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Covid restrictions meant the volunteer sessions had to stop but now that lockdown is easing, there will be more opportunities to get involved.
During the winter we planted an additional 15,000 young trees, known as ‘whips’, with help from our contractors Glendale.
In total we want to plant 50,000 trees, creating 25 hectares of new woodland, as part of our commitment to rewilding areas of North Somerset to help tackle the climate and nature emergency.
At the same time, we’re changing our grass management to create about 40 hectares of tall grass areas, where the grass is allowed to grow.
About 15 to 20 hectares were introduced last summer, resulting in a good range of grass species and associated flower species.
We’ll add a few new small locations this year, with the rest to follow next year.
Together, these initiatives will create more habitats for wildlife to flourish and increase biodiversity, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.
We’re now looking forward to welcoming back volunteers to work with us.
Sessions will focus on the immediate aftercare of whips, carrying out weeding and mulching, and general monitoring and tidying of the sites.
We’ll also need help carrying out wildlife and plant surveys of the tall grass areas.
It’s likely that volunteer sessions will run on a pre-registration basis.
If you’d like to get involved, visit the website or the Nature and Climate North Somerset Facebook page.
Respect our open spaces
We have some beautiful open spaces in North Somerset – and it’s important to keep them that way.
Unfortunately, incidences of anti-social behaviour such as littering, lighting fires and BBQs and property damage have increased during this past year as visitor numbers have gone up.
At Uphill Hill, in Weston-super-Mare, we’ve spent hundreds of pounds repairing fences and gates that have been vandalised and pulled down to use for fires.
We’ve also had to remove excess litter from the hill, which is a local nature reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
Cattle graze on the hill through the summer so the litter and fires pose a huge threat to the cows. Please help protect these beautiful areas by taking your litter home with you, not starting any fires or having BBQs, and follow the Countryside Code.