Bryony Slaymaker, Wilder Communities Manager for Somerset Wildlife Trust has some great ideas for community-led volunteering, from making space for wildlife in your own garden to inspiring others to connect with an look after our local wildlife. See how you can take up the challenge
Wilder Gardening
With an estimated 124,500 gardens in Somerset, covering 19 square kilometres of the county, these spaces have huge potential for nature. If we all gave a little bit more space for wildlife within our gardens, just imagine how much habitat we would create overall for nature! Gardens can also help us buffer the impacts of surface flooding, pollution run off, create cooler climates around our homes and are fantastic for our health and well being.
We're on a mission to help everyone in Somerset who looks after a garden to give more space to wildlife. Why not take our quiz and find out how wildlife friendly your garden is? If it’s already fabulous then we’ll send you a plaque to display! Or if you need a helping hand, our Wildlife Gardening Champions can help with advice on how to improve your space. Find out more: https://www.somersetwildlife.org/garden
Wilder Event Champions – volunteers needed!
Could you help people to connect with nature in your local area?
Somerset Wildlife Trust are building a team to help deliver events across Somerset. Whether you’re short on time or have lots to spare this is a fantastic, flexible opportunity for anyone who wants to share their love of the natural world and help others to connect with nature.
We know that for large scale societal change to take place, we need at least 1 in 4 people acting in support of nature. To raise awareness and encourage more individuals to get involved, we will need to reach thousands of people every year, across Somerset, including through a series of engaging events.
This could include guided walks around reserves, species ID and recording events, creative sessions, beach cleans or building homes for nature.
Volunteers will meet as a team twice a year to plan a countywide program of events together. Local volunteers will then lead on organising events in their area which could include; contacting speakers or guided walk leaders, local publicity i.e. putting up posters (template available) and being an ambassador for our work. You don't necessarily need to have any specialist knowledge! We’re looking for organisers, tea-makers, poster designers, box builders and everything in between.
Wilder Matters
Why not consider joining us for one of our online events too?
Wilder Matters is a series of online events getting to the heart of the biggest environmental topics of the day and their relevance to Somerset.
Join us online Wed 5 April 7pm - 8:30pm for Precious Peatlands
Find out more about our precious peatlands and how you can help protect them.
- What’s the issue with peat?
- What does it mean for Somerset?
- What can we do about it?
Our UK peatlands store an amazing 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon and provide us vital services by alleviating flooding and filtering our drinking water. In a heathy state our peatlands are amazingly wild places, home to rare and unusual plants, birds and insects.
But our peatlands are in serious trouble, with over 80% of the UKs peatlands already lost or damaged. If just 5% more of our peatlands were to go, the amount of carbon lost would equate to the total annual UK man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s time to act.
