.jpg "Events at Noodlehill - Credit Bill Hipkiss")
Events at Noodlehill - Credit Bill Hipkiss
Access to Nature project aims to increase the amount of active community engagement with local wild spaces in North Hull and to improve the local biodiversity.
The Access to Nature scheme is a nationwide scheme that is funded by the Big Lottery Fund and Natural England and is adopted by various organisations such as The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB, and The National Trust. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust created a successful bid for a project within the scheme, and Access to Nature began in June 2010.
The Access to Nature project is actively running in Kingston upon Hull and focuses on the North Hull region. Events, activities and practical days all take place within three sites:
- Fordyke Green, Bransholme
- Noddle Hill Nature Reserve, Bransholme
- Loglands, Longhill
These sites create a ‘green arc’ across the north of the city. Improvement of these sites will contribute to the local Biodiversity Action Plan through biodiversity enhancement. Promoting the sites through events will increase access, encourage local communities to enjoy the outdoors and aid social improvement.
Project staff are working closely with Hull City Council, local schools, community partners and various other organisations in order to arrange events. Events to date have included family ecology days, butterfly/dragonfly spotting, birds for beginners, bat and moth walks, wildflower walks, pond dipping and food for free days. These events enable the staff to meet local residents and actively encourage local communities to get involved with accessing the nature on their doorstep, respect their local wildlife and hopefully revisit the sites more regularly. As a result of this project staff aim of to set up ‘Friends of’ groups for each site. This will enable interested local residents to take charge of each site’s management, learn even more about their environment and gain new skills in land management and ecology.
Working alongside Hull City Council and the Hull Biodiversi
ty Partnership project staff also aim to increase access to all the sites by creating direct footpaths which link all of the sites together. This will also fit into the Wildlife Trust’s Living Landscapes whereby the footpath access route will create a ‘green corridor’ suitable for the movement of local wildlife between all three sites. Work is also underway to make Noddle Hill Hull’s first official nature reserve.
As part of the project there is a volunteer programme. This programme will encourage active participation from all groups and ages through trainee voluntary placements and practical conservation volunteer days. Volunteers involved within this project will be provided with species identification and biological surveying techniques so they can help collect biological data on all three sites.
Access to Nature will create:
- A greater diversity and number of people having improved opportunities to experience the natural environment
- More people having opportunities for learning about the natural environment and gaining new skills
- More people able to enjoy the natural environment through investment in access to natural places and networks between sites
- Richer, more sustainably managed, natural places meeting the needs of communities
- An increase in communities' sense of ownership of local natural places, by establishing strong partnerships between communities, voluntary organisations, local authorities and others
Contact
For more information contact Fiona Weir, the Access to Nature Project Officer by email or by calling 01482 441013.
