Community Project 2016 - Give Sandwell Nature a Home

Giving Sandwell Nature a Home-

What’s this all about then?

Giving Sandwell Nature A Home is this year’s exciting community project from RSPB Sandwell Valley about enhancing wildlife in an urban space and giving everyone in Sandwell the chance to experience nature on their doorstep, boosting their own health and wellbeing.

The initiative will help transform green spaces that are perfect for wildlife and extend the size of the RSPB Sandwell Valley reserve. The team is asking Sandwell residents to get involved and help wildlife by creating bug hotels, nest boxes, and wildflower patches to house wonderful creatures in the Midlands.

Can you give our two legged, four legged, feathered, furry and scaly pals a place to stay??

Bird Lodge (Eleanor Bentall, www.rspb-images.com)

So how do I Join in?

Visit RSPB Sandwell Valley, and we will give you your own free ‘how to’ guide, giving you the knowledge you need to provide a range of homes for nature (find our address and contact details below).

Once your head is full of ideas, we want you to pledge a little bit of your garden to wildlife, in whatever way you can. Whether it’s a bug palace, sparrow street or wildflower meadow ( in a wellington boot or plant pot), we want to mark every new home for wildlife  on our map.

Welly planters (Martyn Poynor, www.rspb-images.com)

 Why should I join in?

A lot of our wildlife is in trouble, and creating small homes for nature can really make a difference. If we all do a little bit in our gardens,  imagine how much you could help wildlife on your street alone!

Giving nature a home in your garden is not just better for wildlife but better for us too – research shows that our physical and mental wellbeing is enhanced by contact with the natural world.

Bug Hotel (Eleanor Bentall, www.rspb-images.com)

Once you’ve got stuck in and done your bit for wildlife, we want you to share your photos on social media, using the hashtag #WildSandwell and in return, we’ll choose 1 lucky landlord from each of three categories to pick up one of our fab prizes.

#1 Friendliest Landlord Award – For those who’ve fully embraced the project and opened up their home to everything wild, with the most homes for nature. You’ll have more ways of welcoming wildlife in your garden than anyone else in town.

#2 Creative with a Small Space Award – We want to see just how much nature you can fit in a teeny tiny space. This award is for that special landlord who doesn’t have a huge amount of space, but has seen the potential in that windowsill/plant pot/bit of fence and turned it truly wild.

#3 Sandwell Showstopper Award – If you’ve gone all out and created a nature homing masterpiece, this category is for you. Your green space will have the razzle dazzle and creative flair of an all-singing, all-dancing golden eagle on Broadway. Now THAT’s a showstopper.

Enter your garden by sharing your photos on Facebook and Twitter and using the hashtag #WildSandwell

 Facebook: /birmblackcountrywarks

Twitter: /RSPBSandwell

Not on social media? Email your photos to sandwellvallley@rspb.org.uk with the subject line ‘Wild Sandwell’, or even bring them in to Nature’s Reach, 20 Tanhouse Avenue, Great Barr, B43 5AG.
Phone: 0121 357 7395. www.rspb.org.uk/sandwellvalley

  

The community project for 2016 aims to create more wildlife-friendly gardens and connect green spaces across the Sandwell neighbourhood, all made possible by funding from Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).