As spring approaches and the countryside around us is coming back to life, I am taking a little time to reflect on my journey so far as an “Urban Wildlife Champion” in Hatfield Peverel.

I signed up to Essex Wildlife Trust’s Urban Wildlife Champion project almost one year ago with the aim to use some of my newly-found free time for the benefit of the local community and the natural environment. Although progress has seemed slow – I realise that I have a huge amount to learn – I am encouraged to note that progress has been made! I am also delighted that my interest and enthusiasm have been embraced and supported by our village parish council.

So far, with the help and support of the Parish Council, Essex Wildlife Trust and a slowly expanding group of willing volunteers from the village, we have:

🐝 Agreed with the Parish and District Councils to pilot wildflower mini-meadows on small green spaces in the village to give bees and other insects more places to feed and rest while doing their important work pollinating flowers, plants and crops

🐛 Signed up to Essex Wildlife Trust’s “Wilder Towns and Wilder Villages” project to further reduce habitat fragmentation, increase connectivity and manage spaces for wildlife and people

🦋 Learned how to best manage the village’s new community land at Stone Path Meadow for wildlife, developed a management plan and we are now putting that plan into action

🥕 Met with the Chairman of the Hatfield Peverel Allotment Association to learn about HPAA and their sites and to help with their wildlife garden plans

🐜 Bid for and obtained funding for a wildlife garden in the village cemetery

🌼 With a group of willing volunteers from the village, planted wildflowers in the cemetery. We have seen snowdrops peeping through and are excited to see bluebells and other wildflowers in the coming weeks and months

🦟 Accepted the kind offer of the local Cub Scout group to make bug hotels for the cemetery

🦎 Learned about wildlife ponds and visited potential sites on council and local farmland to see where wildlife ponds might be restored

🦇 Learned about bats and swifts and how we might provide new homes for these endangered species. We plan to install bat boxes in the cemetery trees

🦔 Helped to plant new native hedging plants in various locations in the parish and to weed around the “whips” to enable them to grow

🌳 Started work with the Parish Council’s Community Park working group on a vision and plan to open up a 65-acre area where residents and visitors can appreciate a natural rural environment and where native plants, trees and wildlife are allowed to thrive

🦉 Drafted an Environmental Policy for Hatfield Peverel Parish Council which is currently being reviewed and refined for consideration by the council

📜 Drafted a “Wilder Village Plan” which takes some of the objectives from the Environmental Policy and recommends actions to progress these objectives. Some of the objectives are challenging and I hope that this plan will evolve through the coming months and years to keep us busy making Hatfield Peverel a wilder and happier place for people, for wildlife and for our planet.