Exciting New Partnership for Wildlife in the Dedham Vale and Stour Valley
Suffolk and Essex Wildlife Trust, RSPB Flatford Wildlife Garden, and the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and Stour Valley have joined together to create an exciting partnership project called Wilder Together in the Stour Valley.
The partnership has been established to support parish and town councils so they can work with their communities to create wildlife-friendly villages and towns in the Dedham Vale and Stour Valley.
Working together in partnership for wildlife will create more space for nature. A network of wild areas will be restored, reconnected, and maintained by residents, on both public and private land including gardens, which will not only benefit wildlife but people too.
The Wilder Together project will establish a network of Wilder Together villages and towns throughout the Stour Valley in Essex and Suffolk to make the area wilder and more welcoming to nature.
Not only will this benefit wildlife and the natural environment, but local communities will also be empowered to take action to support wildlife, creating a wilder Stour Valley which will give people a gateway to the natural world on their doorstep.
Click on this link for more information
As part of the project, the partnership of organisations will run tours for local councillors, work with parish and town councils to encourage wildlife projects, host wildlife webinars and training days for volunteers and parishes and provide free expert habitat and conservation advice.
On Wednesday
April 5th, 6:30 - 7:30pm there will be a webinar called
Connecting to your community for
wildlife. This webinar aims to support parish and town councils to connect to their community for wildlife action. The partners will be discussing barriers to wildlife action, how to create a mission statement, the types of community groups you can form and how to reach your community through communications.
Click on this link to register your place to attend 5th April
On 10th May 6-8pm there will be an event planning session at RSPB Flatford Wildlife Garden where everything that you need to consider when running an event or practical task will be discussed. E.g., promotion, public liability insurance, activity management, health and safety, evaluation. Please click on this link to email Emma Black if you are interested in attending this event or want any further information on Wilder together in the Stour Valley.
Photo below is of a community wildlife group in East Bergholt taking steps to do something for nature. On their Hedgehog Friendly Village project walk and talk the group were talking about wildlife gardening and making holes in fences to create a hedgehog highway.
