Rewilding Innovation Fund has funded 35 initiatives across Britain’s land and sea. From community-driven to technology-focused projects, these awards have removed the barriers to rewilding for many.
Rewilding Britain believe that innovation is key to rewilding, to remove barriers to rewilding across Britain to scale up existing projects to the landscape-scale. The 11 projects funded in the latest round of the Rewilding Innovation Fund are either at the start of their journey or ready to go one step wilder.
Full details on the projects awarded money in this round on the Rewilding Britain Innovation Fund page.
From berry bushes, to jays, badgers and warblers, take a leaf through sunny (hopefully!) September with a wildlife highlight from the RSPB.
From the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, a report of a pine marten, straying from its normal habitat, and being observed at Spurn National Nature Reserve. These normally woodland dwelling mammals are an unusual sight on a sandy peninsula better known for its birds. Full story on the YWT news page here.