News / Bristol Community Climate Action Project
The north Bristol community working together to create a wildlife corridor
Wildflower blooms, busy bird feeders and buzzing bee hotels; it’s perhaps not the traditional image you’d conjure up when thinking of the 1950s housing estate, Lockleaze.
However, hidden from view, there are many gardens here that are thriving.
With the launch of the Lockleaze Wild Mile, a campaign that encourage residents to do something for nature in their gardens, Eric Swithinbank, a Lockleaze community ecologist, is hoping to connect the dots and create new nature corridors for wildlife across the ward.
is needed now More than ever
Lockleaze Wild Mile encourages residents to record their wildlife efforts, or pledge to do something new in their gardens to improve biodiversity.
“Whether that is creating a wildflower patch or a log pile, letting your grass grow long, or simply feeding the birds that visit your garden, everyone can do something to improve their patch for wildlife,” says Eric.
The data is then being plotted onto an anonymised online map to gain an understanding of what’s already being done for nature, and Eric is encouraging other residents to join in and do what they can.
He says: ”The Wild Mile aims to show that everyone’s efforts, however big and small, all come together to form one big, connected area of habitat.”
The Lockleaze Wild Mile encourages residents to do something for nature in their gardens – photo: Really Wild Lockleaze
Eric explains that the project aims to create an amazing corridor for wildlife to move between Stoke Park and the banks of the railway, as well as exploding out of the other side of the railway towards Filton, and connecting to the wild verges of the M32.
“If everyone does just a bit for wildlife in their garden, we will be creating a patchwork of opportunity for our wildlife to visit, feed, and thrive,” Eric says.
The Wild Mile is keeping track of all wildflower meadow being created across Lockleaze too.
Eric says that over 97 per cent of all wildflower meadows have been lost since World War Two, adding: “These native species are the bedrock of many ecosystems as many species rely on them, so restoring them is vital.”
Wildflowers provide bees, butterflies and other pollinators with food throughout the year. Just one acre of wildflowers – about the area of a football pitch – can produce enough nectar to support nearly 96,000 bees per day.
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Eric says that even just adding a small wildflower patch to your garden can add up to make a big difference.
He continues: “If we are really going to have an impact of looking after our natural living systems, we can’t exclude any area. We have to make our urban environments hospitable for all the creatures that we share the earth with; we have to look at the urban environment as a nature reserve too.”
The Lockleaze Wild Mile is just one part of the community climate project, Really Wild Lockleaze. The project looks at practical ways the community can tackle the climate and ecological crisis, both to make meaningful change in Lockleaze but also to inspire change in Bristol and beyond.
This project is part of the wider community climate action project across Bristol, led by Bristol Green Capital Partnership.
If you live in Lockleaze and have a garden or growing space, you can join in with the Lockleaze Wild Mile via: www.lockleazehub.org.uk/join-the-lockleaze-wild-mile.
Emily Shimell is reporting on Lockleaze as part of Bristol24/7’s community reporter scheme, a project which aims to tell stories from areas of Bristol traditionally under-served by the mainstream media
Main photo: Really Wild Lockleaze
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