# Banter 97: 26Nov25 Duxford Biodiversity Initiatives, with Gillian Heath {% embed url="" %} ### Video Timeline: (min:sec) | 00:00 – 28:04 Presentation | | -------------------------- | | 28:05- 53:30 (end) Q & A | *** ### Presentation: {% file src="/files/GSXuEAhfWLotTgD8HsdJ" %} You are welcome do download this presentation; a makrdown copy (ie of the text) is listed at the bottom of the page to help with AI search engine indexing Slide 14 of the presentation contains some useful links - they are reproduced here for your convenience: [Local Nature Recovery Toolkit](https://naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Doubling-Nature_Local-nature-recovery-toolkit.pdf) [Duxford Biodiversity Strategy 08Jun23](https://duxfordparishcouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/A-Biodiversity-Strategy-for-Duxford-8th-June-2023.pdf) [How to make your garden wilder](https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/how-to-rewild/rewilding-advice/how-to-make-your-garden-wilder) [How to increase the biodiversity in your garden](https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2023/04/increase-garden-biodiversity/) [Building a Nature Recovery Network to bring back Britain's wildlife](https://www.wildlifebcn.org/what-we-do/nature-recovery-network) [Supporting Nature's Recovery](https://www.natureplan.org.uk/article/27768/Supporting-nature-s-recovery) [How to help Nature's recovery whatever size your green space](https://www.bbowt.org.uk/blog/kate-titford/how-help-natures-recovery-whatever-size-your-green-space) *** ### Meeting Summary: Nov 26, 2025 11:50 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536 ### Quick recap Gillian presented on the Natural Cambridgeshire Toolkit, which aims to expand Parish Online to more councils, and shared a detailed case study of Duxford's biodiversity initiatives including various community projects and nature conservation efforts. The discussion concluded with plans for expanding wildlife corridors, enhancing local ecosystems, and improving data collection methods, with participants exploring strategies for community involvement and biodiversity monitoring. ### Next steps * [Gillian: Ask Ashley (ecologist in Whittlesford) and Grace (ecologist in Duxford) if they know ecologists in Paul's area who could help with biodiversity surveys for Great Ellingham Parish Council.](https://us02tasks.zoom.us/?meetingId=xOxrgynFSHq8zJu%2FO1%2BA8A%3D%3D\&stepId=1776548d-cac8-11f0-bf66-a6bf3aa15d57) * [Paul: Obtain a quote for a biodiversity survey for Great Ellingham Parish Council and present it to the council for approval.](https://us02tasks.zoom.us/?meetingId=xOxrgynFSHq8zJu%2FO1%2BA8A%3D%3D\&stepId=17765a8c-cac8-11f0-a783-a6bf3aa15d57) * [Gillian: Put links to iNaturalist, RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch, and Butterfly Count on the Friends of Duxford Green Spaces website.](https://us02tasks.zoom.us/?meetingId=xOxrgynFSHq8zJu%2FO1%2BA8A%3D%3D\&stepId=17765c6f-cac8-11f0-92d9-a6bf3aa15d57) * [Gillian: Put a link to the Butterfly Conservation group's information about creating butterfly mounds (e.g., "big E" mounds) on the website.](https://us02tasks.zoom.us/?meetingId=xOxrgynFSHq8zJu%2FO1%2BA8A%3D%3D\&stepId=17765df9-cac8-11f0-a78b-a6bf3aa15d57) * [Graham: Coordinate with Geosphere (Parish Online) regarding permissions to allow data from Parish Online to feed into the collaboration's Xmap/knowledge base map.](https://us02tasks.zoom.us/?meetingId=xOxrgynFSHq8zJu%2FO1%2BA8A%3D%3D\&stepId=17765f48-cac8-11f0-91ef-a6bf3aa15d57) * [Paul: Explore collaboration with Easton College for student support on biodiversity surveys and projects in Great Ellingham.](https://us02tasks.zoom.us/?meetingId=xOxrgynFSHq8zJu%2FO1%2BA8A%3D%3D\&stepId=177660a8-cac8-11f0-a605-a6bf3aa15d57) ### Summary #### Natural Cambridgeshire Toolkit Expansion Gillian presented Ian's material on the Natural Cambridgeshire Toolkit, which aims to extend Parish Online to more councils. She discussed Duxford's experience with Parish Online and the work of the Friends of Duxford Green Spaces. The project is being supported by the county council, which has the resources to roll it out county-wide, starting with South Cambridgeshire. #### Duxford Biodiversity Strategy Case Study Gillian presented a case study on biodiversity initiatives in Duxford Parish Council, highlighting their strategy development, volunteer engagement, and funding acquisition. She emphasized the importance of starting small, building a network of supporters, and leveraging available funding opportunities. Gillian also discussed specific projects like No Mo May and the management of verges and hedges to support wildlife, noting the need for balancing aesthetic preferences with biodiversity goals. #### Community Wildlife Management Initiatives Gillian discussed the management of hedges, emphasizing the need to balance bird nesting seasons with safety and line of sight concerns, and proposed a section-by-section cutting approach. She highlighted the success of the Duxford Nature Network, which encourages residents to make their gardens wildlife-friendly, and mentioned the ongoing effort to increase participation. Gillian also reflected on the success of the two nature festivals held in 2023, expressing hope for future events, while acknowledging the effort required for such community initiatives. #### Nature Conservation for Youth Engagement Gillian discussed the importance of engaging young people in nature conservation through school-based initiatives, highlighting a successful river day activity and an allotment biodiversity project led by Ian, which included planting trees and creating dry hedges. She emphasized the need for proper maintenance and monitoring of planted trees and hedges, as well as the importance of involving local ecologists to conduct biodiversity surveys. Gillian also outlined plans to expand wildlife corridors, enhance local river ecosystems, and increase the number of gardens involved in biodiversity efforts, while noting the availability of grants and the need for strategic planning and community involvement. #### Nature Recovery Project Success Stories Gillian shared her experience of establishing a nature recovery project in Duxford, highlighting the success of involving volunteers and school children, and the positive changes observed in community green spaces. She discussed challenges in recruiting volunteers and tracking biodiversity changes, and mentioned plans to improve data collection and public engagement. Participants discussed potential strategies for managing invasive species and encouraging community involvement, with suggestions to collaborate with local councils and use tools like iNaturalist for data collection. #### Biodiversity Projects and Monitoring Discussion Gillian presented on the creation of a chalk mound and pond, explaining its purpose as a habitat for butterflies and the importance of proper construction. The group discussed biodiversity surveys and monitoring, with Gillian offering to connect Paul with ecologists in his area. Frank suggested involving local universities and colleges for biodiversity surveys, which Paul planned to explore with Easton College. Graham demonstrated a mapping tool for tracking community projects, which could help networks collaborate and share information. The conversation ended with a reminder about next week's session on water management. *** ### Chat: 00:17:29 Kirsten Newble - Cambridge: Can the pdf be shared please? Thanks. \ 00:19:41 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Certainly, Kirsten - everything gets published afterwards…. \ 00:24:54 Kirsten Newble - Cambridge: Thanks
00:46:29 Dave Faulkner: That was really interesting Gillain - thank you. Need to go as need to leave asap so thanks again
00:51:29 Sarah - Sandbach, Cheshire: Thank you Gillian - so interesting to see what you have done and all the ideas you have presented. Your experiences are very inspiring!
01:01:05 frank deas, Killearn: its not stealing ideas; its benchmarking \ 01:01:32 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Nah, it’s outright theft and plagiarism…. \ 01:01:58 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Or, it’s collaboration!
01:04:55 Gillian Heath Duxford PC:
01:06:20 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Nature Recovery Toolkit: ][content/uploads/2021/01/Doubling-Nature\_Local-nature-recovery-toolkit.pdf](https://naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Doubling-Nature_Local-nature-recovery-toolkit.pdf)
01:06:56 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: [Map of Parishes undertaking Climate and Environmental activities - in East Anglia (so far): ](https://shared.xmap.cloud/?map=deb10f97-d712-443d-82c0-df0aa66d142f)
01:07:47 Sarah - Sandbach, Cheshire: So sorry - I have another meeting at 1pm so will have to go. Very interesting session, thank you. \ 01:10:37 Kirsten Newble - Cambridge: Thank you so much Gillian! *** ### Audiotranscipt: (for AI search engine) 131 \ 00:14:30.650 --> 00:14:35.969 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: So, Jillian, I think we're there at the magic moment. Would you like to go ahead, please, and take charge of the meeting? 132 \ 00:14:36.290 --> 00:14:54.289 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Okay, well, it's lovely that you've joined us, so I will share my screen now. I'm going… what I'm going to do is I'm going to present a presentation that Ian made, to a conference the County was running. In the introduction, we said, 133 \ 00:14:54.420 --> 00:15:00.259 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: at the inaugural meeting of the Nature Recovery from the Ground Up project, 134 \ 00:15:00.450 --> 00:15:04.720 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, we're going to… I'm presenting in… 135 \ 00:15:04.750 --> 00:15:08.540 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: presented it beautifully at the conference. I probably won't match him, but… 136 \ 00:15:08.540 --> 00:15:27.930 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the message will be the same, and it's all about the natural Cambridgeshire toolkit, and we want to extend that into Parish Online. In fact, Duxford has been using Parish Online for it, which I'll talk a bit more about later. And we've also, for many years, had friends of Duxford Green Spaces, which is not 137 \ 00:15:27.930 --> 00:15:31.340 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: parish council, but it's an affiliated organization. 138 \ 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:35.210 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And I'm chair of that as well. 139 \ 00:15:35.510 --> 00:15:39.230 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: vice chair of the parish council, 140 \ 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:42.929 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So, I will be presenting Ian's material. 141 \ 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:57.720 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And hoping that we can move forward. There is a lot of councils interested in it, and we're really, really pleased that County have picked up the ball, if you like, and run with it now. Because they've got the manpower and the 142 \ 00:15:58.100 --> 00:16:00.410 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Facilities and the equipment. 143 \ 00:16:00.680 --> 00:16:09.189 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: and also the will, the time, to really roll this out on a county-wide level. We're starting with South Cairns, of course. 144 \ 00:16:09.610 --> 00:16:11.680 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So, I'll share my screen now. 145 \ 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:14.950 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And… Shit. 146 \ 00:16:17.470 --> 00:16:18.690 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We knew that it is. 147 \ 00:16:21.020 --> 00:16:22.060 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: It's on its way. 148 \ 00:16:22.340 --> 00:16:24.210 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So, I need… 149 \ 00:16:33.170 --> 00:16:34.140 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: No, it's good. 150 \ 00:16:34.830 --> 00:16:36.040 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Can you see that? 151 \ 00:16:36.040 --> 00:16:41.070 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yes. You… if you can, you might want to switch into slideshow mode, Julian. 152 \ 00:16:41.070 --> 00:16:46.850 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's a PD… oh, no, it's not, is it? It's a… I'm not sure how to do that. 153 \ 00:16:52.660 --> 00:16:54.909 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Actually, you're right, it is a PDF. 154 \ 00:16:54.910 --> 00:16:55.480 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Yeah, yeah. 155 \ 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:56.730 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yeah, you're… 156 \ 00:16:57.690 --> 00:17:01.090 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: is all… Make it bigger. 157 \ 00:17:01.250 --> 00:17:02.720 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yeah, there you go. 158 \ 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:04.010 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And try it. 159 \ 00:17:07.250 --> 00:17:07.940 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Go! 160 \ 00:17:08.460 --> 00:17:11.920 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I can probably get rid of that, can't I? Yes. 161 \ 00:17:12.040 --> 00:17:15.019 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think that's the best I can do. 162 \ 00:17:15.020 --> 00:17:15.849 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Okay, you're all safe. 163 \ 00:17:16.229 --> 00:17:21.359 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So, biodiversity in Action, this is the case study for Duxford Parish Council. 164 \ 00:17:21.659 --> 00:17:26.919 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We started some years ago. We had been doing it, but not… 165 \ 00:17:27.069 --> 00:17:37.979 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: not, with a name, if you like. And then Ian joined the council, who is really big into biodiversity, and he's… he's… 166 \ 00:17:38.719 --> 00:17:46.149 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: wrote the biodiversity strategy, which we used a template that was provided by county. 167 \ 00:17:46.989 --> 00:18:02.249 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I'm not absolutely sure of that. I'll probably find out in this presentation later. I'm sorry, my voice is a bit croaky. I will be coughing a little bit because I've had a cold, but I'm better now, I just can't get rid of this frog in my throat. 168 \ 00:18:02.979 --> 00:18:09.419 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: What we realized very early on is you have to be ambitious, but you also have to be realistic. 169 \ 00:18:10.159 --> 00:18:14.999 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It is difficult to know where to start, especially if you're starting from scratch. 170 \ 00:18:15.159 --> 00:18:27.149 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But if you start small, and find things that you can do, and then you can put them together and create your strategy, and you will see what works and what doesn't quite quickly. 171 \ 00:18:29.019 --> 00:18:36.339 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: we… you… you do get better, one, at fundraising. There's a lot of money out there for green grants. 172 \ 00:18:36.449 --> 00:18:51.019 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And you need to bring people with you. We have… we're very lucky in Duxeter. We've got 3, 4 businesses that are very keen on biodiversity. They've all got biodiversity managers, and we've liaised with them. 173 \ 00:18:51.339 --> 00:19:00.849 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We've liaised with, obviously Friends of Duxford Green Spaces, because it's… it's not all the same people that are in it, but there are a lot of overlaps. 174 \ 00:19:01.159 --> 00:19:05.699 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And we've, had nature festivals and things like that, but we… 175 \ 00:19:06.069 --> 00:19:11.999 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Have brought the parishioners with us, and people have seen results, which they're very happy with. 176 \ 00:19:12.479 --> 00:19:21.839 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Volunteers… Ian says, build a merry tribe of helpers. A lot of early projects need volunteer… a lot of projects need volunteer labour. 177 \ 00:19:22.489 --> 00:19:30.949 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's easy to try to build a merry band of helpers. Sometimes it's quite difficult, as we all know, to get a lot of helpers. 178 \ 00:19:31.239 --> 00:19:36.419 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Ian's been very successful on the allotments. There's a slide on that later. 179 \ 00:19:36.669 --> 00:19:41.599 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I found it quite difficult for a brewery field, the community green space. I have 180 \ 00:19:41.809 --> 00:19:46.619 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: A very small core of volunteers, but they're very keen. 181 \ 00:19:46.759 --> 00:19:54.679 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I've had help from some of the businesses for volunteers. SMT, who used to be Volvo, they have a… 182 \ 00:19:54.999 --> 00:20:00.509 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: fact… business on the A505, just before you leave Duxford. 183 \ 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:06.519 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And they usually give us people at least twice a year for either a full day or a half day. 184 \ 00:20:06.629 --> 00:20:09.969 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So it's always worth asking businesses that are local. 185 \ 00:20:11.509 --> 00:20:28.139 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: SCDC have been incredibly helpful. They're very helpful finding funding for us if we're struggling with that, and there are a lot of tools out there to find funding that match your projects now. Action Funder is one of them. 186 \ 00:20:28.139 --> 00:20:36.339 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And CCF, the Community, Cambridgeshire Community Foundation, I think, also looks… will help look for funding. 187 \ 00:20:36.899 --> 00:20:47.149 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We have not managed to build a very good network with adjacent parish councils, but this project is helping with that tremendously. 188 \ 00:20:48.989 --> 00:20:55.449 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Some projects are zero cost. Nomo May is one of them. Nomo May has 189 \ 00:20:55.629 --> 00:20:59.999 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We've experienced for and against on No Mow May. 190 \ 00:21:00.139 --> 00:21:12.669 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: it's a great thing to start off with, but really, it needs to be expanded into later than May, because we experienced the, 191 \ 00:21:13.149 --> 00:21:15.479 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The mower's coming in… in… 192 \ 00:21:15.749 --> 00:21:22.509 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: March and April, leaving it for May, but then coming in at the beginning of June again. So… 193 \ 00:21:22.739 --> 00:21:30.919 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: although you are getting a month with no cutting, it's not really helping the pollinators that much, I've found. 194 \ 00:21:31.169 --> 00:21:39.529 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So we have now asked our contractors to leave wide verges, Uncut for the summer. 195 \ 00:21:39.869 --> 00:21:42.669 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So they mow them in… April? 196 \ 00:21:43.099 --> 00:21:47.749 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And then we ask them to leave them uncut May, June, and July. 197 \ 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:59.229 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And maybe August, too. It depends on the weather. But if it's a wide verge, we get the… the one meter by the curb cut. 198 \ 00:21:59.589 --> 00:22:05.359 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: To make it still look cared for, which keeps the tidy people happy to a certain extent. 199 \ 00:22:05.959 --> 00:22:15.099 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The areas within the village, like the War Memorial, the green, we cut, Over the summer, because 200 \ 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:23.069 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: These are areas which make the village look good, and usually the residents want those areas cut. 201 \ 00:22:23.189 --> 00:22:29.059 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's… it's a… It's one thing you have to decide on your own parish. 202 \ 00:22:29.169 --> 00:22:44.819 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: on a… on a case-by-case basis, I would say. And some residents are really on board with letting the wildflowers grow, others not so. So the… the best solution we've found is to let some of the verge grow. 203 \ 00:22:45.339 --> 00:22:46.179 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And… 204 \ 00:22:46.519 --> 00:22:53.809 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Cut an area of it, so it looks cared for, but you are leaving a wildflower zone for the pollinators. 205 \ 00:22:55.859 --> 00:22:59.569 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Everybody's got an opinion on it, and it's worth discussing it. 206 \ 00:22:59.709 --> 00:23:06.629 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Especially if you have coffee mornings, or, get-togethers with your volunteers. 207 \ 00:23:06.989 --> 00:23:15.159 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Hedges are one of the most amazing things you can do for wildlife. I didn't know until recently that turtle doves 208 \ 00:23:15.299 --> 00:23:20.849 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Will only nest in a hedge that's about 3 meters wide. 209 \ 00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:35.749 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And turtle doves are pretty rare. So we are allowing our hedges to grow where we can. Obviously, you've got issues where there are pavements and line of sight, but where we can, we are letting the hedges grow taller and wider. 210 \ 00:23:36.309 --> 00:23:41.969 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The contractors are not so keen, of course, because it means they need longer ladders and longer tools. 211 \ 00:23:42.189 --> 00:23:45.989 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But it is a real win for wildlife. 212 \ 00:23:48.489 --> 00:23:54.889 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And we don't allow our contractors to cut the hedge even around the recreation ground. 213 \ 00:23:55.149 --> 00:23:58.419 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: March to August, inclusive. 214 \ 00:23:58.629 --> 00:24:01.219 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Because of the bird nesting season. 215 \ 00:24:01.899 --> 00:24:05.939 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And we ask them to leave the berries and the ivy that's, 216 \ 00:24:06.239 --> 00:24:12.069 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Seeding, which is one of the late pollinating plants, into winter if they can. 217 \ 00:24:12.329 --> 00:24:24.279 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But of course, we do need to cut where there's safety issues, where there's line of sight, where brambles are encroaching onto pavements. There's all these things to, consider. Excuse me. 218 \ 00:24:25.549 --> 00:24:33.089 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Hedges that are allowed to grow like this are amazing. They look wonderful. They have loads of berries, and they are full of birds. 219 \ 00:24:33.219 --> 00:24:39.819 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We have them on Brewery Field. And yes, we will at some time have to cut them a bit in the future, but 220 \ 00:24:40.209 --> 00:24:41.759 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It will be… 221 \ 00:24:42.419 --> 00:24:54.019 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: section by section. So we might cut a section of 3 meters one year, leave the rest to grow, cut another section of 3 meters another year. It's a good way of managing wide hedges. 222 \ 00:24:54.869 --> 00:25:02.189 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Gardens. Now, these are… We started off the wildlife garden project 223 \ 00:25:02.369 --> 00:25:07.619 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: at the first Festival of Nature, which was… Not last year. 224 \ 00:25:07.949 --> 00:25:10.289 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's about 2021, I think. 225 \ 00:25:10.839 --> 00:25:14.889 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's the cheapest, quickest, and most effective way. 226 \ 00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:19.919 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: to get wildlife corridors. If you can get gardens that join up. 227 \ 00:25:20.159 --> 00:25:28.679 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: then you will have the most amazing wildlife areas. This picture, I think, is Ian's garden last summer. 228 \ 00:25:30.239 --> 00:25:33.589 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And gardens play a key role. We have… 229 \ 00:25:33.819 --> 00:25:41.409 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We have, I will just show you this. I have… This is the next. 230 \ 00:25:42.229 --> 00:25:48.299 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: slide, Duxford Nature Networks. I wonder if I can just increase… oh, that's better. 231 \ 00:25:51.989 --> 00:25:58.169 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: This is my duck's… my. It's my, because I drew the map on Parish Online. Thank you very much. 232 \ 00:25:58.359 --> 00:26:05.609 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's really made such a difference. It looks much more professional now. I was doing it on 233 \ 00:26:05.919 --> 00:26:12.159 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: printed sheets and colouring in with highlighters, so this is just amazing. This is Duxford. 234 \ 00:26:12.629 --> 00:26:21.439 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: These are… are… ready-made, if you like, wildlife corridors. This is the railway line, and this is the river. 235 \ 00:26:22.179 --> 00:26:31.249 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So I've put them in as green. And the idea… the big areas, this is Brewery Field, this is the allotment gardens. 236 \ 00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:34.939 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The other areas are privately owned. 237 \ 00:26:35.099 --> 00:26:44.509 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The recreation ground should be in green as well, because although it has a lot of manicured areas, we have certain wildlife areas on it. 238 \ 00:26:44.879 --> 00:26:50.169 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: For people to add their own garden to these, this map. 239 \ 00:26:50.479 --> 00:26:59.169 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We ask, then, to do a number of things, and this is my Friends of Duxford Green Spaces 240 \ 00:26:59.299 --> 00:27:06.179 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: network, website. And this is the page for Duxford Nature Network. 241 \ 00:27:06.769 --> 00:27:13.719 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Have you signed up your garden? And we have information here. We have some nice pictures. 242 \ 00:27:14.189 --> 00:27:22.519 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And advice of what you need to make your garden wildlife friendly. So we've got water, We've got food. 243 \ 00:27:23.979 --> 00:27:27.919 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We've got habitat and shelter, management of your garden. 244 \ 00:27:28.709 --> 00:27:35.759 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, there's information, there's also link to information from the Wildlife Trust. 245 \ 00:27:37.779 --> 00:27:43.469 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And… We don't say they can only sign their garden up. 246 \ 00:27:44.099 --> 00:27:45.539 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: if, 247 \ 00:27:49.719 --> 00:27:54.639 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: To get back to… How do I get rid of that box? 248 \ 00:27:57.239 --> 00:27:59.939 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Can you see that box I'm trying to get? 249 \ 00:28:00.199 --> 00:28:02.099 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: One of my kids. 250 \ 00:28:03.449 --> 00:28:07.759 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Okay… Yeah. 251 \ 00:28:09.179 --> 00:28:17.529 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We don't… we don't say you can only put your garden on the map if you do every single one of those things. That wouldn't be fair. 252 \ 00:28:17.699 --> 00:28:29.299 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And a lot of them might not be able to. One won't have a hole in the fence, for instance, because they have a small dog, or a cat, and they don't want them to get out. 253 \ 00:28:29.479 --> 00:28:40.979 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: One, won't… says, well, I… I can't have a pond because I've got children. So we… we say, as long as you're doing a lot of those things, you can… 254 \ 00:28:41.109 --> 00:28:57.169 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: put your garden on the map, and in Parish Online, I am actually annotating what they've ticked when they sign their gardens up. So I'm keeping a database of who has got what, even though it's not necessarily visible on the map. 255 \ 00:28:58.739 --> 00:29:02.459 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We've got 42 at the moment, and 256 \ 00:29:02.839 --> 00:29:09.569 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We hope to have a lot more soon. I need to be a little bit more proactive getting people to sign up now. 257 \ 00:29:10.989 --> 00:29:13.339 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Nature festivals, we've had two. 258 \ 00:29:13.819 --> 00:29:17.829 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Here we are, May 2023 and September 24. 259 \ 00:29:18.419 --> 00:29:19.529 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the thought. 260 \ 00:29:19.909 --> 00:29:22.419 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Yeah, that's probably right. 261 \ 00:29:23.339 --> 00:29:30.689 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We would like to have another one, of course. It was… they both were very successful. Pippa supported them, our MP. 262 \ 00:29:30.929 --> 00:29:39.799 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Very, very well, and we were incredibly lucky with the weather on both days, which helps, of course. 263 \ 00:29:40.359 --> 00:29:41.869 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But… 264 \ 00:29:42.349 --> 00:29:52.449 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Nature festivals, as any village event, take a lot of work and a lot of effort. So, I'm sure we will have another one at some point, but whether it'll be 265 \ 00:29:53.459 --> 00:29:55.619 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Nec… ni- next year? 266 \ 00:29:55.759 --> 00:29:58.809 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Or what… what date it might be. 267 \ 00:29:59.239 --> 00:30:00.279 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I'm sorry. 268 \ 00:30:04.819 --> 00:30:06.969 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: That is to be decided. 269 \ 00:30:08.709 --> 00:30:15.139 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It really… we got the school involved, and this is… this is one thing that I think… 270 \ 00:30:15.259 --> 00:30:17.009 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: is very important. 271 \ 00:30:18.389 --> 00:30:25.149 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The youngsters can be in danger of losing contact with nature, but also, if you get your youngsters involved. 272 \ 00:30:25.629 --> 00:30:42.799 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And start teaching them all the good stuff, and how to get your wildlife garden friendly, then they go home and badger the parents, which is a win-win situation, because it becomes a circular way of just improving biodiversity. 273 \ 00:30:43.169 --> 00:30:47.639 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We've got two councillors, Ian and Heather, who liaise with the school. 274 \ 00:30:47.749 --> 00:30:51.479 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And the school has their own eco-group and garden group. 275 \ 00:30:51.699 --> 00:30:58.249 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And Ian and Heather did a river day. They came out in small groups. It's a primary school. 276 \ 00:30:58.479 --> 00:31:08.019 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, went to the talk stream, and it's a tribute of the grantor, I think. 277 \ 00:31:08.869 --> 00:31:10.209 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, 278 \ 00:31:11.349 --> 00:31:21.009 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: collected… counted river fly, which are tiny little insects within the river. It was a very… they loved it. They said it was the best thing that had happened that summer. 279 \ 00:31:21.949 --> 00:31:29.949 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The allotment Biodiversity project was led by Ian, and he applied for a grant. It was a community chest grant. 280 \ 00:31:30.269 --> 00:31:33.729 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And the parish council max-funded it. 281 \ 00:31:34.479 --> 00:31:41.589 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And with that money, I think it was, Oh, is that 50%? 282 \ 00:31:42.469 --> 00:31:46.349 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: No, no, I think… I think they had about 4,000 in the end. 283 \ 00:31:47.229 --> 00:31:57.489 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But you can see, in here, he planted 70 trees that we had a lot of volunteers helping that day, because the allotmenteers were all benefiting as well. 284 \ 00:31:57.679 --> 00:32:14.549 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: They created a very large section of dry hedge, which has since been expanded hugely around the allotments, because the allotmenteers have realized that it's a really good way of getting rid of all the twigs and things that they normally had to either burn or take to the tip. 285 \ 00:32:14.949 --> 00:32:20.149 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: They installed bird boxes, planted bulbs, and lots of hedge plants. 286 \ 00:32:20.359 --> 00:32:22.449 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The, the volunteers… 287 \ 00:32:22.629 --> 00:32:32.259 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: were amazing. They… they spent a lot of time doing this. These pictures show this is the dry hedge before anything was fitted into it. 288 \ 00:32:32.539 --> 00:32:38.129 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And on… This one, you can see a dry hedge. 289 \ 00:32:38.549 --> 00:32:39.499 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Here. 290 \ 00:32:39.709 --> 00:32:46.279 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Which has everything in it already, so, should I keep getting that. 291 \ 00:32:46.449 --> 00:32:47.409 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Silly. 292 \ 00:32:54.289 --> 00:33:05.579 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Ian also was very, successful in applying for a £10,000 grant from the Rural England Prosperity Fund. 293 \ 00:33:05.789 --> 00:33:07.919 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And with this, we… 294 \ 00:33:08.089 --> 00:33:16.009 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: planted… I have to say, Ian did most of the work with his family, but we planted 160 beech 295 \ 00:33:16.689 --> 00:33:19.089 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: reaches 400 holly. 296 \ 00:33:19.249 --> 00:33:24.459 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And 2,000 bulbs, mostly native daffodils and English bluebells. 297 \ 00:33:25.059 --> 00:33:33.319 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The hedge species will attract butterflies, and they were all chosen, especially, to support biodiversity. 298 \ 00:33:34.179 --> 00:33:38.229 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We then had the driest summer ever, I think, 299 \ 00:33:38.509 --> 00:33:48.749 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, there was a lot of watering to be done. It's one thing that you have to consider if you are going to plant trees, shrubs, especially, 300 \ 00:33:49.559 --> 00:33:54.579 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: reasonable… well, actually, even the whips. They all need watering if it's dry. 301 \ 00:33:54.989 --> 00:33:57.919 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And large trees that need a lot of water. 302 \ 00:33:58.199 --> 00:34:16.289 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Even if they've been, planted with a root ball, they will not survive a dry summer without… after moving for the first year, at least. And really, you need to keep watering them, we've realized on Brewery Field for about 3 or 4 years minimum. 303 \ 00:34:16.989 --> 00:34:24.889 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Our trees are now surviving on brewery field quite well, the large ones, without any further… intervention. 304 \ 00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:28.889 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: These are our longer ambition. 305 \ 00:34:29.049 --> 00:34:38.079 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: and our strategic objectives. We want to really make the wildlife corridors, so link the gardens, link the green spaces. 306 \ 00:34:38.309 --> 00:34:43.959 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We have two protected road verges, which have been very poorly managed in the past. 307 \ 00:34:44.179 --> 00:34:51.289 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We're now liaising with highways, who were… are still responsible for mowing them. 308 \ 00:34:51.529 --> 00:34:58.009 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: They knew, the correct way to mow them, but the contractors that they employed weren't mowing them correctly. 309 \ 00:34:58.119 --> 00:35:04.229 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: These are now being properly monitored, and we're hoping that we will recover some of the rare plants. 310 \ 00:35:04.409 --> 00:35:09.669 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: some have been lost, but there are still a number in the verges. 311 \ 00:35:10.049 --> 00:35:16.319 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's very, very worthwhile getting an ecologist involved. We're very lucky to have an ecologist 312 \ 00:35:16.769 --> 00:35:26.809 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: involved with this project, particularly. Her name is Grace, and she is monitoring the verges for us. 313 \ 00:35:28.089 --> 00:35:32.579 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And coming up with a plan for all our public green spaces. 314 \ 00:35:33.619 --> 00:35:46.559 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Our village roadside verges, we are mowing much better now. We're not mowing the wide ones in the summer, and we're trying to get them to mow much later, towards the autumn. 315 \ 00:35:47.249 --> 00:35:52.599 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We do try to liaise with the contractors so that we can get a 316 \ 00:35:53.169 --> 00:35:58.619 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Survey, so that we can survey before they cut in the autumn. 317 \ 00:35:58.739 --> 00:36:11.149 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Because then we can really monitor how many new species and good pollinating plants we've got on the verges. I think getting experts involved to monitor 318 \ 00:36:11.259 --> 00:36:19.529 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: and do biodiversity surveys is worth it. And most local ecologies are very… ecologists are very keen to help. 319 \ 00:36:19.669 --> 00:36:29.689 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I also have Ashley in Whittlesford, who helps me… helped me tremendously on Brewery Field, and still does the biodiversity surveys for me on there. 320 \ 00:36:30.899 --> 00:36:38.959 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We want to move from 42 gardens to 150 gardens, and we want to enhance the local river. 321 \ 00:36:39.319 --> 00:36:41.819 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We have a very beautiful 322 \ 00:36:42.059 --> 00:36:46.949 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: chalk stream running along the side of Duxford near the railway line. 323 \ 00:36:47.169 --> 00:36:50.999 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We want to… we've got… we've planted a lot of new hedges. 324 \ 00:36:51.139 --> 00:36:58.029 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We probably aren't applying for any free hedging plants this year. 325 \ 00:36:58.279 --> 00:37:08.279 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We used to… we have done that every year, but we're running out of space to put them at the moment, as they have to go on public accessible land. 326 \ 00:37:08.699 --> 00:37:10.129 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Pull 3 trees. 327 \ 00:37:11.099 --> 00:37:18.199 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But we are still looking to replenish existing hedges and, 328 \ 00:37:18.469 --> 00:37:22.109 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Maybe plant new ones if we can work out ways to put them. 329 \ 00:37:23.099 --> 00:37:27.719 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We will plant 500 new trees. We've planted… this last year, we… 330 \ 00:37:28.149 --> 00:37:47.319 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: worked with our tree surgeon, Mercer, and they planted 15 very large trees around the village. And the parish council agreed to a 3-year maintenance project for those trees, because they will need, and they did this summer, need watering weekly. 331 \ 00:37:47.449 --> 00:38:01.599 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: masses of water. And luckily, the parish council agreed to fund that maintenance. Otherwise, I think we would have lost those trees. It's always something to consider, that when you plant, you have to 332 \ 00:38:02.179 --> 00:38:04.329 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Maintain as well. 333 \ 00:38:05.649 --> 00:38:14.509 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: a new wildflower meadow we would love to plant. We haven't really got the site for that at the moment. We are thinking of… 334 \ 00:38:15.729 --> 00:38:20.999 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We are thinking of, patches of meadow. 335 \ 00:38:21.189 --> 00:38:32.749 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: like, large patches of meadow on Brewery Field that we will plant up, maybe with plug plants. I have the money in Friends of Duxford Green Spaces I can use for that, and I will apply for grants as well. 336 \ 00:38:33.809 --> 00:38:34.819 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: on… 337 \ 00:38:35.389 --> 00:38:43.869 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: A new idea, which we've just… it's not on this slide, is, on Brewery Field, I have a mound next to the pond. 338 \ 00:38:44.739 --> 00:38:48.019 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And when we created the mound, we… the… 339 \ 00:38:48.449 --> 00:38:55.239 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Builders brought in a lot of chalk, and also some topsoil to make the mound bigger. 340 \ 00:38:55.999 --> 00:38:57.119 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: we… 341 \ 00:38:57.229 --> 00:39:16.549 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Had we… in hindsight, we should have kept the torque face on the south side, because then we are so talky here. We would have had a lovely torque south-facing mound. I'm going to try and get some money to scrape the topsoil off that side of the mound and put it at the back of the mound. 342 \ 00:39:16.589 --> 00:39:20.609 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So that we do have a nice chalk face on the mound. 343 \ 00:39:20.729 --> 00:39:26.869 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We want to put new Swift and House Martin boxes, and lots of bird and bat boxes up. 344 \ 00:39:27.579 --> 00:39:32.799 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And any specific projects or ideas that neighbours come up with? 345 \ 00:39:34.619 --> 00:39:45.099 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: This slide, This map was drawn up by Jean Kelly from Hildersham. 346 \ 00:39:45.849 --> 00:40:02.969 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And she wrote to every parish in South Thames in 2023-24 and coded this map. There's no key on this slide, but I will, put it in the notes. The grey means she didn't get an answer. 347 \ 00:40:03.319 --> 00:40:07.909 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: She… she was asking these questions. 348 \ 00:40:08.079 --> 00:40:14.429 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And the light green knows they're aware of a need, but they haven't finalized a plan yet. 349 \ 00:40:14.549 --> 00:40:25.389 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the mid-green, they've got a plan, but they're only just starting on implementation, and the dark green means that we're advanced implementation, as we are in Duxford. 350 \ 00:40:25.639 --> 00:40:35.239 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the grade doesn't mean they've done nothing. It just means we don't have any information. But the idea of this, toolkit and this, 351 \ 00:40:36.099 --> 00:40:42.419 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Nature Recovery Programme is that we will have a full picture of all the councils. 352 \ 00:40:42.729 --> 00:40:46.709 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And as Ian says, just start, and the magic will happen. 353 \ 00:40:47.529 --> 00:40:55.529 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Oh, it wasn't Ian. If you brew your own cauldron, magic will surely happen. Dara McNulty. 354 \ 00:40:56.069 --> 00:41:00.319 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And he's put some links on here. I will share this, obviously. 355 \ 00:41:00.609 --> 00:41:09.219 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the links, and I will also put, the link to Duxford's Nature Network on 356 \ 00:41:09.659 --> 00:41:11.749 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Lessons learned so far. 357 \ 00:41:13.059 --> 00:41:14.449 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It is… 358 \ 00:41:14.659 --> 00:41:23.699 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: it does… it might seem a bit daunting to start with, especially when you start thinking of how I'm going to map it and keep all this information, but… 359 \ 00:41:23.879 --> 00:41:27.019 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The people that are experts in it will help. 360 \ 00:41:28.379 --> 00:41:35.389 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And with the strategy, template provided, it makes it a lot easier. 361 \ 00:41:36.139 --> 00:41:42.979 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: If you talk to as many people as you can, your businesses, your parishioners, Your counsellors, your friends. 362 \ 00:41:43.519 --> 00:41:50.079 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And try to create a nature network in some way, then people will become involved. 363 \ 00:41:52.489 --> 00:42:02.629 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Ian says, have a destination in mind. It's true. If you plan something, and have a strategy, then it helps to focus on how to get there. 364 \ 00:42:03.089 --> 00:42:07.299 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Volunteers are key. You will have some. 365 \ 00:42:08.009 --> 00:42:11.149 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But in Duxford, there are a lot of 366 \ 00:42:12.049 --> 00:42:25.509 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: People that are keen to help, but the young people have jobs and families, and a lot of the older people are getting very old now and don't have the energy or necessarily the enthusiasm for 367 \ 00:42:25.929 --> 00:42:28.479 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Some hard work outside. 368 \ 00:42:28.839 --> 00:42:36.219 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But there's always something people can do, even if they're just good at the techy stuff. I mean, do the parish online work, things like that. 369 \ 00:42:37.029 --> 00:42:49.549 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The chances to get grants are very good. It's pretty… it can be a bit of a fuss and quite onerous applying for money, but once you've done it a couple of times, you've got the words for the next one, basically. 370 \ 00:42:49.819 --> 00:42:55.149 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And there is an awful lot of money out there in the form of green grants. 371 \ 00:42:55.969 --> 00:43:06.439 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Often, on public land, it's more, easy, because if the parish council own the land, it'll be much easier to get approval. 372 \ 00:43:06.849 --> 00:43:09.219 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Then you don't have to… 373 \ 00:43:09.359 --> 00:43:12.309 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Jump through any hopes, because it's yours. 374 \ 00:43:13.779 --> 00:43:18.879 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: it's been a joy to work with Ian on this, and 375 \ 00:43:19.539 --> 00:43:23.579 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, and Heather as well, who's doing a lot with the school. 376 \ 00:43:23.909 --> 00:43:26.899 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think… I think our… 377 \ 00:43:27.359 --> 00:43:30.449 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And something I wanted to show you here. 378 \ 00:43:36.869 --> 00:43:47.179 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: This is from the Nature Recovery Toolkit. This is an evolving document, it's not our document, it's County's document. And… 379 \ 00:43:51.499 --> 00:43:54.489 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the Natural Cambridgeshire Toolkit. 380 \ 00:43:55.179 --> 00:44:03.119 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And these… this is some areas that they've put in. So, decide your objective, develop a nature recovery map. 381 \ 00:44:03.509 --> 00:44:07.879 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Develop a timeline, a plan for maintenance, what's next? 382 \ 00:44:09.229 --> 00:44:22.469 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And this is all part of Natural Cambridgeshire. This is a great document. There's a lot of information in there on… on different areas, how to look at different, 383 \ 00:44:23.019 --> 00:44:28.219 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: initiatives to increase Biodiversity in those areas. 384 \ 00:44:28.679 --> 00:44:30.519 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And 385 \ 00:44:30.689 --> 00:44:39.619 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I just can't emphasize enough. I mean, I hope I haven't overloaded you, because there's so much information out there. 386 \ 00:44:39.869 --> 00:44:45.329 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But… I'll stop sharing my screen now, if I can… 387 \ 00:44:50.389 --> 00:44:53.929 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: How to do it… Stop sharing. 388 \ 00:44:54.319 --> 00:45:01.569 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Yeah, I hope I haven't overloaded you, and I'm sorry about my voice. I just… 389 \ 00:45:02.919 --> 00:45:06.059 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Wanted to try and get as much information across. 390 \ 00:45:06.389 --> 00:45:16.179 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: and… the parish online map, I can talk about in more detail, but I just thought I'd cover 391 \ 00:45:16.619 --> 00:45:18.399 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the main subjects. 392 \ 00:45:20.040 --> 00:45:20.800 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Any questions? 393 \ 00:45:20.800 --> 00:45:21.650 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: questions. 394 \ 00:45:22.070 --> 00:45:28.670 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: That's really great, Gillian. Thank you so much, because I found it very interesting, that we have 395 \ 00:45:29.670 --> 00:45:35.710 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Magic connections between your 10 lessons learned, or, 396 \ 00:45:35.990 --> 00:45:59.110 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: things that you really found out. We've started a nature recovery or system in Somerset, so the opposite side of the country from you, and have found exactly the same things, that once you get started with a couple of volunteers, then they all start coming out of the woodwork. If you get the school children involved, then the whole enthusiasm level jumps to a whole new high, and as you say, they go back and badger their parents into 397 \ 00:45:59.110 --> 00:46:05.650 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: turning a garden into a wildlife area, or making a corridor for the hedgehogs, or whatever it happens to be. So it does all… 398 \ 00:46:05.790 --> 00:46:25.679 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: pick up a momentum of its own. So, very encouraging to hear that you Easterners are just as good as the Southwesterners, so well done. But thank you very much. I love the Cambridgeshire, the natural Cambridgeshire list of the toolkit. I'll be putting that onto the knowledge base, because it's clearly going to be helpful to a lot of people. 399 \ 00:46:25.680 --> 00:46:31.490 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: And, I see there's a whole string of questions, so why don't we start going with them? 400 \ 00:46:31.560 --> 00:46:33.990 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: David, would you like to start, please? 401 \ 00:46:35.490 --> 00:46:36.850 \ David Newman: Yes, okay. 402 \ 00:46:37.670 --> 00:46:44.269 \ David Newman: Yeah, so many things, but what I've got are two questions about communication. 403 \ 00:46:45.540 --> 00:46:52.020 \ David Newman: First one is really technical. I notice you show that, the… 404 \ 00:46:52.700 --> 00:47:00.800 \ David Newman: website where people could sign up and register their gardens. What software are you using for the websites? 405 \ 00:47:02.670 --> 00:47:07.690 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We are using WordPress, I don't yet have… 406 \ 00:47:07.870 --> 00:47:15.609 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the ability for people to sign up on the website. I've asked them when they want to sign up to email me. 407 \ 00:47:16.500 --> 00:47:21.969 \ David Newman: Alright, so emails, or I suppose you could also use something like a Google Form, okay, yeah? 408 \ 00:47:21.970 --> 00:47:36.880 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I mean, ideally, I want a website where they can go in, say, I want to sign up my garden, and tick the boxes on the website, and that will go directly into my database, but I am nowhere near that yet. 409 \ 00:47:37.110 --> 00:47:43.189 \ David Newman: Alright, and the other one is more human side. How do you recruit volunteers? 410 \ 00:47:44.800 --> 00:47:46.100 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: word of mouth. 411 \ 00:47:46.700 --> 00:47:59.019 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I have… my group, Friends of Duxford Green Spaces, I have about 38 members. Duxford has 2,000 people in the village, about 800 households. 412 \ 00:47:59.230 --> 00:48:04.679 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And… Of those 38 members, there are… 413 \ 00:48:06.220 --> 00:48:10.490 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Four, who regularly volunteer with… for me. 414 \ 00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:18.439 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I'm… I've just seen how dark I look. I'm sorry, I look like I'm sitting in the dark. The sun was coming in 415 \ 00:48:21.580 --> 00:48:22.600 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Maybe. 416 \ 00:48:23.070 --> 00:48:26.980 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's a bit better. And, 417 \ 00:48:28.760 --> 00:48:31.719 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I find it really difficult. I have a… 418 \ 00:48:31.970 --> 00:48:37.349 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Luckily, a very helpful husband, who gets roped into doing an awful lot with me. 419 \ 00:48:37.630 --> 00:48:47.420 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And we've got the company who give us people, and I've got 2 or 3 councillors who help, but they can't help every time, because they've got jobs as well. 420 \ 00:48:48.420 --> 00:48:52.910 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's, it's tricky. It's tricky. 421 \ 00:48:53.750 --> 00:48:59.719 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I do find, for Brewery Field, my community green space, the people 422 \ 00:49:00.020 --> 00:49:05.799 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Really are willing to help are the people that live in the street next door, because it's in their own interests. 423 \ 00:49:06.960 --> 00:49:09.169 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: They're looking at that site all the time. 424 \ 00:49:11.620 --> 00:49:13.130 \ David Newman: Okay. Okay, thanks. 425 \ 00:49:17.410 --> 00:49:19.620 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Okay, let's move on to Stuart, please. 426 \ 00:49:20.510 --> 00:49:23.609 \ Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Hi, thank you. I'd like to thank Julian for… 427 \ 00:49:24.400 --> 00:49:33.770 \ Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: obviously an amazing effort. I think every parish should be looking to you as a guiding light. 428 \ 00:49:34.090 --> 00:49:35.940 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Fantastic. 429 \ 00:49:36.560 --> 00:49:48.600 \ Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I was just wondering, along the, sort of, BNG, sort of, lines, have you got any, sort of, baseline measurements before you embarked on this? 430 \ 00:49:49.300 --> 00:49:55.410 \ Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: And are you in any way tracking the changes which you hope you've made? 431 \ 00:49:56.440 --> 00:49:57.400 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: we… 432 \ 00:49:57.950 --> 00:50:11.250 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: are probably doing that more now. We've got Grace involved. I certainly do have a record for my community green space on Brewery Field. 433 \ 00:50:11.570 --> 00:50:18.009 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Because… Ashley Arbin, who's the ecologist in Whittlesford, who helped me. 434 \ 00:50:18.470 --> 00:50:26.729 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: He, was on board right from the word go, and he did a biodiversity study when it was still a farmer's field for me. 435 \ 00:50:27.210 --> 00:50:47.209 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And he does regular studies for me now. Surveys, I should say. And he keeps a record of those. And that's another thing I would like to put on the website. I always ask people to send their sightings. I have a Facebook page. I ask people to photograph anything they see and send me a sighting. 436 \ 00:50:47.310 --> 00:50:53.219 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And if they do that, I keep records of it. But Breweryfield is… 437 \ 00:50:53.370 --> 00:51:01.700 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Regularly monitored, and we will definitely have a progression chart for that at some point in the future. 438 \ 00:51:02.070 --> 00:51:10.030 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: There are other public areas in the village, such as the Biggin and the allotments, even. 439 \ 00:51:10.180 --> 00:51:30.179 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And I think they are being surveyed now, but they weren't in the past. So we will, going forward, have… have a record of all the public areas in the village. And I think the Duxford Nature Network, the gardens and the wildlife corridors I'm trying to link up. 440 \ 00:51:30.270 --> 00:51:32.579 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Will be another measure. 441 \ 00:51:32.930 --> 00:51:35.529 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Although very difficult to quantify. 442 \ 00:51:36.670 --> 00:51:45.760 \ Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah, I think it's always good for volunteers to see the results of their work and get some feedback. 443 \ 00:51:46.010 --> 00:51:54.819 \ Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah. And I think that goes a long way to encouraging other people to get involved, if they can actually see that they're making a difference. 444 \ 00:51:55.470 --> 00:52:10.269 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And that's very true. But I do have… I mean, every time I'm on brewery field working, people stop me and say, this is the most amazing thing, we can't believe how much it's changed. It was a farmer's field in 2017. 445 \ 00:52:10.270 --> 00:52:10.890 \ Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah. 446 \ 00:52:10.890 --> 00:52:27.749 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And now, and everybody's… and there's a huge amount of dogs on there, and people have put fish in the pond. I mean, it's not perfect, but it's still improving every year, and evolving every year. 447 \ 00:52:28.390 --> 00:52:29.940 \ Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Great. Thanks. 448 \ 00:52:32.240 --> 00:52:33.260 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Rank, please. 449 \ 00:52:37.210 --> 00:52:53.409 \ frank deas, Killearn: Thanks very much. Excellent, Gillian, really interesting to see how you pulled the network together, and I think it's tremendous, and having that template strategy that you're working against makes so much sense. It's really just sharing a couple of things that we do up here as a group on the verge that tries to pollinate your patches. 450 \ 00:52:53.410 --> 00:52:57.220 \ frank deas, Killearn: And we started off doing all the primary schools and the high schools. 451 \ 00:52:57.220 --> 00:53:05.220 \ frank deas, Killearn: What we found as well, because again, volunteers are hard to come by, we've worked with the two local council's community justice teams. 452 \ 00:53:05.220 --> 00:53:17.639 \ frank deas, Killearn: So, if people need to serve a community justice order doing X number of hours work, they can… they may end up deturfing and rotating a space in a school playground that we can then sew with the pupils, so the heavy lifting's done by 453 \ 00:53:17.640 --> 00:53:32.840 \ frank deas, Killearn: by people as a semi-voluntary basis, but it means you don't need to go at the same level of volunteers to work the primary school. I think that's worked very well for us. So if you're not doing that, it's maybe something that's worth looking at if you've got a friendly local community justice team. 454 \ 00:53:32.840 --> 00:53:49.280 \ frank deas, Killearn: And the other one where, in terms of trying to convert areas of the meadows, white areas of the meadows, as well as plug plants. Plug plants, we found, unless you clear quite a big donor site, tend to get swamped. But I'm off tomorrow to do some preparation, for sowing yellow rattle. 455 \ 00:53:49.280 --> 00:54:00.979 \ frank deas, Killearn: So we do matics and scarifying rakes to create 6-inch squares per square meter in the planned site, and then so the yellow rattle this time of year, it stratifies over winter. 456 \ 00:54:00.980 --> 00:54:19.549 \ frank deas, Killearn: And hopefully, in a year's time, you're then able to put in other wildflowers and gain the benefits then. But each local area will have its own way of doing things, and the stuff that you've done sounds tremendous, so well done you. The one you've not mentioned, and maybe it's just not a big issue for you, invasive non-natives? 457 \ 00:54:19.610 --> 00:54:36.430 \ frank deas, Killearn: Do you have much of a challenge with that? Because that's one of our… when we look at nature networks, one of the things we're acutely conscious of is that our rivers are wonderful nature networks, but they're also networks for Pimalayan balsam, and skunk cabbage and giant hogweed. So it's that… 458 \ 00:54:36.430 --> 00:54:41.659 \ frank deas, Killearn: Double-edged sword, that you're encouraging the good stuff, but try and work out how you can eliminate the bad. 459 \ 00:54:42.060 --> 00:54:49.440 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Yeah, we've got Himalay and Boston all along the river. We have, up the road in Hinkston, we have the Welcome Trust. 460 \ 00:54:49.780 --> 00:54:55.670 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And they, they manage their land very well for biodiversity. 461 \ 00:54:55.690 --> 00:55:10.930 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, we are liaising with them now to remove the Himalayan balsam. We get it removed by our contractor on the small area, which is known as the Biggin, which has a river frontage, but it's just a small area. 462 \ 00:55:10.930 --> 00:55:20.790 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We need it… and… and the Welcome Trust are on board with that, and they're going to… they're going to, pick up on that and run with it. The community justice… 463 \ 00:55:20.800 --> 00:55:36.350 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: when you said it, I remembered. One of our councillors did use a team of them to plant some trees about 5 years ago, so I've made a note of that to remember that again, because, it's the heavy work sometimes. Yeah. It's just… 464 \ 00:55:36.770 --> 00:55:43.740 \ frank deas, Killearn: And for them, it's a more fulfilling thing than just doing litter pics or graffiti removal, so… Absolutely. It can work very well. 465 \ 00:55:43.740 --> 00:55:57.649 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And the yellow rattle, you're quite right. I had a success on Brewery Field with yellow rattle, because I bought some seed, and I literally just got a garden rake and scraped it so that you could see the. 466 \ 00:55:57.650 --> 00:55:58.550 \ frank deas, Killearn: Yeah, Arthur. 467 \ 00:55:58.550 --> 00:56:05.779 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: see the earth underneath. We're very, very dry in Duxford. We have our own microclimate. We hardly have any rain. 468 \ 00:56:05.950 --> 00:56:12.010 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And it was successful, and it reseeded itself the following year. 469 \ 00:56:12.230 --> 00:56:26.510 \ frank deas, Killearn: Well, we find now we've got donor sites we can go to to collect yellow vessel seed to try and develop a fresh site, so if you get that virtue circle going, it's really great. And the last one, I think, getting… I mean, I love the idea of people contributing their gardens and mapping it. 470 \ 00:56:26.510 --> 00:56:43.440 \ frank deas, Killearn: But we're trying to do something not that dissimilar up here. We're using… I encourage people to use things like iNaturalist and the RSPB, Big Garden Bird Watch and Butterfly Count to get people thinking about tracking, and then equally recording some of those things locally as success stories, to publicize and promote. 471 \ 00:56:43.900 --> 00:57:02.390 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Yes, that's a good idea. In fact, I must put links to them on the website, and I will… I do always put a link on the Facebook page, you know, when the butterfly count's coming up, or the big burger, because I… it… but I… it would be nice to map into that data as well. It's a really good idea. 472 \ 00:57:03.040 --> 00:57:09.090 \ frank deas, Killearn: But it was… but it's tremendous, and there's lots of things I'm taking away from the presentation that we saw useful for us, so thank you very much. 473 \ 00:57:09.090 --> 00:57:10.259 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Oh, thank you. 474 \ 00:57:10.920 --> 00:57:25.249 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Well done. Now, Graham, I shall ask myself to ask your question, Julian. You mentioned building the mound, and then sorry that you didn't make one… the south face of it, more interwalk. Is there a specific purpose behind the mound? 475 \ 00:57:25.880 --> 00:57:30.209 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: No, the mound… well, the mound started off as the spoil from the pond. 476 \ 00:57:30.210 --> 00:57:31.160 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yes. 477 \ 00:57:31.160 --> 00:57:49.380 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And we always wanted a chalk mound, because it's… it's apparently a very, very, important habitat for a lot of butterflies. And the… we hit… we hit chalk. When you dig in Duxford, you hit chalk when you get to 18 inches, 2 feet, almost solid chalk. 478 \ 00:57:49.640 --> 00:58:00.650 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So we thought, this is going to be great, we're going to have… but then when we dug the pond, even though it's quite a big pond, we had this sort of very slight hill. It wasn't really a mound at all. 479 \ 00:58:00.660 --> 00:58:19.669 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And so we asked the builder who was, helping us to build it. He said, well, I've got a lot of things… he said, I… I can just bring more stuff in from jobs I'm doing. And he… initially, it was more chalk, and it was getting a nice big… but then topsoil came in. 480 \ 00:58:19.670 --> 00:58:23.719 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And the topsoil… I wasn't around at that time, and… 481 \ 00:58:23.840 --> 00:58:31.840 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Unfortunately, the topsoil ended up being put on top of the chalk, and it really should have been put at the back. 482 \ 00:58:32.310 --> 00:58:38.059 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: To create… to allow the talk face to… to be in the sun. 483 \ 00:58:38.400 --> 00:58:43.319 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: One of the, things we're going to do, they… 484 \ 00:58:43.480 --> 00:58:48.170 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: There's a project where they've created big capital letter E's. 485 \ 00:58:48.810 --> 00:58:53.670 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So, the three legs are facing the sun, so you've got 486 \ 00:58:53.990 --> 00:59:11.469 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: different shade, and for different times of day, and apparently that's very, very good for butterfly. I think I'll try and find it, and I'll put a link… I think it was on the big… it's the butterfly, conservation group that have that. 487 \ 00:59:11.480 --> 00:59:18.629 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's quite interesting, because you get different plants growing, and you get different butterflies on each face. 488 \ 00:59:18.790 --> 00:59:29.130 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I'm gonna try and get some money. It's gonna be expensive, and also I've got to do it at the right time of year, because I don't want the diggers churning up my community green space. 489 \ 00:59:29.380 --> 00:59:45.030 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: We put two ponds into the space I'm working with in Somerset, and I just wondered if there was anything specific about the mounds that you found was particularly useful, but the idea of having separate faces towards the sun sounds like a good one. The letter E, that's a great idea. 490 \ 00:59:45.030 --> 00:59:55.919 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think that's a really good idea. The other thing… the other good thing about a mound next to a pond is you can… when you're building it, you can build a hibernaculum in… 491 \ 00:59:56.080 --> 01:00:09.089 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the base of it, or lots of hibernacular, which are… I built them with pallets, and old bits of concrete, and old flower pots, and you can use even plastic. 492 \ 01:00:09.560 --> 01:00:18.740 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: broken pots and things, and they're wonderful places for the newts and the invertebrates to overwinter. 493 \ 01:00:19.590 --> 01:00:22.270 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Thank you very much. Paul, on to you, please. 494 \ 01:00:23.190 --> 01:00:37.340 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Yeah, thank you very much. I'm just going to reiterate what a lot of everyone else said. Fantastic presentation, and yeah, admirable work that's been done, so we're certainly going to be emulating that as much as we can, and stealing as many good ideas and good stuff that you've done 495 \ 01:00:37.340 --> 01:00:44.369 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: for Craig Ellingham, with little shame, but lots of recognition for you guys. 496 \ 01:00:44.370 --> 01:00:49.039 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: You're very welcome. We… I've stolen quite a few ideas myself. 497 \ 01:00:49.040 --> 01:01:07.460 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Unfortunately, I can't offer suggestions on what we've achieved, like Frank was able to, and the starting point on where we are with growing, we're fortunate we've got lots of community groups that are going on, and we've got allotment areas, and there's lots of people interested already in doing stuff. 498 \ 01:01:07.460 --> 01:01:15.519 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: But one of the things that we're looking to do to be able to show value to the wider parish 499 \ 01:01:15.520 --> 01:01:25.609 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: that maybe aren't so engaged, and then they will be more supporting of the investment that we're looking to make, is really going to pick up on Stuart's point, is 500 \ 01:01:25.610 --> 01:01:32.019 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: The starting metrics of where we are now, so that we can then monitor to where we're going to be. 501 \ 01:01:32.020 --> 01:01:53.909 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: And I don't know whether that's something that anybody on this call may be able to help with, but with regards to contacts for initial biodiversity surveys, because that's where we're looking to get engaged now, is to find out where we are from a BNG point of view, and then it's something that we can then monitor on an annual basis to show that 502 \ 01:01:53.910 --> 01:02:00.300 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: The work that we're going to put in planning, is always giving value back to the parish. 503 \ 01:02:00.650 --> 01:02:02.470 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: And, being successful. 504 \ 01:02:03.290 --> 01:02:04.570 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think, 505 \ 01:02:05.980 --> 01:02:15.370 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I could ask… I will ask Ashley, who I speak to on a regular basis, because he may well know ecologists in your area that would be happy to help. 506 \ 01:02:15.640 --> 01:02:17.190 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: That'd be fantastic. 507 \ 01:02:17.190 --> 01:02:22.519 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I can, I can, I can also ask Grace, who's in Duxford. 508 \ 01:02:23.150 --> 01:02:37.109 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: That'd be great, and I think that for the great collaboration as well, is I think that if there's a network, people know people that do a similar kind of job, maybe if we could sort of create a kind of directory, as hopefully more people will join in from other areas, and. 509 \ 01:02:37.110 --> 01:02:37.450 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Right. 510 \ 01:02:37.450 --> 01:02:40.130 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: make it more accessible, because I, you know, I… 511 \ 01:02:40.200 --> 01:02:55.970 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: I think it's great that we can, you know, that we can monitor what is being achieved. We're certainly hoping that, as a parish, people will be engaged. Hedgerows definitely is something which I'm looking at, with land as well, to establish a lot more hedgerows. 512 \ 01:02:55.970 --> 01:03:11.239 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: We're already engaged in the free bits, the no-mo maze, and monitoring that, so we're doing all the free bits. We're now getting to the point where we've got to spend a bit of money, so we've got to make sure that we can… we can evidence to the wider parish that it's a good thing to be doing, and effective, so… 513 \ 01:03:11.240 --> 01:03:18.589 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think that's the way forward, definitely, and it may be that you might have to pay for a biodiversity survey. 514 \ 01:03:18.590 --> 01:03:19.190 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Absolutely, yeah. 515 \ 01:03:19.190 --> 01:03:27.220 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But… but it would be worth it if you do. But in my experience, Ecologists that see 516 \ 01:03:27.390 --> 01:03:45.290 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: how… how important this is, and how… how it's… how enthusiastic people are. I've had… I mean, I haven't paid for a biodiversity survey. I've been so lucky with the help I've… I've had. But if you do have to, it's worth it. 517 \ 01:03:45.720 --> 01:04:04.140 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Yeah, we've got the pre-approval, so there was a vote taken in the last parish council meeting, and the principle of it has been voted on in favor. I've just got to get a quote, if applicable, put in front of people to then sign off on the amount of money, and then hopefully we'll be all systems go, and we can do lots of things, like. 518 \ 01:04:04.140 --> 01:04:26.510 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: plant some more mature trees, and I, I love, I love the green area mapping on that. I think that's such a fantastic idea, almost making it like a gamification version of success for people to really sort of take over. I think it's absolutely fantastic. So, that idea has definitely been made a note of, and, yeah, expected to be stolen sometime soon. 519 \ 01:04:26.510 --> 01:04:27.979 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: If all goes well. 520 \ 01:04:28.660 --> 01:04:33.360 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I'm so pleased you all enjoyed it, thank you. Thank you for all the compliments. 521 \ 01:04:35.500 --> 01:04:36.540 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Thank you very much. 522 \ 01:04:37.570 --> 01:04:39.430 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Very welcome. Frank, you have another thought. 523 \ 01:04:39.430 --> 01:04:46.369 \ frank deas, Killearn: Just… we're in the very early stages of doing this, but we're hoping to work with our local universities and colleges 524 \ 01:04:46.370 --> 01:05:01.390 \ frank deas, Killearn: To either look at ecological groups or courses, particularly, that are doing green courses or ecology, to see if we can get students to do some of the biodiversity surveys, because it gives them a live testbed to work on and learn from, and obviously it gives us 525 \ 01:05:01.390 --> 01:05:05.979 \ frank deas, Killearn: Access to resource, because they'll be supervised by their lecturers. 526 \ 01:05:06.260 --> 01:05:19.179 \ frank deas, Killearn: So there could be a kind of win-win there. So I'll very much be down to, do you have a college or university local to you that's running the appropriate courses? But that might be another source to look to, to see if you can get some help. 527 \ 01:05:20.080 --> 01:05:23.060 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: That's a good idea. That's a really good idea. 528 \ 01:05:23.730 --> 01:05:34.800 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Let me just… That is good advice, Frank, actually, that's, we've got Easton College near us, just on the outskirts of Norwich, and, that's actually where I'm going to this afternoon, to do exactly that. So, yeah. 529 \ 01:05:35.140 --> 01:05:38.230 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: I'm on your wavelength, Frank, thank you. 530 \ 01:05:38.910 --> 01:05:43.570 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Let me share my screen, however, I just want to show you, something that… 531 \ 01:05:44.020 --> 01:05:46.639 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: we're doing for the great collaboration. 532 \ 01:05:47.100 --> 01:05:50.109 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: And bear with me a second. 533 \ 01:06:00.090 --> 01:06:02.860 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: You'd think this was going to be straightforward, wouldn't you? 534 \ 01:06:06.550 --> 01:06:07.980 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Bear with me a second. 535 \ 01:06:10.310 --> 01:06:16.849 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: I had to restart, reload a Mac the other day, and not everything's come back the way it should have done. 536 \ 01:06:37.450 --> 01:06:39.469 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: There we go, I should do it. 537 \ 01:06:42.650 --> 01:06:43.320 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Hmm. 538 \ 01:06:47.470 --> 01:06:52.549 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: No, I think I'm gonna cheat and put a… link in the… 539 \ 01:06:52.750 --> 01:07:03.169 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: chat, which everybody is very welcome to use. So, what we're doing in that link, and by all means go into it now if you want to, is we've added a map 540 \ 01:07:03.330 --> 01:07:21.940 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: to, the knowledge base in which we're tracking everything that people are doing, and I thought that for Paul, people like you, if you're looking to build networks, and you want to track who in your area is doing this stuff, you can do it with the map that we've got here. So, if you go to the 541 \ 01:07:22.100 --> 01:07:28.379 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: a bit on the top left corner that says layers, or whatever it says. Let me just bear with me what it says. 542 \ 01:07:28.380 --> 01:07:29.590 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Irish projects. 543 \ 01:07:29.870 --> 01:07:41.090 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yes, but if you click on those, then you can select anything that you're interested in. So if you want to know who around you is building a community orchard, for instance, you can just click on that, and they all show up. 544 \ 01:07:41.120 --> 01:07:54.490 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: And the same for anything else. So any of the things that you're suggesting, Julian, could go into here, and particularly if you find fellow-minded parishes around you, then they should go in here so that you can all help each other. 545 \ 01:07:54.930 --> 01:07:55.930 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Really good. 546 \ 01:07:55.930 --> 01:08:00.700 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: It's just a matter of clicking on the map and seeing who around you is doing what you're looking to do. 547 \ 01:08:01.490 --> 01:08:02.540 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Fantastic! 548 \ 01:08:02.540 --> 01:08:13.479 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yeah, well, I want to build on that, so, the more that people can feed information back to me, then the more we can make this helpful, and the more it'll spread across the country in due course. 549 \ 01:08:14.300 --> 01:08:23.429 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: But I hope it'll help you people who are putting networks together to actually get them to help each other by recording where they are and what they're doing. 550 \ 01:08:23.439 --> 01:08:24.349 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Very good. 551 \ 01:08:24.640 --> 01:08:37.519 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: And you can… you can turn on as many layers at the same time as you wish, but it tends to get much too complicated, so we tend to turn off a layer, and then turn on a layer, and off you go. And Kirsten, I've already triggered a question in you. 552 \ 01:08:37.520 --> 01:08:54.909 \ Kirsten Newble - Cambridge: I'm sorry! I was just… and I might have missed… missed this in the thread. Looking at this, this looks really great. Am I right in thinking that this is… that if you enter things as Gillian has done in Parishes Online, it will feed straight through to this extra map, or are we having to put the data in twice? 553 \ 01:08:55.359 --> 01:08:59.289 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: At the moment, sorry, if it's in… 554 \ 01:08:59.839 --> 01:09:17.079 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Parish Online, we can get it out into Xmap, which is what this map is, but, we probably need to link with you and with Geosphere, the people who make Parish Online, to make sure that you've given your permission for them to put your data in our map, if you see what I mean. 555 \ 01:09:17.099 --> 01:09:18.289 \ Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think… 556 \ 01:09:18.289 --> 01:09:35.329 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: That's easily done, it's extremely simple from them, because it's all coming from the same database, but we just need to sort out the permissions so that when I say I want to see everything that Jillian's up to, they're going to say, whoa, hang on a minute, let's make sure we've got Jillian's permission to do that. 557 \ 01:09:36.479 --> 01:09:40.119 \ Kirsten Newble - Cambridge: Makes sense. I was just trying to save us all repetitively putting things in. 558 \ 01:09:40.120 --> 01:09:46.809 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: It's technically very simple to do, yes, you're absolutely right. It's just a question of the permissions. 559 \ 01:09:47.870 --> 01:09:49.970 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: So, thank… great question, thank you. 560 \ 01:09:50.170 --> 01:09:54.209 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Does anybody else have anything else they want to cover, please? 561 \ 01:09:56.140 --> 01:10:08.039 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Okay, good. Well, Julian, that was a masterpiece. Thank you so much for, particularly for pitching in at short notice without Ian, which was largely a problem of my making, so thank you very much for that. 562 \ 01:10:08.160 --> 01:10:12.260 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Next week, we're going to be talking about water. 563 \ 01:10:12.580 --> 01:10:20.029 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: So, those of you who want to know why water's important, or how you can preserve it, how you can clean it, how you can look after it, 564 \ 01:10:20.130 --> 01:10:27.299 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: to make the next week, he's going to show you all of that, coming from the Gloucester area, Forest of Dean, so… 565 \ 01:10:27.570 --> 01:10:41.449 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: I hope you'll find that very interesting. So, thank you all very much for your time, I hope you enjoyed it, and look forward to seeing you again. And of course, we will publish everything that you've been seeing today. It'll all come up online, and you can get hold of it and download it as you wish. 566 \ 01:10:42.040 --> 01:10:43.860 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Take care, everybody, thank you very much. 567 \ 01:10:43.860 --> 01:10:44.340 \ Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Thanks, man. 568 \ 01:10:44.540 --> 01:10:46.800 \ Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Thank you, everyone. Thank you. *** ### Markdown of presentation (to index the text therein): ## Biodiversity in Action: A Duxford Parish Case Study
*Ian Walters — 17th October 2025* *** ### 1. How to Start: Be Ambitious but Realistic * Starting can feel difficult — begin small and low-cost. * Experiment to see what works. * Build larger ambitions gradually. * Keep parishioners informed via local magazine, school, church, and community spaces. * Build a volunteer group — many early projects rely on volunteer labour. * Build contacts with grant partners (e.g., SCDC). * Connect with other Parish Councils to exchange ideas. *** ### 2. No Mow May * A genuinely zero-cost biodiversity action. * Simply reduce mowing — allow grass to grow longer. * Some sensitive areas may still require occasional mowing. * Extend reduced mowing into June, September, or winter for some areas. * Creates talking points and raises biodiversity awareness. *** ### 3. Bigger Hedges * Leaving hedges uncut supports wildlife above and below ground. * Many hedge-nesting birds are threatened by over-cutting and hedge removal. * Let hedges grow at least 2 m high and wide. * Avoid cutting during March–August (nesting season). * Leave berries through winter. * Benefit: huge wildlife improvement with minimal effort. *** ### 4. Wildlife Gardens * The most effective and cheapest action: allow gardens to become wilder. * Gardens connect habitats across urban spaces. * They offer safe refuge for wildlife and can support: * Pollinating insects * Birds * Mammals * Reptiles * Amphibians (ponds help increase habitat variety) *** ### 5. Duxford Nature Network * Wildlife gardens form corridors across the village. * Combined with existing corridors (rivers, railway, hedges), they create a rich, connected landscape. * 42 households have pledged their gardens to the Nature Network. * Result: wildlife is always within 100 m of a wild space, even in central village areas. *** ### 6. Nature Festivals * Village-wide nature-themed events. * Festivals held in May 2023 and September 2024 were very successful. * Encourage discussion and engagement, especially among young people. * Community atmosphere amplified by music, good weather, and social activities. *** ### 7. Get Your School Involved * Children risk losing their connection with nature — yet they shape its future. * Duxford primary school has Eco and Garden groups. * Supported by community through educational sessions such as: * River Day — 1 July 2025 *** ### 8. Allotment Biodiversity Project (2023) * Supported by a 50% SCDC Community Chest grant (£1,919). * Parish Council funded the remaining 50%. * Key achievements: * 70 trees planted * 400 hedge plants * 2 dead-hedge sections * 6,900 bulbs * 11 bird boxes installed * Public land simplifies permission. * Volunteers essential — even a few hours increases community ownership and pride. *** ### 9. Cemetery Biodiversity Project (2024) * Won a fully funded £10,230 grant from the SCDC Rural England Prosperity Fund. * Deliverables: * 160 Beech * 400 Holly * 2,000 bulbs * 200 mixed hedge species (to support Brimstone & Holly Blue butterflies) * 15 mature trees around the village, including hybrid Elm for White-letter Hairstreak butterflies. *** ### 10. Long-Term Ambitions & Strategic Objectives * Create wildlife corridors throughout and around the village. * Restore two Protected Road Verges and halt rare chalk flora decline. * Ensure village verges support wildflowers in spring/early summer. * Achieve 150 wildlife-friendly gardens. * Undertake river or flood-plain enhancement project. * Plant 1,500 m of new or replenished hedges. * Plant and maintain 500 new trees. * Develop new meadow sites. * Install: * 50 swift & house martin boxes * 100 other bird & bat boxes * Run target-species conservation projects. *** ### 11. A Regional Vision for Biodiversity Action * Many parishes are already active; others are just beginning. * Can these efforts link into a larger network? * Possibilities: * Regional strategies * Inter-parish wildlife corridors * Expanding colonies of birds, beetles, voles, butterflies, moths * Aim: share and replicate successful ideas. *** ### 12. Final Notes
> “If you brew your own cauldron, magic will surely happen.” > — Dara McAnulty, *Diary of a Young Naturalist*
#### Useful Links * Natural Cambridgeshire Toolkit * Duxford Biodiversity Strategy * Rewilding guidance (Rewilding Britain) * Woodland Trust biodiversity tips * BCN Wildlife Trust * NaturePlan * BBOWT: Helping nature in any green space * SCDC Biodiversity Duty webinar (28 May 2025) *** ### 13. 10 Lessons Learned — A Journey of Discovery 1. Start small, quick, and low-cost. 2. Build support and momentum; communicate widely. 3. Bring parishioners along on the journey. 4. Have a clear destination — planning becomes easier. 5. Create a strategy where possible. 6. Volunteers are vital — assemble a team. 7. Grants take only weeks; have projects ready. 8. Funding chances are good — ask SCDC for guidance. 9. Grants require an organisation (PC, CIO, Association). 10. Public land is the easiest starting point — permission is fast.
[^1]: --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://wiki.greatcollaboration.uk/knowledgebase/events/banter-sessions-inc-table-of-all-sessions/banter-97-26nov25-duxford-biodiversity-initiatives-with-gillian-heath.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.