We were invited to run a stall and to give a talk for this event run by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. It was a showcase for the communities supported by #TeamWilder, and an initiative to promote nature restoration in the region.
For us, it was a great opportunity to network and have fun. We made useful contacts, and our game, Guess the Invertebrate, challenged visitors to learn about some intriguing creatures among our declining insect population.
It was also a chance for us to publicly thank Andy and Jo at #TeamWilder for all their great support over the past two years.
We were delighted with the success of our event on the 6 th April at the Molescroft Pavilion. 150 people showed up supported by 20 volunteers. There were nine stalls and activities, and five talks. Several hedgehog winter nests were built by Grant and Andy with the help of visitors. We will use these on our sites and donate to local schools. Many new volunteers came forward to join our group.
Ann from The Wolds Hedgehog Rescue Centre was our key speaker, explaining how to care fo hedgehogs, and over £300 was made on their stall. Jo from #TeamWilder told us all about wildlife gardening, and one of our volunteers, Nigel, enchanted everyone with his magnificent home-reared Emperor moths. Lucy from NEYEDC (North East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre) taught visitors how to use iNaturalist to record local wildlife, and plotted hedgehog sightings in Molescroft. Anthony from Smile Foundation Green and Blue Social Prescribing explained the role of nature in improving everyone’s mental and physical health.
We are especially grateful to the Hey Smile Foundation and East Riding Council for their Communit Action Grant which made this event and our publicity leaflets possible. Thanks too to the team from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust who designed the leaflets and to the many volunteers who helped deliver these across Molescroft, including the Beverley Wombles.
A huge thankyou from us, to all our volunteers, speakers, and especially all of those who came to the event, we can’t wait to see you again for another event in 2025!
MWN have set up a number of projects on iNaturalist to help us monitor biodiversity across the parish, and at some of our sites of special interest. If you are an iNaturalist user your observations in the area will automatically fall under these projects, but we’d welcome active participants to join the groups!
Molescroft Wildlife Network has had a busy few months. Thanks to a Community Action Grant from East Riding Council & HEY Smile Foundation we:
Produced a leaflet, thank you to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust for the help their wonderful design team gave us (please see below)
Volunteers delivered the leaflet to 3500 houses in 2 weeks, thanks to the swift work by volunteers from the Beverley Wombles, Civic Society, Molescroft Parish Councillors and MWN
We are arranging a Molescroft Hedgehog drop in fun day event on Sat 6 April. Ann Day from Wolds Hedgehog Rescue will be our keynote speaker. Thank you to Jo Rawson & Andy Steele, (YWT #TeamWilder), Lucy Baldwin (North & East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre), Anthony Hurd (Smile Foundation, Green and Blue Social Prescribing), and many others who have been very supportive and are contributing to this.
The funding received from Molescroft Parish Council has enabled 2 Ecological Recovery Management plans to be commissioned. Recommendations are being drawn up by:
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, for the Millennium Wildlife Haven
Caring for God’s Acre, for St Mary’s Graveyard, Molescroft Road
Thank you to Molescroft Parish Council, St Mary’s Church and ERYC for their support with these.
It has been remarkable how friendly and supportive individuals and organisations have been, it’s inspiring, thank you.
Join YWN for a live online discussion in which you will hear from a range of community rewilding groups across the region, discussing how they got started, their aspirations, challenges and suggestions about how others can get involved.
MWN’s own Karyn will be on the panel, talking about the genesis, successes and future plans of Molescroft Wildlife Network.
Please register to attend on the YRN website!!! and save the date! 28th February, 7.30pm.
Molescroft Wildlife Network is pleased to announce that we have been awarded an East Riding Community Action Grant to implement the Molescroft Hedgehog Highway Project. This award is for £1,500 and marks our second successful grant application is as many months.
We are delighted to announce that Molescroft Wildlife Network (MWN) was successful in raising funds to develop two Ecological Recovery Management Plans. One by Caring For God’s Acre for St Mary’s Graveyard, Molescroft Road, the other by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust for the Millennium Wildlife Haven. For more information on our sites please see this page.
We would like to thank Molescroft Parish Council which has always been very supportive and has now agreed to fund these crucial elements in supporting biodiversity, community and educational improvements within Molescroft Parish.
Getting these management plans in place has been a long held goal of MWN since inception and provides us with a strong professional grounding in working on recovering biodiversity at these Molescroft Parish sites.
Left to right: Karyn, Dan, Helen, Sharon, Grant and Angie at an MWN meeting in November 2023
