INTO UK TOWNS
ABOUT THE Project
Over the past three years, we’ve delivered on creating wilder green spaces with an ambitious budget. Spanning seven towns in total, Ecosulis worked with Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT) to build creative natural solutions, work with the community, and introduce interventions to challenges, to achieve the goals of the ERDF funded GWT’s Wild Towns project.
From the outset, Neil Melleney (Ecosulis’s Nature Restoration Specialist) was clear on his priority: to get “as much biodiversity bang for buck, thinking creatively on the job about how to deliver this moment to moment.”
Will Masefield, ERDF Wild Towns Project Manager from GWT tells us all about the most exciting parts of the project and the positive outcomes for him and the community, empowered by Ecosulis’s work.
THE HIGHLIGHTS
At the end of the three years, the project has been a phenomenal success, bringing benefits to biodiversity, nature, and people throughout.
Forging a rewilding partnership
Ecosulis worked closely and collaboratively with GWT to adapt the project specifications, advise on best practice, overcome evolving challenges, and overall optimise the results for the natural and urban environments. The two organisations have now built a lasting and trusting relationship.
“The Ecosulis team always kept the bigger picture in mind, and we co-created a management plan to ensure the work we have done together continues to deliver for wildlife”
Getting local communities on board
Rewilding often sparks resistance with some of the local population. People may perceive the work as untidy or disruptive. For Ecosulis, gaining the trust and support of local communities is so important and so the team went above and beyond their scope to share the project vision.
“One of the things Ecosulis is really good at is encouraging community engagement. Although it wasn’t part of the spec, the Ecosulis team got local people involved”
ABOUT THE Project
Meadow restoration
Local native plants grown for the project
Ecotone planting
Habitat creation
Town greening
Woodland restoration
THE RESULTS
BIODIVERSITY IS BOUNCING BACK ALREADY
The first phase of the project is complete, with more future work planned, and already these towns have seen a wilderness boost. The Ecosulis team is monitoring progress and, encouragingly, key signs of nature restoration are appearing.
“I saw kidney vetch and doves-foot crane’s-bill, and noticed that native orchids like common spotted, pyramidal and bee-orchids were everywhere in the meadows. It shows that the work we did kickstarted natural processes in the soil.”
HELPING GWT REACH THEIR NATURE RESTORATION AMBITIONS
This has been an exciting project, for the Ecosulis team as well as the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. The results have been even better than we’d hoped.
