Gardening on the wild side. Free online talk on helping wildlife in your 'garden jungle' organised by Moor Meadows 14th January

Renowned wildlife author and bee scientist Dave Goulson is giving a free online talk to illustrate how a few changes to your garden can help reverse wildlife declines.

The talk, on Thursday 14th January at 7:30pm, is inspired by Professor Goulson's book The Garden Jungle, or Gardening to Save the Planet.

This event has been organised by Dartmoor-based Moor Meadows, a community wildflower and wildlife conservation group. Open to everyone, the event is free but you must CLICK HERE TO REGISTER PLACES

From beautiful butterflies and dazzling dragonflies to the bumblebees, wasps and hoverflies that pollinate our crops, insects make up over half the species on Earth - yet across the globe they are suffering a catastrophic decline.

In the UK, Professor Goulson suggests insect numbers have more than halved in the last 50 years.

But all is not lost. Event organizer and Moor Meadows co-founder Donna Cox of Buckfastleigh said: "Fortunately, there is something we can do to start reversing the trend. Insect populations can recover. With just a few small changes, our gardens and meadows could become a vast network of nature reserves, where humans and wildlife can thrive together."

The free talk on The Garden Jungle will include a Question and Answer session to highlight the simple ways every gardener can help endangered bees, butterflies and other insects.

Professor Goulson said: "The simplest thing you can do to make your garden more wildlife friendly is stop using pesticides. I also urge gardeners to try to be more relaxed and less tidy-minded; mow the lawn less, don't dead-head flowers at the end of summer, leave a log pile or a pile of brash for wildlife to overwinter in. In wildlife gardening, less is often more."

Members of the Moor Meadows community group are already managing more than 1,000 acres of wildflower-rich meadows to benefit insects and other wildlife. Many of these 'meadows' are in village front gardens and one is even on the roof of a shed in Chagford, so a small space dedicated to wildlife can make a huge difference.

Professor Goulson added: "If wildlife is to thrive, we need to create and restore a network of biodiverse habitats across the country, and gardens can play an important role in helping to link up and provide stepping stones between rich habitats such as wildflower meadows."

Places on the free online talk by Professor Dave Goulson can be registered at HERE

 

 

Dave Goulson at Moor Meadows 2017 conference - Photo credit Chris Chapman

Meadow on shed roof in Chagford. Photo credit Nicky Scott

Buff-tailed Bumblebee. Photo credit Andrew Taylor

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'Gardening on the wild side' - Open to everyone, the event is free 

 TAP HERE TO REGISTER NOW

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ABOUT

 

Moor Meadows Dartmoor 

Moor Meadows Dartmoor is a community group established in 2015, whose aim is to help each other in conserving, restoring and creating wildflower meadows, on any scale, in the landscape of Dartmoor. Moor Meadows Dartmoor have set up the online Meadow Makers' Forum to help with the formation of new groups across Devon.

 
More Meadows 

More Meadows is an umbrella name for the network of new meadows groups being established in different parts of Devon, all sharing information via the new Meadow Makers' Forum. Establishment of the Forum has been made possible by a grant from the Devon Environment Foundation.
 

Professor Dave Goulson 

Dave Goulson is a Professor of Biology at University of Sussex, who specialises in bumblebees. After completing a PhD on butterfly ecology he became a lecturer at University of Southampton, where he began to specialise in bumblebee ecology and conservation. In 2006 he founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a charity devoted to reversing bumblebee declines. A Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, he has published over 200 scientific articles on the ecology of bees and other insects and is the author of Bumblebees: their behaviour, ecology and conservation. His popular science books on bumblebees and other insects, and how conservation measures can help them, include A Sting in the Tale, A Buzz in the Meadow and The Garden in the Jungle.

SING OUT FOR NATURE. Devon Wildlife Trust's twelve special species on twelve days of Christmas fundraising campaign.

Twelve dormice hibernating, eleven willow tits foraging, ten string-of-sausages lichens hanging… the traditional carol has been given a Devon wildlife twist this Christmas.

Nature conservation charity Devon Wildlife Trust is focusing on twelve special species that find a home on DWT nature reserves across Devon in a festive fundraising campaign.

Consisting of six insect species, two wildflowers, a tree, a lichen, a mammal and a bird, this ‘Devon dozen’ forms part of a wider list of species of conservation concern.

The Devon Special Species list was first created in 2017, identifying the wildlife that needed more focused species recovery work in the county.

From this list 96 species demanded particular attention because their remaining footholds in Devon were of national – even international - importance.

Earlier this year, an update on these species showed they still desperately need conservation help: they need the best habitat management on wildlife-friendly land where they are currently found. This will give some individuals the chance to move and re-colonize former sites to give each species a more secure future in Devon.

Many of these Devon special species find a home on DWT’s 58 nature reserves.

With the best habitat management in place, DWT nature reserves are where dormice can find plenty of food, where willow tits can use damp scrub to excavate their nest holes, where rare butterflies can find the right habitats to complete all the stages of their life cycle and where trees and wildflowers now found hardly anywhere outside Devon can continue to thrive.

DWT’s Director of Conservation Pete Burgess said: “Some of our rarest and most threatened wildlife relies on the landscapes - and people - of Devon. DWT has an ambitious plan to double the amount of wildlife-rich land in Devon in coming years. But nature reserves will remain the wildlife reservoirs needed to restore life to the wider landscape. Nature reserves are where good habitat management can help species to recover and find their way to new places. And Devon Wildlife Trust nature reserves are where anyone can help Devon’s special species with a donation to this fundraising appeal.”

The twelve Devon Special Species highlighted in Devon Wildlife Trust’s festive fundraising campaign include:

1. the hazel dormouse, already lost from so many other parts of England
2. the brown hairstreak butterfly – this species overwinters as an egg laid on blackthorn stems so populations of this butterfly can be devastated by severe cutting of Devon hedges in autumn and winter.
3. the southern damselfly, a vivid blue-coloured insect lost from several heathland sites that DWT successfully re-introduced to an East Devon nature reserve
4. the Devon whitebeam, a tree that is so special to Devon it takes its name from the county
5. the sand crocus, a shy spring flower located on the golfing greens at Dawlish Warren and only found in one other place in the whole of England
6. the heath potter wasp, the six-legged artisan whose habit of constructing clay pots makes it the Grayson Perry of the insect world
   

DWT Engagement Officer Dan Smith said: “The limitations placed on our movements during this difficult year inspired many people to explore nature close to home and notice more of the creatures who share the Devon landscape with us. Some of those rare and threatened species are very special to Devon. Their future depends on the action we take now. That’s why DWT has launched a fundraising campaign to help the Trust manage the habitats on 58 nature reserves across Devon so they are in perfect condition for these species to thrive.”

Entry to Devon Wildlife Trust nature reserves has not been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Most Devon residents will be within a short cycle ride or car journey from a DWT nature reserve. More information on these 58 places for wildlife and people – and details on how to support the Devon Special Species appeal - can be found at www.devonwildlifetrust.org

Dormouse at DWT Teigngrace Meadow nature reserve. Photo copyright Andrew Taylor (All Rights Reserved)

 

 Warren Crocus at DWT Dawlish Inner Warren Nature Reserve. Photo copyright Vicki Gardner (All Rights Reserved)

Pearl Bordered Fritillary butterfly. Photo copyright Chris Root (All Rights Reserved)

 

Full list of twelve Devon Special Species and where they can be found in Devon on DWT nature reserves – a ‘pen portrait’ of each species can be found on each PDF file at the foot of https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/devon-special-species

1. Heath potter wasp – DWT Bovey Heathfield, (near Bovey Tracey)
2. Southern damselfly – DWT Venn Ottery, (in Otter Valley)
3. Willow tit – DWT’s Culm grassland nature reserves, northwest Devon
4. Brown hairstreak butterfly – 3 DWT-managed Exeter Valley Parks
5. Sand crocus – DWT Dawlish Inner Warren
6. Bog hoverfly – DWT Emsworthy Mire, (near Haytor)
7. Heath lobelia – DWT Andrew’s Wood, (in Avon Valley)
8. Devon whitebeam – DWT’s Culm grassland sites, north-west Devon
9. Dormouse – DWT nature reserves across Devon including Lady’s Wood (near South Brent) and Meeth Quarry (near Hatherleigh)
10. String of sausages lichen – DWT’s Dartmoor oak woodland reserves such as Dart Valley and Blackadon
11. & 12. Pearl bordered fritillary & small pearl bordered fritillary butterflies – DWT Marsland nature reserve, on the Atlantic coast where Devon meets Cornwall

About Devon Wildlife Trust: Devon Wildlife Trust is the county’s leading environmental charity, with 35,000 members. The charity manages 52 nature reserves and six Valley Parks across Devon, including a range of beautiful landscapes such as woodlands, meadows, wetlands and heaths. Devon Wildlife Trust relies on charitable donations, grants and the generous support of its members and the general public to raise more than £4million every year. Money raised is spent maintaining our work for wildlife conservation and education in Devon, for present and future generations. More at www.devonwildlifetrust.org

SEASON'S GREETINGS

Merry Christmas and a Happier New Year to everyone. Thank you all for your support, comments, likes and follows over the past year. Roll on 2021 it can only get better. Cheers Pat 

Thank you to the NHS, keyworkers and all those who have kept on working and keeping us safe in the towns, on the coast and in the countryside through this pandemic.

Bideford: Little White Sparkly Town December 2020. Photo credit B. Adams.

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Pat Adams North Devon Focus 

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