Emily aims to send pupils wild

Local-charity Devon Wildlife Trust’s latest appointment Emily Bacon has an unusual job: to make Exeter’s school children go wild!

Emily, a 24 year old graduate who studied zoology at the University of Exeter, will work with schools throughout the city for the next 12 months inspiring children with a love of wildlife and the outdoors. Her work as an Education Assistant with Devon Wildlife Trust is being supported by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.

One of the Emily’s first tasks will be to establish a network of Forest Schools which will offer outdoor learning to primary and secondary school students across the city.

Emily said:

“My targets are ambitious – I plan to work with 6,500 young people in Exeter during the next year. But the opportunity to engage with so many young people which is so exciting. To be able to get students out of the classroom, taking their learning outside and immersing them in nature is a wonderful privilege.

The young people who take part will develop a variety of new skills. They’ll learn how to build wild shelters and learn how to light a cooking fire. They will also gain nature detective skills, play outdoor team games and use nature to spark their creativity. These are all things that should be part of a young person’s life.”

Emily’s plans will take her beyond schools to work with local brownies, cubs and holiday clubs. In her work she’ll be using a special ‘cargo bike’ to carry all her equipment. Emily said:

“The bike is like an old-fashioned butcher’s bike with a cargo container on the front in which I’ll store my outdoor learning equipment. It should become a distinctive sight across the city as I pedal around with livery which tells people about the project, Devon Wildlife Trust and the support of players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Look out for me as I’ll be coming to a school near you soon!”

The project was the idea of Devon Wildlife Trust’s Education Lead, Paul Martin. Paul has been working for the charity for 6 years bringing the natural world into lives of school children throughout Devon. Paul said:

“There’s a growing amount of evidence which shows that being outdoors has benefits for young people, including improvements to their health, and their social and emotional well-being. Forest School activities are especially good at encouraging individuals to build self-esteem, confidence, and resilience. Simply getting children outside in their wellies encourages a natural curiosity enabling them to experience nature first hand. Having Emily and this project will now allow us to extend these benefits to so many more youngsters.”

Clara Govier, Head of Charities from People’s Postcode Lottery said:

“Our players are raising amazing amounts of money for charities such as Devon Wildlife Trust. The charity’s good work helping young people gain better access and understanding of local wildlife and wild places is just the kind of project our players love to support.”

One of Emily’s first outings will be at Devon Wildlife Trust’s half term event in Exeter’s Mincinglake Park on Thursday 1st June. The free event called ’30 Days Wild’ begins at 10am and runs until 3pm. Emily will be joined by a team of other wildlife people offering crafts, trails and fun activities aimed at families who want to go wild.

The project runs until the end of March 2018. To find out more visit www.devonwildifetrust.org or email Emily Bacon at ebacon@devonwildlifetrust.org

Emily Bacon, new Education Assistant for Devon Wildlife Trust

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Charity encourages families to go wild during June

A wildlife charity is urging local people to go wild during the month of June.

The Wildlife Trusts are asking people to make the most of the natural world around them by taking part in ‘random acts of wildness’ each day during the month.

The campaign, called 30 Days Wild, is now in its third year and already has more than 35,000 people signed up and committed to taking part across the UK. More than 1,500 from Devon are among the nature-lovers ready to go wild.

Devon Wildlife Trust has announced that it is launching this year’s 30 Days Wild with a special half-term holiday event taking place in Exeter’s Mincinglake Valley Park, between 10am and 3pm on Thursday 1 June.

The 30 Days Wild event organiser is Anya Oliver. She said:

“We’re kicking off this year’s 30 Days Wild with a free event in one of Exeter’s best known Valley Parks: Mincinglake. The event is open to all and we’ll be offering pond dipping, wild crafts, games, nature discovery trails, plus ideas to bring wildlife into people’s gardens. We’ll also be challenging those that come along to do 10 wild things with us in just one day!

To each of the first 100 people to arrive at the event and who sign up to 30 Days Wild we’ll be giving them a free pack containing a wallchart on which they can record their wild month, stickers and much more.”

Exeter’s Mincinglake event is taking place at the Stoke Hill entrance to the Valley Park, close to its car park and Sylvania Hall. The event is being supported by Exeter City Council, South West Water and players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.

30 Days Wild will then continue for the whole of June. Each day participants are being asked to take part in a random act of wildness at home, in their schools and at their workplaces. The fun and quirky ideas are designed to get us all to connect with nature. This year’s random acts include star gazing, building a home for bugs in the garden, taking a lunch break out of doors, enjoying mindfulness in a park or wildflower meadow, listening to birdsong and attempting to learn to spot a new butterfly.

People can sign up to take part in 30 Days Wild by clicking on a special link at www.devonwildlifetrust.org

Devon Wildlife Trust’s Steve Hussey said:

“We want people throughout Devon to use 30 Days Wild as an inspiration for getting to know their local wildlife better. They can spend a few minutes, or a few hours each day enjoying nature - how they do it is up to them. The important thing is to use our ideas for random acts of wildness as a starting point.

In my own case, I plan to stop on my regular commute by bike to work to check on the progress of one pair of swans and their cygnets on the River Exe. Rather than keeping my head down and getting to work as soon as I can, each day during June I’ll be taking a few minutes out to pause, look for this swan family and take in the wonderful wildlife that we have here in Devon.”

The Wildlife Trusts believe that there is a real benefit to our health and welfare from pausing to put a little bit of wildness back into our lives. A study of people taking part in last year’s 30 Days Wild campaign undertaken by researchers from University of Derby showed that a daily dose of nature, even in bite size chunks, is good for you. Their study* found that people who did something ‘wild’ each day for a month, felt happier, healthier and more connected to nature. Dr Miles Richardson, Director of Psychology led the study, said:

“The impact of 30 Days Wild adds to the compelling argument for bringing nature into our everyday lives. Two months after taking part in 30 Days Wild, there was a 30 per cent increase in the number of people who reported their health as excellent. Last year’s results also show people’s happiness continued to improve after 30 Days Wild ended, which illustrates its sustained impact. This is important as it is happiness and connecting with nature that influence improvements in health. Our study also shows that those who benefitted most were younger adults and those who weren’t ‘nature lovers’.” 

 

Fun for all the family #30DaysWild

About 30 Days Wild: Development and Evaluation of a Large-Scale Nature Engagement Campaign to Improve Well-Being. February 18 th 2016 PLoS One. Kelly Tyler, Public Relations Officer, University of Derby on 01332 591891 / 07876 476103 or k.tyler@derby.ac.uk

30 Days Wild 2017 is the third year The Wildlife Trusts will run this national campaign to encourage people to love nature and deepen their relationship with wildlife. Who takes part? In 2016 nearly 30,000 people and organisations signed up to take part including over 2,000 schools. Between them, they carried out over 1.8 million Random Acts of Wildness, exploring, learning about, and acting for wildlife near them. You don’t have to be a member of a Wildlife Trust to take part

Wildlife Charities Ride into Election Debate

Devon Wildlife Trust and RSPB are today calling on voters to ask their prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) about how they plan to restore nature in the West Country.

In an unusual move the two leading nature charities will be riding into Plymouth on a special campaign bicycle carrying a billboard with a ‘unique and wild’ election message.

Nick Bruce White, RSPB Regional Director, said:

“We know that nature is close to the heart of people here in the West Country, with both our organisations having tens of thousands of supporters locally. We urge people to talk to election candidates of all parties about nature, how important it is to them and how if elected they will make sure it protected and restored.”

Harry Barton, Devon Wildlife Trust Chief Executive said:

“Wildlife and wild places are critical to the health, welfare and prosperity of people in the South West. The debate around the future of wildlife cannot be allowed to go missing from this crucial general election. Today we are asking that people don’t let their candidates forget nature.”

The campaign’s novel use of a bike-powered billboard stemmed from a passion for cycling shared by both charities’ chief officers. Harry Barton said:

“We wanted a way to reach people, and pedal power fits perfectly with the ethos of each of our organisations.”

Devon Wildlife Trust and RSPB are asking voters to raise four key specific issues with their PPCs…

1. What will your party do to ensure our wildlife laws remain strong and that steps are taken to restore the damage we have done to nature?
2. What will your party do to ensure that wildlife thrives in our seas once more?
3. What will your party do to ensure we have new farming policies in each part of the UK to provide for nature’s recovery?
4. What will your party do to make sure we move to a low carbon economy?

The bike’s campaign billboard leads with the slogan ‘The real losers in the polls’, before asking voters to ‘Let your election candidates know how much nature means to you’. The billboard also states that 56% of the UK’s wildlife is in decline, a figure that headlined the recent State of Nature report which was published in 2016.

RSPB and Devon Wildlife Trust are asking people to find out more about why this general election is so crucial to the future of the region’s wildlife by visiting a special election webpage www.GE2017wild.org and joining the debate on social media using the hashtag #GreenerSW.