Great Nature Challenge reveals deep interest in local wildlife
Fenland District Council’s Great Nature Challenge has revealed a massive interest among local people in nurturing and conserving the nature and wildlife of the Fens.
At the prize giving ceremony in the Sensory Gardens of St Peter and St Paul’s Church Gardens in Wisbech, school children, community groups and individuals were praised for their enterprise and ingenuity in creating wildlife havens of all shapes and sizes.
Each winning entry and runner-up in each of the three categories received prizes which included a medal, t-shirts, wild flower seeds, bird and bat boxes, bird feeders, pens, posters, a copy of the popular book: One Planet Living. The winners also received a £30 voucher from B&Q, while the runners-up received a £20 voucher.
Prizes were awarded by Fenland District Councillor, Peter Murphy, Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Environment; Darren Hobbs of B&Q and Andy Griffiths of Continental Landscapes Ltd.
Prizes sponsored by the council and B&Q were awarded to the winners and runners-up in three categories for community groups, schools and individuals of all ages. There was also an overall Nature Champion.
In awarding the Nature Champion Award, the judges were bowled over by the March Wildlife Group, which has since 1993 been quietly getting on with the business of turning a 16 acre farm site into Gault Wood, a woodland wildlife haven. The group has planted 9,000 trees and shrubs, created two ponds, a badger set, cleared dykes, cut hedges, installed bird nesting boxes and maintained the site with volunteers each month to create the perfect conditions for local wildlife.
In addition, the group runs free events such as bug hunts and moth trapping to show local people the diversity of wildlife that is around them. Group members have also kept a wildlife database which logs all the creatures living in the woodland and has created willow sculptures for schools. In addition to the range of useful prizes presented to all the prize winners, the March Wildlife Group received a £50 voucher from B&Q.
In the Community Group category, Friends of Leverington Cemetery took top spot for the way they have consistently been conserving, nurturing and monitoring wildlife in the cemetery. Second prize went to Crazy Cats, a performing arts group working with the Chatteris After School Drama Group. The Crazy Cats have been encouraging children to appreciate the wildlife around them through pond dipping, planting flowers, looking at slugs and snails and making a bee box.
In the Schools Category, first prize went to a joint project involving the College of West Anglia and the Thomas Clarkson School. Boys from Year 10 enhanced their curricular activities by transforming a barren piece of land into a vegetable and flower garden, built a pond, created a tree nursery, planted trees and wove willow fencing. The project was run by Peter Bone at the College of West Anglia and has led to a ‘Skills for Working Life’ qualification being awarded to the boys involved.
Second prize in this category went to Park Lane Primary School in Whittlesey for the way their After School Environment Group
created a wildflower and wildlife area in their school field.
The Individual Category prize went to Mrs Diane Emmerson who wrote a long and detailed account of her favourite wildlife haven
in Fenland – her garden. Second prize went to Brian Gordon Carrothers, who has turned his garden into a wildlife garden with
window boxes, a pond, bug boxes, log piles, bird boxes and bird feeders.
Cllr Peter Murphy, Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Environment, said: “There was fantastic interest in this competition and the prize winners were truly outstanding. It is really heartening to see that local people take an active interest in preserving their environment to benefit wildlife.”
