For 60 years Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has worked to protect and enhance some of the most important places for nature in the county, from ancient woodlands to wonderful wildflower meadows — Writes Erin McDaid of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.
Our charity is passionate about creating a healthy natural world which benefits everyone, but in the face of a combined nature and climate crisis we recognise that we can’t achieve our aspirations in isolation.
In setting out our vision for a Wilder Nottinghamshire by 2030, we highlighted the need to be part of a people powered movement for nature, seeking to involve and inspire more people than ever before to act locally for nature’s recovery.
In November, we set up the Wilder Nottinghamshire Network — a community for everyone involved in nature’s recovery across the county to celebrate action, encourage collaboration and inspire others to act.
In just six months, the fledgling network has grown to nearly 60 groups.
There is so much amazing work being done by volunteers, communities, landowners and businesses across the county, including network members Winthorpe Road Community Garden, Wild Things Keyworth, Friends of Bingahm Linear Park, Bulwell Forest Garden and the Lost Garden of Everton.
Much of the inspiration to establish the network came from our experience working with amazing community groups across the county, such as Wild.NG based in the Carrington and Sherwood areas of Nottingham.
Wild.NG is building a wilder revolution, ridding streets of worrisome weedkillers, ensuring hedgehogs have places to call home and that swifts can return to city streets to breed.
Their ‘Swift Street’ project has seen the installation of 60 swift nest boxes to ensure swifts scoping local streets after long migration journeys from Africa have somewhere to nest.
Through passion and persuasion, the group have created six Swift Streets, each providing inspiration for yet more residents to get involved.
Last spring, the project reached a new high with an uplifting swift ‘homecoming’ parade involving hundreds of local school children marching along their nearest Swift Street chanting ‘Save our Swifts’.
The march featured on Channel 4 News to highlight a Private Members Bill aiming to get ‘swift bricks’ incorporated into new build properties.
Last month I was present for the 2024 homecoming parade when hundreds of pupils from Hayden Primary School marched with placards and and a chorus of similar chants.
Seeing local children inspired to take to the streets due to the plight of swifts was uplifting; but a stark reminder of the responsibility we have to reverse the destruction of the natural world young people will rely on for health and happiness throughout their lives.
Seeing the passion of the children on the local march calling for action for swifts is one of the reasons I will be joining the Restore Nature Now march in London on Saturday June 22.
I hope many of you will also take the opportunity to speak up for wildlife on the march and find other ways to tell prospective MPs on your patch just how important action for nature and climate are to you.
For details of how to join the march, join the Wilder Nottinghamshire Network or nominate someone for a Wilder Nottinghamshire Award visit nottinghamshirewildlife.org
