The Jubilee Award is a silver cup presented by Molescroft Parish Council to individuals or organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to our community. Only ten presentations have been made from 2000 toi 2023.
It is also referred to as the Millennium Cup because it coincided with the creation of the Millennium Park in 2000.
This made the presentation to Molescroft Wildlife Network particularly memorable because of our present work at Millennium Wildlife Haven.
The aim of the event is to draw local businesses into the dialogue surrounding natural capital by demonstrating its inherent benefits. We will be using the example of the Blue Green Lab and how this can be replicated elsewhere to support flood resilience, improve water quality, promote biodiversity and increase wellbeing. Dr Robert Thomas, Senior Research Fellow at the EEI, will present on the university’s research in this area, joined by speakers from the Hull and East Yorkshire Local Nature Partnership (HEY LNP), who will set the scene with local examples of natural capital as well as a broader overview of the concept itself. The presentation will then be followed by a tour of university’s Blue Green Lab which will be led by Technology Transfer Assistant, Dr Josh Johnson.
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.
It’s No Mow May! Plantlife’s #NoMowMay is back this year.
It’s a great chance to save some money, create a feast for pollinators, tackle pollution, reduce urban heat extremes, and lock away atmospheric carbon below ground.
The Yorkshire Rewilding Network is running its Summer Site Visits for a third year, and it’s a very varied and exciting programme. The rewilding sites vary from wetlands to wildflower meadows, beaver ponds and country estates to community projects and urban gardens.
This year the visits run from April to September. The next two are:
Sunday, April 21st – Harewood Estate Family visit
Sunday, May 19th – Leeds community land
To view the whole YRN programme on Eventbrite and to book please click here
The Wildife Society covers a recent paper in Scientific Reports where researchers found that spending time in places with a diverse range of natural features and species is associated with stronger improvements in our mental wellbeing compared to places with less diversity.
We definitely agree with this conclusion, before we even heard about this paticular study!
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!
Each week, host Bex Lindsay visits a different Forestry England site to discover the hidden joys and wonders of wild spaces. From arts to history, wellbeing to wildlife, she’s on a quest to learn more about the nation’s forests and the people who spend time in them.
The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust have just published their 2024 “Wild Events Guide” that runs from April through to September this year.
Brimming and buzzing with exciting places to explore across Yorkshire and stunning wildlife to discover with the YWT team. Find glimmering glow worms in Leeds, enjoy the soothing sounds of the dawn chorus in Doncaster or meet Flamborough’s colourful puffins.
