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1. Snow Leopard Trust says thank you

   Posted on 10:00pm Tuesday 1st May 2018

   The Snow Leopard Trust works to protect this endangered cat through community-based conservation projects. The Snow Leopard Trust have dedicated 1 May 2018 as a Spot-tacular!   It’s an online day to thanking its supporters and recognising them as an integral part of their team. To celebrate, they are sharing their annual Impact Report.  The support the Trust’s supporters have provided have meant that….. 400 women earned vital income in 2017 through the Snow Leopard Enterprises conservation handicrafts programme 100 families followed sustainable livestock herding practices.  This is a part of a new Snow Leopard Friendly Cashmere programme 11,600 livestock were insured through the community run Livestock Insurance Programmes.  This gives herders compensation for livestock losses There’s more information here but it’s great to hear from a charity of the impact support has.  Visit the Snow Leopard Trust’s website to see how you can make a difference to these magnificent animals here. Spring into Action The Snow Leopard Trust  is currently working to raise $60,000 to expand their programmes and they are running appeals for a couple of projects: One to support wildlife rangers - Help equip and pay two rangers who patrol the Shamshy Wildlife Sanctuary in Kyrgyzstan to prevent illegal hunting and monitor wildlife populations Counting the cats – they are looking to come up with a solid estimate of the snow leopard population in Himachal Pradesh, one of five Indian states which have snow leopards Adopt a Snow Leopard

    

2. National Gardening Week - I love my garden!

   Posted on 8:00am Tuesday 1st May 2018

   It’s National Gardening Week this week (April 30th to May 6th 2018). This year, the theme of this annual event is to encourage gardeners to share their love of gardening, so I thought I’d share with you why I love it. There’s an awful lot that’s been written about the physical and mental benefits of gardening, so I thought I would tell you why I find it beneficial and why I love it.   I know gardening does me good.  I love being out there, digging, weeding, planting, planning, watering – it gives me a peace and it’s doing nature good at the same time. So here are the benefits I’ve enjoyed from my love of gardens and gardening… Gardening and a love of gardens helps you connect to people.   Give me a garden centre over a shopping centre any day.  At a garden centre, you can swiftly get chatting and comparing notes over the cucumber plants or the rose bushes.   You can compare failures, successes, things that have worked for you, things that haven’t worked for you.    You don’t have to travel anywhere to get what you need for your garden.  You can just do everything from home.  There’s an enormous number of online retailers who will happily deliver to you - though of course there are delivery costs.   You can get lost in a new world with gardening magazines which give me great joy – there’s nothing like leafing through pages of a magazine and jotting down ideas of things to try.   You don’t need acres and acres of garden, either.  A few square feet will do.  You can enjoy the pleasure of watching things you’ve planted grow.  I’ve stuck in a blueberry bush – it’s a dwarf one and it’s gone into a pot.  It’s started to flower and I’m looking forward to tucking into the blueberries. (To be honest, I’m amazed when anything I plant grows…. I’m a “plant and hope they come up” gardener.) Grow your own fruit and veg and salads, and you’ll have food you can enjoy from home – and there’s nothing like it!   My grandfather in Wales used to do this and I loved the mint from his garden, the peas, the potatoes etc.   My little sister and I spent many a happy hour with him outside, “helping”, and it was a great way to do something together You can enjoy the winter months planning for next year – looking through pictures of beautiful gardens can lift the spirits.  Even in the depths of winter, you know spring is on the way and you can look out for signs – the first primrose, a bluebell, a daffodil, a snowdrop…(not necessarily in that order).  You can plan to try out different things and move plants, pots, and so on around.  If it doesn’t work in one spot, it may work in another.    Bring your garden indoors with house plants!  Plus you can enjoy lots of things with a garden theme to cheer up a home – pictures, mugs, household items – check out Emma Bridgewater who has an amazing range of mugs with a garden theme for the home. Emma Bridgewater has a wonderful range of mugs etc for the home This is Purple Pansy It’s a great way to work off frustration and stress.   Plants and flowers are gentle – they don’t argue back (unless you’re trying to pull them out of the ground and they’ve been there a long time)…..   You can create your own wildlife haven – and then sit back and enjoy watching the birds, butterflies, bees, and more visit and tuck in!  You could end up with your own nature show! You can really get into it as an interest, going on courses, reading books and magazines, attending gardening shows and events.   You can get as involved as you want.    I feel refreshed from being in the garden – tired, yes, of course sometimes.   But I feel refreshed and as though I’ve had a real break from the digital world, the TV etc. I love to take a mug of hot coffee out, and indulge in it while I’m gardening;  and because I’m burning calories (more than I would be if I were sitting down watching TV), that slice of cake tastes all the better afterwards – it’s well deserved!   Gardening can bring people together as can be seen through campaigns such as Britain in Bloom, run by the RHS; who are also running a campaign Greening Grey Britain in the RHS is trying to turn Britain from being in grey concrete to green grass and flowers, plants and trees. You can enliven your senses with the result – every sense can enjoy the garden, from the sights of birds enjoying a bird bath, the sound of buzzing bees, the taste of the food you’ve grown, the feel of different sorts of leaves, the scent of flowers.   It makes you feel alive.    Garden gift vouchers.  They are fantastic gifts for anyone who loves their gardens.  It’s another excuse to trot off to the garden centre and have a pleasant few hours browsing, contemplating, chatting (see no 1 above), enjoying the café if there is one, and shopping.    My garden makes me feel happy.  Gardening makes me feel happy.  I love listening to and watching the wildlife because it’s their home too.    You don’t need a large space to help wildlife.  In fact, you don’t need a garden at all.  You can get window feeders for the birds.  Garden Wildlife Direct have a range of window feeders You can take part in surveys and really feel you’re doing something to make a difference.  The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, the Great British Bee Count, the Big Butterfly Count, surveys of amphibians and reptiles – they all make a difference.     You can indulge in bird watching and identifying – there are lots of resources available and online to help you.  Get the children involved – they love wildlife and it gives them a great feel good factor to know which bird is which.  You can buy the RSPB's Children's Guide to Birdwatching from Foyles Last year, I made it my goal to turn my garden into a wildlife friendly one.  Now, if it isn’t wildlife friendly, it doesn’t go in.   And the results are starting to show.  And that makes me feel very happy as well.  And the feel good factor I have really lasts.  I feel joy in my heart every time I think of it!  So there you are.  My 20 reasons why I love gardening and being in the garden.  I haven’t even touched on the physical and mental benefits of it yet!

    

3. 2,000 aluminium cans enable 40 trees to be planted!

   Posted on 8:00pm Saturday 21st Apr 2018

   There’s been a great effort in the Channel Island of Jersey by students at one of the schools there, Victoria College. The boys there have been collecting aluminium cans – 2,000 in all – for the Durrell Cans for Corridors initiative.   The 2,000 aluminium cans have provided enough for 40 trees to be planted! The scheme was set up in Jersey in 2002 and was supposed to run for a year but it's been so successful, it was continued.  The Cans for Corrridors project was founded back in 2002.  The aim was to help restore the natural habitat of endangered animals, as it had been destroyed by deforestation.  The money raised from recycling 50 cans means that the project can plant one tree in a tree corridor in Brazil! Durrell aims to restore, expand and link previously destroyed habitats.  Since the collection point at Durrell’s wildlife park was installed, islanders in Jersey have put over 1 million cans into it.  Aluminium is used over other materials because it is the most cost-effective reclaimable metal.   Recycling it is 90% more efficient than mining the raw material, according to Durrell.   And a recycled can will be back on supermarket shelves in approximately 2 months Even if you don’t live in Jersey, you can collect cans and other recyclable aluminium products.  There are a number of aluminium recycling centres around the UK and you can find your nearest and whether they can collect your cans.  Kitchencraft.co.uk even have a can crusher you can buy to make recycling easier.  The funds raised can then be sent to Durrell, marked ‘Cans for Corridors’.  There’s a poster you can download to raise awareness of the scheme for Durrell. If you’re a charity, find out how you can recycle and raise funds

    

4. Students plant over 1,300 plants in a wild flower meadow

   Posted on 9:00pm Friday 16th Mar 2018

   30 students from the University of Cumbria joined up with the Cumbria Wildlife Trust last autumn. They helped to plant over 1,300 plants in a wildflower meadow in the Eden Valley. It’s the fifth year running that conservation under-graduates at the University have helped plant these meadows The Cumbria Wildlife Trust explained that since the 1950s hay meadows have been in national decline and the Trust is working to restore the. They provide habitats for animals such as the brown hair, the great yellow bumblebee and skylarks, curlews, lapwings and twits. The Meadow Life project helps ensure that meadows will be around for years to come.   The Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust funded this work as part of the Westmorland Dales Hay Time Project. Well done the students!   Plant your own cornflower seeds from Suttons Seeds Wildflower Seeds - Collection - from Suttons Seeds

    

5. Trees for Life plant record number of trees in a year!

   Posted on 9:00pm Friday 16th Mar 2018

   There’s some amazing news from Scotland. The charity Trees for Life have just totted up the number of trees they planted in 2017 and it comes to a record breaking: 156,869 trees! Of these, 133,000 were planted at the Allt Ruadh exclosure at the Dundreggan Conservation Estate, thus helping to restore the Caledonian Forest in the stunning Highlands. Volunteers spent over 5,000 planting trees, and members, donors and supporters similarly played a vital role in ensuring the trees could be planted. What’s more, Trees for Life have been invited to join the growing European Rewildling Network which puts the restoration of the Caledonian Forest in the Highalnds firmly on the European map. The network shows how re-wilding can benefit from economic development, including nature based tourism such as wildlife watching, nature-based tourism and volunteer opportunities. Trees for Life has a number of Conservation Weeks and Conservation Days throughout the year, bringing visitors to Scotland.   The Caledonian Forest is Scotland’s equivalent of the Amazonian rainforest.  Today, just 1% of the original area is left, but Trees for Life has already restored large areas in Glen Affric and at the Dundreggan Conservatoin Estate by planting over 1.3 million trees and encouraging natural restoration.  The charity’s Caledonian Pinewood Recovery Project will help to restore 50 acres of remnant pinewoods – mostly ancient 200 year old “Granny” Scots pines which are dying.  There are no young trees to succeed them, so the fragments are in danger of vanishing without action. You can find out more about Trees for Life here  and how to help here.