The native orchard, wildlife ponds and wildflower meadow projects that these groups have already created together have delivered substantial benefits to local wildlife – and helped build community spirit and solidarity along the way.
Here, Chris offers some advice for anyone who wants to organise or take part in volunteering for nature in their own community.
Use everyone’s skills
People from all backgrounds and walks of life will have something to contribute. In our Shamley Green Environment Group, our 20 volunteers include accountants, engineers, teachers and civil servants, all of whom bring tons of organisational, practical and financial expertise that we make use of every time we plan a new project. If you know about people management, you can help identify people’s strengths, and help allocate people to specific tasks. If your background is construction or building, you can help design and deliver landscaping work or help build or restore a pond or ditch. My own background in local government (I am Vice-Chair of my Parish Council) has been put to good use in helping shape agreements with both Waverley Borough Council and Wonersh Parish Council to change the way the local commons are managed, and in working with other service providers including schools and playgrounds to shape spaces for nature that everyone can enjoy.
Get to know what wildlife is in your area before you get started
Your group can make a real difference but, before doing anything, spend some time finding out what wildlife and habitats are in your area or on your site. Understanding what’s there will help you make informed decisions on how to improve the area to benefit the wildlife living there....and see in the future if you really have made a difference!
The gardener in you might want to keep areas neat and tidy but working on a wild green space requires a slightly different approach – working with nature, rather than trying to tame it. A patch that might look messy to some, may be home to rare species and provide important habitat. The more you get to know your area, the easier it will become to consider the species living there before carrying out any work. We now have a group that goes out every week photographing and logging our wildflowers and uploading it to our website. We also got our parish council to pay for a professional invertebrate study right at the outset too.
If you’re not sure what wildlife is in your area, then you might like to think about organising your own survey – this is best done in the summertime (remember to get the landowner’s permission beforehand). You may be able to get help from your local botanical society or other local experts. There are plenty of resources out there to help you, such as the Seek app for smartphones from iNaturalist or physical ID guides from the Field Studies Council.
Once you know what you’ve got, you can figure out what to look after and where you can expand and link existing habits or create new ones, without losing what you’ve already got.
Assess your greenspace
Put everything you know on a map. This doesn’t have to be a work of art or totally accurate! It should just be a way of looking at all the habitats and wild places in your community to help you see how they connect (or don’t connect) to each other, along with all the most important issues, concerns, and ideas. Your parish clerk may be able to assist you with official maps and often have mapping software at their disposal. Work closely with your councils as they manage most of our common land in Surrey.
When assessing your space, consider the following:
- What makes the area important to you?
- What is its history and what is it used for now?
- Is there any special wildlife, historical, or cultural importance?
- Are there any wider problems or opportunities in your area – for example, could your site be used to link fragmented habitats or provide a home for displaced species?
Once you have all the information on a map, gather everyone together to start thinking about what you want to change or make happen and where your community could start work. Your parish council might be able to co-ordinate the meeting for you.
Come up with a plan
You’ll be much more effective if you plan your activity and set out your priorities carefully. Within our wider groups, we’ve set up informal but specialist management plans for trees, ponds, new mowing regimes, the creation of wildflower meadows, the management of ditches and other maintenance work, in partnership with the parish council. You can go into as much detail as you like, but a simple year planner is a good place to start. This enables you to use everyone’s skills and interests most effectively, work out what resources you need at specific times of the year and ensure there’s always something to do when people are available to help. And of course, if you write down what you intend to do, and when, it’s easier to build understanding and get buy-in from other local stakeholders. Having a facebook page...or even better, a website, will help you to disseminate your information. You might be able to get funding from your County Councillor or parish council for a website.
Learn to navigate local bureaucracy
While this should never deter anyone from getting involved, every activity you carry out in a public space requires some form of form-filling to secure the necessary permissions – or in some cases, funding. If you are unsure where to start, your local council offices should be able to refer you to the correct department or personal contact. In many cases, local authorities will be only too glad to see local people improving a local area, but its vital that your plans are signed off before you start. Our parish councillors and clerk helped us with all the red tape and organised the filling in of Risk Assessments forms and covered the insurance aspects. What I have quickly learnt is that there are often many opinions on what should be done and a great deal of research and communication with specialists, landowners and enthusiastic volunteers needs to happen before any work is undertaken. I know this frustrates some volunteers, but it does make sure you have reflected carefully on the best course of action and built consensus with all the stakeholders.
Work with other community groups
In any community, there could be dozens of local voluntary groups, from horticulturalists to preservation societies to sports clubs. Many of these will be only too pleased to allow you to create habitat on their territory, will be happy to voice support for plans, or may even be a source of additional volunteers. In some cases, different groups will have very different ideas about what a specific site should look like or be used for – and this is where negotiating skills and the ability to compromise will come to the fore! It’s well worth checking out local online directories and community notice boards for the necessary contacts.
Communicate what you are doing to other residents
It’ll be much easier to build support and recruit volunteers if you put some effort into letting other residents know what you are doing, why and when. Your parish council or local residents group will probably help you disseminate your messages. You never know there might be a botanist or birder living locally that might like to offer their support. Again, members of your group will have skills you can put to good use, be it in designing leaflets, creating a website or creating a social media feed. You can use these communications tools to invite suggestions for new projects as well as to inform.
Take part in our community action webinar series
Join Christine and other presenters online this autumn to find out more. The hour-long ‘Action for Nature’ webinars will take place on 11 October, 09 November and 01 December with a further event to be confirmed for January.