Invitation for wildlife champions in Lawford
The RSPB, Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley and Suffolk Wildlife Trust are excited to invite your parish to join us in our campaign to encourage communities to take action to support wildlife.
Would you like to become a Wildlife Friendly Village? You’ll attend a garden tour of RSPB Flatford Wildlife Garden and receive support and advice to reach your biodiversity targets.
Our plan is to engage with communities in the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley and the surrounding area to increase biodiversity in their gardens and community open spaces. Our project will help to equip communities with the skills and resources they need to help improve and increase nature.
RSPB Flatford Wildlife Garden is an excellent example of how this can be achieved. The garden supports a massive range of wildlife via plants and habitats, that can be very simple to replicate. Some funding is available from the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley to help support parishes and their communities in this project on a first come basis.
During your tour of Flatford Wildlife Garden you’ll receive a wildlife gardening talk packed with inspiration and ideas for your own community. Members of staff from all three organisations will be available to talk through options and answer any questions. Plus, there will be tea and biscuits.
There will also be the opportunity to attend training sessions at the garden, at a SWT venue or online, for individuals who are interested to support local action and learn new skills. This may focus on woodland creation or hedgerow planting, which have been highlighted to increase biodiversity. Or generally how to manage community public spaces for wildlife, which could be village greens, allotments, churchyards or recreation grounds. Staff from the Dedham Vale AONB and Suffolk Wildlife Trust are happy to offer site visits and give advice to parishes on conserving and enhancing the land that parishes own.
We recognise the importance of people working together and feeling involved and connected to their community. The project will not only benefit wildlife, but people too.
In the first instance, it would be great to invite you to Flatford Wildlife Garden on the 13 July at 6.30pm to show you around and tell you a bit more about what we plan to do. If there are already wildlife champions in your village, they would be welcome to attend the event as well. We anticipate the tour and talk will finish by 8pm.
If you would like to attend this event please RSVP by emailing Amy.Ward [at] rspb.org.uk by 30th June 2022.