Lockleaze is going Really Wild!
Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust are empowering residents to take action for nature through the Commnuity Climate Action Project. In this blog, Eleanor Fairbraida from their Really Wild Lockleaze project shares how they are growing a group of wildlife enthusiasts.
Lockleaze is buzzing about nature at the moment. I’m a local resident, and also the coordinator of Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust’s Really Wild Lockleaze Project. I’ve cared passionately about nature all my life, and this project is enabling me to work with my neighbours and other residents in Lockleaze to make a real difference for wildlife on our streets, and in our gardens. We are lucky in Lockleaze and have hedgehogs, slow worms, swifts, and even Great Crested Newts!
I’ve been a climate campaigner for many years, which at times is depressing, because of the enormity of it, and how difficult it is to make a real impact. Now, getting this chance to work to help nature, it feels incredibly positive. Every flower counts! Plant one, and a bee or a butterfly will come, and people around it feel happier.
Last week, we got together on Muller Road Recreation ground, a local park, to plant a small native woodland. You never know how many people will turn up, and just have to hope you will get all the trees planted. Well, we needn’t have worried as more than 30 local people turned up, learnt how to give a young tree its best start, and planted 203 trees!
One resident said to me “I always wanted to plant trees, but it always seems to be somewhere far away – I’ve just rolled out of my door to do this today – its wonderful thank you!!” – I think right now, she is not alone in wanting to help nature, and that is why we saw so many turn up.
Later this week, we will be going to Lockleaze Sports Centre – it will be our eighth volunteer session there this winter, with four more yet to come. We have cleared 720m2 of brambles, and planted around 220 native trees. Soon we will shift to planting wildflowers in their drainage ditches, to enhance this wetland habitat, which is rare in a city. We are working with Bristol Green Gym and the Bears Community Foundation Hitz project, whose students have been getting out of the classroom, and getting stuck in.
As we head through March, we will be back on Lockleaze’s housing greens. Last year, we found local people wanted to do something for nature on the council-owned green space outside their house – we are blessed with many in Lockleaze. Since then, we have helped them knock on their neighbours’ doors, and get more people out on the green to make a plan.
Knocking on doors has been one of the most inspiring parts of my job so far. People care about nature, and are really happy that something could happen to support it on their green. So many people told us how they cared for the wildlife they saw in their gardens, and how they are concerned it might be pushed out or damaged by all the house building going on in Lockleaze at the moment. Many people have come out and joined us in making a nature focused plan for their green – they care about it, because it’s outside their house, and, of course, they want to meet their neighbours.
We’ve helped the residents get permission from the council, and plant over 2000 bulbs, 147 trees, and several fruit bushes on three greens. In the next few weeks, we will be back there, sowing wildflower seeds, and planting plug plants. 30 residents collected local wildflower seeds with us and have been growing them into plug plants in their gardens, ready to plant out on the green. Empowering people to source their own seeds, and create their own meadows like this is very exciting for me, as it means this could continue in my neighbourhood even after the funding for our project runs out.
Soon wildflowers will appear around Lockleaze to join the pretty bulbs which are already showing. And we know that every patch of flowers count. They form a network of feeding stations so our bees and butterflies can move around our urban neighbourhood to the wild corridors of the railway, and Stoke Park. We are particularly supporting two butterflies which are present but rare locally – the Small Blue Butterfly, and the Yellow Brimstone Butterfly, by planting their caterpillar foodplants – Kidney vetch (a wild flower) and Alder Buckthorn (a small tree/shrub).
The Really Wild Lockleaze Project is part of Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership’s Community Climate Action Project, funded by the National Lottery until the summer of 2025. But we hope our project can have real lasting legacy for Lockleaze – not just in the trees and wildflowers planted, but in the networks created, and residents we have empowered. Our Lockleaze Nature Network should be the hub for that – it’s a place where residents can get together, socialise, and share plans for nature based action. The last one was hosted by the Stoke Park Community Group, and fizzed with excited nature talk. 25 people made it out on a rainy night, brought food to share, and made links with other people doing stuff for nature locally.
Ultimately, we also aim to leave a legacy for the city – getting permission from the council to do the residents’ greens, means we are creating processes that other residents across Bristol can use to transform the green space outside their house. Maybe you have a verge or a housing green that you want swathed in wildflowers, and trees? Get in touch, and we can tell you how we’re doing it!
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