The Nature in Your Neighbourhood project moved into its second year in April; Moorlands Climate Action volunteers got their hands dirty and started sampling on site – and they loved it! After a year of preparation and publicising the project, there was a real feel of beginning to do what our members love best – improving nature in their neighbourhood. For a very few volunteers it meant brushing up on old skills. “I haven’t handled a quadrat for years and it was nice to get back to something I really enjoyed doing,” said one. “Particularly as I was doing it on land I pass often, just round the corner from my house!”
But for most, learning how to survey and record was brand new. “I’m an amateur gardener but I love this, it’s really different,” was the verdict of another volunteer. “It’s amazing what you see when you have to get up real close and make sure you don’t miss anything.” Those who participated in more than one survey found the ability to compare conditions particularly instructive, for example soil quality and water retention.
One common theme was that learning together was actually fun – people could laugh at small mistakes in site drawings or identifying the wrong plant. This sense of team effort was amplified by the reaction of passers-by and, for the urban sites such as the Haregate estate, immediate neighbours. Dog walkers stopped to chat about what we were doing and residents even started talking about what they were doing in their own gardens and asking for advice! In the urban examples it was heartening to attract a small number of volunteers from outside the group (and outside the normal demographic). In one case a young girl was brought to look at the survey by a local friend of an MCA member and ended up staying the afternoon to take a full part in it.
An ex-council estate is perhaps not the easiest territory to attract volunteers to anything that is seen as coming from ‘outside’ (and initial engagement events struggled) but once we moved onto the ground it became clear that love for nature was as strong here as anywhere. Perhaps the best most satisfying moment was to hear (from a Haregate resident): “It’s brilliant you’re doing it here.”
Last year we reported the launch of this project, spearheaded by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and supported by Keele University, SMDC, Outside Arts and ourselves among others. Work has now started on the selected sites for the project and we are currently doing the baseline surveys that are needed to record progress over the coming years. Most of this is done by volunteers from MCA, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and members of local community groups who are supporting their ‘patch’.
The surveys involve identifying different plant and animal species, recording their locations and taking soil and water samples where appropriate. Project staff have been running training workshops but it’s not too late to get involved - via
Baseline surveys done so far include sites in Cheadle, Tean, as well as Haregate and Woodcroft in Leek. Swifts of Leek are supporting a second site in Haregate, known for its vibrant swift population, but they will be doing the full vegetation and soil survey as well next week, with guidance from the Project’s PhD researcher, Alana Wheat. They're fun to do and usually there's plenty of opportunity to engage with passing members of the public who are intrigued to know what we're up to. What better way to engage with nature in a constructive way!
We launched the Nature in Your Neighbourhood project at our HuG Festival this June and immediately attracted interest from across the Moorlands. We were always keen to give people as many visual keys as possible – to bring the project to life. We’re glad to say that Foxlowe visitors flocked to the project map, which was on a stall ably staffed by Angie Turner of Keele University and Briony Davison of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust (plus Briony’s dog Finn!) Since then, we have taken the map around the Moorlands, including recently to the Leek and District Agricultural Show.
Nature in Your Neighbourhood, spearheaded by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, has MCA, Keele University, OUTSIDE Arts, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and Staffordshire Council Voluntary Youth Services as partners. Its key aims are to enhance biodiversity in the Moorlands as well as calculate and demonstrate its impact on climate change.
For this five-year project, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, we start by asking residents to nominate potential sites this year. The partnership will then help communities or a group to manage the sites better. Support will include Bioblitzes, training in ecological monitoring and management and, where necessary, any negotiations with landowners.
The Nature Group held a lively meeting this February, at which the full range of its activities and the depth of members’ experience were on show. Among the many subjects discussed were the management of community orchards, the upcoming Willow Tit/Save Danes Moss event at Macclesfield and the imminent launch of the Nature in Your Neighbourhood project.
Kate Hampton, the new Biodiversity Officer for Staffordshire Moorlands and the High Peak, came to the meeting to introduce herself and talk about her work so far. This included the Plan for Nature, launched last year. A wide-ranging discussion on the Plan followed, including questions on targets, how the Plan might affect planning decisions, and the need to engage with the farming community.
Kate was clear about how much flesh there is still to be put on the bones of the Plan, particularly in light of how recently much of the legislation and guidance under the Environment Act 2021 has emerged.
She said her immediate priorities included fashioning this into a Biodiversity Strategy for the council, including the land the council itself owned, and issuing a Declaration for Nature along the lines drafted by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust (SWT).
Read more: Nature in Your Neighbourhood - Our New Biodiversity Officer