Category: News and events

For information on this Yorkshire Wildlife Trust event please visit: https://www.ywt.org.uk/events/2023-10-15-autumn-teamwilder-empowerment-day

What is a #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…

• Discover how communities across Yorkshire are coming together to take meaningful, positive action for nature near you.
• Learn new skills to make changes and put things into practice with presentations and practical workshops to build knowledge and confidence to take the action nature needs.
• Connect with like-minded people and have some fun together!

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:

1. Fill your space with plants (and if you can choose ones that are known to be wildlife-friendly, all the better) 
2. Add water 
3. Cherish dead plant matter – seedheads, sticks, logs, leaves, compost 
4. Offer supplementary food 
5. Offer supplementary nesting sites 
6. Don’t use pesticides 

This autumn, help Plantlife find the UK’s most colourful and important fungi – waxcaps.

The UK is home to some of the most important waxcap grasslands in the world. However many species are becoming rare and declining; they need identifying and protecting.

Waxcaps are an indicator of rare, species-rich grassland. Knowing where waxcaps and other grassland fungi are thriving helps us pinpoint where fragments of ancient meadows survive, so they can be protected for the future.

Not just important for the hundreds of wildflowers they can be home to, these ancient grasslands are also crucial in the fight against climate change. Species-rich grassland can store up to a third more carbon than areas with just a few species. You can help the Plantlife effort to record waxcaps here.

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.

Did you know there is a Beverley Eco Fair in September? More details can be found here: Eco Fair 23

Save the date! : Saturday 30 September 10.00 – 16.00

Come and meet members of the Molescroft Wildlife Network at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust stand at the fair. The is a fair organised by Beverley Minster Ecochurch Group, who are all volunteers, with support from Churches Together in Beverley and East Riding of Yorkshire Council. This event is being funded by East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s ‘Do It For East Yorkshire Community‘ Grant. A further grant has been received from Dogger Bank Wind Farm and sponsorship from The Little Coach House.