There are a lot of interesting environment related things going on at the minute:
- This Saturday at 8.30pm is Earth Hour (https://www.earthhour.org/). In addition to turning off our lights for an hour we are encouraged to go on-line and do our bit for nature.
- Today is the start of the Earth Optimism Cambridge festival (https://www.earthoptimism.cambridgeconservation.org/). This on-line event runs until the 4th April and it has a very impressive speaker line-up as well as a virtual fair.
- There is another on-line event starting on the 10th April with a focus on re-wilding and reintroductions - https://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/the-reintroduction-rewilding-summit/
- Birds of Poole Harbour have also just reported the first few osprey sightings of the year. Although there is a project underway to encourage ospreys to breed there, these are probably birds that breed further north stopping off for a bit of Dorset fish.
- We will be holding a work-party on Saturday 17th April in accordance with the covid restrictions in place at that time. This probably means we will be working in groups of no more than six. We have seasonal tasks to do in Wicks Green and Pockets Copse. Please let me know if you are going to join us so that we can plan accordingly.
- This week we joined an on-line meeting of the Bracknell Forest Nature Partnership. The key things that were discussed included:
- At the half-way point of the Bracknell Forest Council Biodiversity Action Plan progress has been made on actions for all habitat types.
- The next Year of Nature theme will probably either focus on woodland or waterways (and the relevant biodiversity action plan targets). If you are interested in leading projects in Binfield on woodlands or waterways then please let us know.
- We had a very interesting presentation from Thames21 on the Lower Thames Catchment Partnership. See below for more information.
- Across the borough there had been a reduction in litter, because more people are litter-picking, and an increase in membership of the various nature / environment groups.
- The Lower Thames Catchment Partnership is an initiative led by Thames 21 supported by water companies, local authorities, etc with the aim of achieving the Water Framework Directive targets for the area that includes our local rivers. The partnership provides tools and training for people looking to improve their local rivers. For example:
- There are various resources here - https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/ae629060557d488ebc31f6477fdd1e7d. The map contains all sorts of useful data from a range of sources.
- There's a lot of information on the Thames21 website - https://www.thames21.org.uk/
- If you are interested in leading river clean-ups then have a look at this training course - https://www.thames21.org.uk/event/part-1-of-4-leading-action-for-healthy-rivers-training-non-tidal-thames/
