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1. 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

    

2. 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

    

3. 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.

    

4. African Parks report 3 successes for big cats

   Posted on 8:00pm Tuesday 6th Mar 2018

   There’s an awful lot of bad news about big cats around at the moment; they are being hunted for their skins, claws, bones and other parts; killed to prevent human-wildlife conflict, and their habitats are increasingly fragmented and lost. So it’s great to hear from African Parks that there are some hopeful signs across the continent for these majestic animals. Lions are being restored to Malawi In 2012, African Parks reintroduced lions to the Majete Wildlife Reserve.  They secured the park and brought back key species, including prey populations.  The lions have formed a small but growing pride to such an extent that African Parks have moved the first two of 10 lions to Liwonde National Park – the first time lions have been there for at least 4 years! New cheetah population doubles in less than a year In 2017, African Parks reintroduced cheetahs to Liwonde National Park, also in Malawi.  They’d been absent for 100 years.  Several females have had cubs, so increasing their numbers in just a few months since their arrival. Lion numbers grow in Rwanda Lions were eradicated by refugees coming back to Rwanda after the genocide, so they had been absent for 20 years.   African Parks reintroduced 7 lions to the Akagera National Park.   With the space to thrive, lions have nearly tripled, and the park is now a real wildlife gem.  Tourism is flourishing with over 36,000 annual visitors to the park, bringing $1.3 million in tourism revenue.  This is reinvested in the surrounding areas. Restoring and protecting the big cat in Africa’s wild places does a number of things: It maintains vital ecological processes It gives tourism a boost Tourism gives much needed benefits to the local communities and revenue to the region Get involved You can help African Parks continue to protect Africa’s big cats and ensure they have the space, prey and safety they need to breed and thrive.    Donate here

    

5. Well done to everyone at Wicor Primary School in Portchester!

   Posted on 2:00pm Sunday 4th Feb 2018

   It's always great to see children getting stuck into nature and the natural world, and even better to ee them doing things to help protect it and create habitat.    So I was really pleased to see the efforts of the wonderful staff and pupils at Wicor Primary School in Portchester.   They've raised £500 which they donated to the Woodland Trust - a fantastic achievement.   They did it through the sales of sausages which they devised with a local butcher using Jack in the Hedge, a garlic mustard that grows in the school grounds. Well done to the butcher, as well, for getting stuck in!  The money was also raised by bake sales, sponsored events and proceeds from a blend of tea devised with a Portsmouth tea merchant. Headteacher Mark Wildman presented the cheque to the Woodland Trust after the children had spent a day tree planting!  The school had received 179 free hazel, whitebeam, aspen and spindle saplings from the Woodland Trust along with four larger trees – Oak, hornbeam and cherry.  Every child had helped plant a tree, and the Headteacher commented that he'd seen many a child dragging their parents across to the tree they had planted saying "I planted that!"    Strong winds actually blew some of the trees over after the planting - but the kids just got on with re-planting them and the school thinks this shows the children that nature needs looking after and nurturing - an important lesson in life when caring for our natural world. I love the ethos of this school - they also grow fruit and vegetables in their allotment as part of their Environmental Curriculum.  They sell these back to the community to promote healthy eating and to raise money for the allotment. Find out more here So well done to all the children and staff at Wicor Primary School!   Here's a video from the Woodland Trust on the Green Tree Schools Award.  Over 8,000 schools are now involved and it's free to join in.  There's a guide to the Green Tree School Award here which you can download