May 2021: Nature Challenge
It’s spring! It’s lovely! And the perfect time to tackle our thundering great ecological crisis.
Bristol has lost 96% of its population of common songbirds such as swifts and swallows since the 1990s. Global insect populations have collapsed by up to three quarters over the last fifty years. And with over 97% of Britain’s meadows destroyed since the 1930s, all remaining green spaces are now a vital refuge for pollinators and other wildlife.
But with our combined gardens covering an area bigger than all our nature reserves put together here in the UK, we can help. So pick one of more of the following challenges to do this month – or make up your own.
It’s spring! It’s lovely! And the perfect time to tackle our thundering great ecological crisis.
Bristol has lost 96% of its population of common songbirds such as swifts and swallows since the 1990s. Global insect populations have collapsed by up to three quarters over the last fifty years. And with over 97% of Britain’s meadows destroyed since the 1930s, all remaining green spaces are now a vital refuge for pollinators and other wildlife.
But with our combined gardens covering an area bigger than all our nature reserves put together here in the UK, we can help. So pick one of more of the following challenges to do this month – or make up your own.
- ACTION: Our Wilder West Bristol pages include month-by-month advice on how to wild up your garden. Take a look at what to do in May, and put your actions on our interactive map.
- ACTION: Visit York Place Garden in Clifton, which is open to the public and in the process of being turned wild by local residents, led by a conservationist. It’s not far from St Andrew’s churchyard on the eastern edge of Clifton Village.
- ACTION: Help the Woodland Trust track the effects of weather and climate change on wildlife by reporting on the nature near you.
- ACTION: Take part in wildlife monitoring events as and when you meet with nature by downloading the iNaturalist app and photographing what you see.
- ACTION: Support Avon Needs Trees, a local charity that’s buying land in the Avon catchment area to plant and rewild, creating new, permanent woodland and boosting biodiversity.
- (IN)ACTION: Lock up your lawnmower and join No Mow May, to protect endangered species and promote biodiversity in your garden.
- ACTION: Get closer to nature by having it for lunch. This month you may be able to find sorrel, lime, and chickweed, all of which can be lovely fresh additions to a spring dish.
- ACTION: Many of our butterflies and other insects can only breed on specific native plants and are attracted to specific flowers for food. Read this article and choose one or two plants for your garden.
- ACTION: Big one, but digging a pond is probably the single most useful thing you can do to encourage wildlife.
- ACTION: Do you have more garden space than you can manage? Or are you in search of space to grow more food or plants to help our biodiversity crisis? Lend and Tend is a scheme that matches would-be gardeners with landowners.
- ACTION: Go peat-free in your garden this year. Read about why this is important here and here.
- RESEARCH: Late April and early May see the return of stunning swifts on their summer migration from Africa. Watch our wonderful video of Bristol’s own Swift Conservationist, learn more about these wonderful birds, and hear their calls.
- RESEARCH: Watch our other wildlife videos: The Allotment Grower, Manor Gardens of York Place, and The Communal Gardener.
- RESEARCH: Listen to ‘Overheard at National Geographic’ for incredible stories of nature.
- RESEARCH: Read Wilding by Isabella Tree for an uplifting account of nature booming on once heavily farmed land.
- CAMPAIGN: Sign this doing-very-well petition to Bristol City Council to ‘Say No to the Mow’ and let nature thrive by reducing cutting of verges and grass in open spaces.
- AMPLIFY: Tell your friends and family about the challenges you’re taking this month and ask them to join in.
