Really Wild Lockleaze
Creating a Lockleaze thriving with wildlife
Lockleaze has an abundance of green space including big gardens, housing greens and roadside verges. Our project is helping Lockleaze residents transform these areas making them beautiful and full of wildlife, improving health, wellbeing and enjoyment of our local area.
We’re showing what an urban community can do to help nature and at the same time enrich our own community. We are creating new wild spaces on our greens and gardens, abundant with butterflies, bees, birds, and frogs! Neighbours, working together, are growing new connections and opportunities for community, friendship, and more.
We are working with Eric, an Avon Wildlife Trust Ecologist, to create our resident’s vision for wildlife and we are excited to invite you to join us in making a difference.
Learn about our why we are doing our project below.
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Click here to see our most recent newsletter to find all the latest wildlife news in one place! And click here for all of our previous newsletters.
Get in touch:
Email reallywild@lockleazent.co.uk, call 01179141129, or come into The Hub on Gainsborough Square, Lockleaze, BS7 9FB.
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Why create a really wild Lockleaze?
Really Wild Lockleaze is a look at what an urban community can do to help address the ecological emergency, where we are seeing a 96% loss of song birds in Bristol since the 1970s, more than half our species are showing massive declines, and local species like hedgehogs declining by a third in towns and cities since 2000 alone. Its time for everyone to do their bit to help save our wildlife!
Really Wild Lockleaze was developed after Lockleaze residents reported in their Lockleaze Climate action plan that they loved their green spaces, and were worried about their wild creatures being pushed out by the new wave of house building in Lockleaze.
How can we have the biggest positive impact to help save our wildlife? The answer is to create as much connected space for nature as possible using all our gardens, housing greens, and verges!
Really Wild Lockleaze is part of the wider Bristol Community Climate Action project across Bristol, led by Bristol Climate and Nature Partnership, which aims to show what urban communities can do to respond to the climate and ecological emergencies. We aim to make meaningful change in Lockleaze but also to inspire change elsewhere in Bristol and beyond.
The threat to UK wildlife
The recent State of Nature report tells us that one in six species is now at risk of being lost in the UK. Wildlife on average has declined by 19% since monitoring began in 1970. Most habitats are in poor condition, however restoration projects have clear benefits for nature, people, and adapting to climate change.
Bristol City Council has declared an ecological emergency, and as a response is aiming for 30% of land in Bristol to be managed for nature by 2030.
Beyond the numbers, what this really means is creating space for the wonderful diversity of life from bees to hedgehogs as well as the life sustaining services they provide such as pollination and pest control.
What’s good about nature in cities?
Planting trees can increase the capture and storage of rainwater, absorb pollution and remove carbon from the atmosphere, as well as reducing heat during heatwaves.
Building wildlife habitat in our gardens and on our streets could provide food and shelter for endangered wildlife and form vital green corridors to link together isolated fragments of nature.
Wildlife provides services for free! Such as pest control, water regulation and pollination
It will connect us better with nature, helping us to recognise its importance and encouraging us to look after it.
Spending more time in nature will lift our moods and relaxation, as well as reduce loneliness, stress and anger. Even just looking out of your window on a view of nature, has been linked to positive effects on mental health.
Spending time in nature may lower our blood pressure, improve the function of our immune system and reduce our chances of having eyesight problems. Green spaces can encourage more physical and social activity.
We are not working alone! Our local vision to help nature thrive in Lockleaze is shared by our friends at Avon Wildlife Trust on a larger scale all across Avon. Anyone who notices or takes actions for nature, whether a community group or an individual, is part of the ever growing movement of Team Wilder.