CYBER MONDAY:UK online retailer Garden Wildlife Directhave their biggest Cyber Monday event ever, with up to 80% off hundreds of products for your garden birds and wildlife. The sale ends at midnight on 29 November 2023. T&Cs apply. Fly off to Garden Wildlife Direct!
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust have a new appeal, Common Farm.
They need to raise £300,000 by 30th November 2023 (they've just been given an extra 8 days from 22 November 2023) so this is an urgent appeal They’ve secured the purchase of over 80 acres of retired farmland and the Common Farm Appeal is about rewilding the land. It lies close to the Wyver Lane and Crich Chase Meadows nature reserves.
Update on 29 November 2023:
The Common Farm Appeal is 92% of the way there, so please give this appeal your support, if you can. Let's get this appeal over the finishing line!
It’s made up of 18 sheep-grazed grassland fields which the Trust is going to transform into a wildlife reserve. The team will make every field count, as they make the most of the different types of habitat; they will re-wet the land, by filling in ditches, as drainage ditches flush vital rainwater from the site. Blocking or filling them in will create pools by filling in the ditches to re-wet the land.
As the land gets wetter, so trees and vegetation and wildlife will benefit. And cattle and ponies may come in as grazers, their manure enriching the soil and their grazing stopping trees from becoming dominant.
The project should form a diverse habitat – woodland expansion, scrubby thickets and open grassland that are species-rich and will benefit barn owls and skylarks and curlew, as well as plants such as the ragged robin and harebell. This will give a new territory to wildlife – native plants and animals will thrive – hopefully within a year!
This was created back in 2012. The idea is simple: it’s a day that encourages people to do good. And today, millions of people join in to give something: their time, money, their skills, their voice, organising an event, cleaning up a local area – the choice is yours. You could just even check on an elderly neighbour. Please find out more and take a look here.
And there’s lots of information about participating here. There are plenty of ways to get involved, and they've got logos you can download to help spread the word.
The idea behind this one is to donate to one or more of the charities taking part in the Big Give's Christmas Challenge – but the good news is your donation is doubled at no extra cost to you! The Challenge offers supporters of those charities taking part to double their donations for seven days, so this is a big chance to really make your donation go further. vBack in 2022, £28.5 million was raised for 1,021 participating charities. 79,658 people donated, some twice.
One thing you could do is to ask people to donate to a chosen charity for your Christmas gifts, instead of giving you an actual present that you may not want or need. We do this in our family, rather than acquire more and more stuff we just don’t want or need, we prefer to do something which can be of real help.
Otters, monkeys, elephants, cats and dogs, deer, water voles, oceans, beavers, bats, badgers, tigers, cheetahs, rhinos, red squirrels, wild cats, butterflies, turtles, orangutans are just some of the animals the Big Give’s Christmas Challenge will help.
Rivers, meadows, trees, forests, hedges and edges, rainforest, small woods are just some of the types of habitats included. Some of the charities’ appeals may be listed in both the Animals’ and Conservation/Environment sections.
How much do you know about the participating charities?
Whilst you’re browsing through the lists, if there are charities you haven’t heard of, or know very little about, it’s a great opportunity to find out about them – what they do, what their aims are, how they help etc. Visit their websites too, and increase your knowledge of what’s being done to help and make a difference.
Please do something, just one action will make a difference
Even if you don’t donate, please take a look at your local animal charities and see if you can help them in some way or another. This could be as simple as taking old towels along to them that you don’t need any more.
Whatever you do, please do something. And remember, every little helps. Thank you for making a difference.
It’s National Tree Week, and a chance to celebrate all things tree! In 2023, National Tree Week is particularly special because it’s the 50th anniversary of the “Plant a tree in 73” campaign – and from that event, both the National Tree Week and the Tree Council were born.
We need trees and every year, the Tree Council is in charge of National Tree Week, bringing conservationists, volunteers and tree-lovers to unite and hopefully plant thousands of trees to begin the tree planting season!
The Tree Council has a has a mission to care for our trees and our planet’s future. It aims to champion trees in everything it does, and to encourage, inspire and persuade people of all ages and backgrounds to value and love trees.
It runs a volunteer Tree Warden scheme, and works to lead and connect organisations, to persuade decision-makers, to influence policy, and deliver local action.
So this year, the Tree Council wants as many people as possible to have the chance to “Grow a Tree in 2023”, by taking part in an organised tree planting eventor having your own National Tree Week Tree Party!
Extend the protected area of land by 181 hectares This will mean 1,031 hectares are protected – the ecosystem is threatened by agricultural activity. Pumas roam here – they are safe from human conflict and illegal hunting, but the encroachment of agricultural land could change all this. Without this land purchase, the area could be bought up and used for livestock – and that will make forest fragmentation worse.
Restore 100 hectares of essential cloud forest habitat This will be done by planting 36,500 native tree species between 2023 and 2028. It will reconnect fragmented forests for animals such as the puma, the ocelot and Northern oncilla so that they can move safely, rest and feed. The pumas’ presence and condition will be monitored by the forest rangers, using camera traps to see what the pumas are up to, and rehabilitated wildlife will be released in the area, too.
Protect habitat of 665 species. 15 species are on the IUCN Red List so this project is giving them a lifeline. Species such as the Antioquia Brushfinch are here – this species was once thought to be extinct – and so is the Antioquia Chocolate Frog, a tree frog found in northwestern Columbia alone. This frog needs the torrents and puddles that the damp terrain provides. But a successful appeal will help:
28 Amphibians, of which 3 are threatened species.
443 birds, of which 6 are threatened species
148 mammals of which 4 are threatened species
46 reptiles – 2 species are threatened
Over 250 plant species. These include 120 recorded orchid species and the area also has the world’s tallest palm tree!
4. Ensure the health and security of very important water cycles Wildlife and local people depend on these, as the cloud forest captures, stores and releases water downstream.
5. Offer livelihoods to local people through ecotourism and conservation jobs. Nine cabins will be built to host guests, for example, and ecotourism activities will be developed with local communities. Three forest ranger positions will be held by local people for the first three years of the project and their role will be to plant and nurture trees, monitor camera traps and accompany visitors to the reserve
The Antioquia Brushfinch is one of the species who need this appeal to succeed.
This is an exciting and important opportunity to support Fundación Guanacas, a partner of the World Land Trust, to expand its Guanacas Reserve which has one of the only cloud forests in its Antioquia region. Fundación Guanacas needs funds to save land that would suffer deforestation and soil degradation if it were not saved and restored.
Please support this appeal if you can!
All about the World Land Trust:
The World Land Trust is an amazing charity based in the UK, (HQ in Suffolk). It focuses specifically on conserving threatened habitats and it does this through raising funds for land purchase. It goes down this route with considerable care, and the land is purchased, protected and managed by local partner organisations. Thus is has the ability to respond swiftly when lands are under threat of destruction.
So far, the World Land Trust has protected 2,409,420 acres, and planted 2,457,900 trees. It works in countries such as Argentina, Ecuador, Belize, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, the UK, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Paraguay, India, Guatemala – and lots more! View their projects here
It raises some of these funds through a Buy an Acre scheme – a £100 donation can buy an acre of land and protect it for wildlife in perpetuity. You can also donate (one off or monthly) to the Action Fund which is used to for funds to enable the Trust to respond fast where action is needed, be it to extend and safeguard existing reserves or fight fires, or make sure that the reserves are protected by experienced rangers.
Every year, the World Land Trust has a huge appeal in the autumn. It's called Big Match Fortnight...
All about previous Big Match Fortnights
In 2022, this appeal was a real opportunity to save Ecuador’s incredible Río Anzu and Río Zúñac forests! The Life of the Edge appeal launched in October 2022 reached its £1,430,000 target! Everyone who donated has enabled the World Land Trust's partner – Foundación EcoMinga – to DOUBLE the size of the Anzu and Zúñac reserves in Ecuador’s upper Río Pastaza watershed. Read all about it HERE
Along with donations from EcoMinga’sother supporters, the World Land Trust’s partner would be able to safeguard 5,1234 acres across both reserves, patrolled by the World Land Trust funded Keepers of the Wild. And – very exciting – they will be linked to a 1.6 MILLION hectare protected network.
In 2021, the Trust aimed to raise £1.2 million for the Guardians of Nimla Ha’ – one of their most ambitious appeals to date. An incredible £1.37 million was raised which enabled the Trust’s partner in Guatemala, FUNDAECO, to complete the purchase to TRIPLE the size of their Laguna Grande Reserve, home to over 700 species. Manatees, ocelots, 357 bird species, primates, Jaguars, Margays will all be much safer thanks to this purchase. The reserve tripled in size from 1,668 to nearly 5,000 acres. Find out more about the Guardians of Nimla ‘Ha appeal here.
We need to buy these habitats to protect them. Let conservation be the victor here, not extraction and destruction
Together we can all make this happen. Every single donation will make a difference.
We can act as individuals by donating and spreading the word and being a part of a something really important and terrific. By pulling together, we can power through this appeal and help protect wildlife.
Starting on Thursday 2nd November 2023 on Channel 5 at 7pm, there’s a new series of Secret Life of the Forest.
The secret cameras are back as summer ends, taking in the beauty of Forestry England’s Great Yorkshire Forest and the wonderful wildlife who live there. Beavers, turtle doves, Exmoor ponies and very rare insect species found only in Yorkshire feature in the habitat there. It spans over 8000 acres and it’s situated at the southern edge of the North York Moors National Park.
The Forestry Commission bought it in 1921, and as the UK was extremely short of trees after the Second World War (it still is), and Dalby was included in strategic planting schemes. These now provide us with lots of timber and give homes to wildlife. 400,000 people visit every year.
The cameras cover the beaver pond, also home to stunning kingfishers - and they are also waiting to capture footage of the pine-marten, too. Forestry England staff and volunteers care for this beautiful places. Actor Robert Lindsay is the narrator.
The new series launches on Thursday 2nd November 2023 at 7pm on Channel 5 – and if you can’t see it, don’t worry, you can catch it on Channel 5 catch up.
By the way, it's worth taking a look at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust which is re committed "to creating a Yorkshire rich in wildlife for everyone. From saving our wildlife and wild places to bringing people closer to nature". There are lots of ways to get involved and help them, so fly off to their website here to take a look.
