We are very pleased to announce that the Nurturing Nature project won Conservation Project of the Year Award at Wiltshire Life Awards Ceremony on Friday 8th March 2024.
Nurturing Nature is Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership Scheme project, supported with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project is being delivered by the Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre (WSBRC).
Team members from WSBRC and the Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership Scheme have supported hundred of volunteers to take part in the project so far, which continues over the next 6 months.
Since the start of the project, over 200 volunteers have been trained in wildlife survey during about 79 different sessions.
Experts in their fields have trained people via online courses, in-the-field sessions, and in-person talks.
Training has focused on a staggering range of topics, from beginner courses in Bird and Bee Id to moth trapping, dormouse surveys, ferns, fungi, and mammal skull identification… to name a very few.
Volunteers are supported to then take their new knowledge out in to the field to conduct real surveys in their chosen subject area. The data is recorded through a phone app called iNaturalist, where sighting data is stored and shared with scientific data repositories.
So far, 29 different sites across Cranborne Chase have been surveyed by volunteers, with landowner permission. Surveys for the following species have been completed:
• Hedgerow Survey
• Pollinators
• Wildflowers and Grasses
• Butterflies
• Reptiles
• Aquatic Mammals
• Bees
• Birds
• Mammals
Practical conservation and habitat maintenance has taken place at a variety of key sites as a direct result of survey data collected by volunteers on the Nurturing Nature project.
This work has been undertaken by Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership Practical Conservation Volunteers.
Activities such as scrub clearance, wildflower planting, berry harvesting & seed spreading, all undertaken to boost biodiversity in specific areas.
The project is continuing through 2024, with more training sessions and survey dates. Congratulations to everyone who has worked to make the Nurturing Nature project a success so far!
If you are interested in joining the project, why not register on the Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership’s volunteer hub and join the team!
Please follow this link to register / log in.