Summer 2019

SUMMER 2019 Spring Clean High Wycombe How to improve the health & well-being of your staff Thames Water Site at Hughenden Quarter John Lewis & Partners support Chiltern Rangers Community Ranger Update Volunteer of the Season Rangers Day Out

Impact of our NW Chilterns LAF Work on the Duke of Burgundy 1

Welcome to our Summer 2019 newsletter Summer is here! Birds are on the wing, insects are buzzing around, meadows are coming into bloom and people are getting out and enjoying the sunshine. Summer is a great time to enjoy the hard work we put into sites all-year round.

We’ve kept busy running team-building sessions, maintaining sites across the Wycombe area, and forging new partnerships. This issue contains a taste of what we’ve been up to since the spring.

Spring Cleaning High Wycombe The Great British Spring Clean took place during March and April and we got involved, visiting 16 sites in High Wycombe to pick up litter.

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Health & Well-being in the Workplace Making a difference to your health and well-being has never been a more clear and present issue, particularly in the workplace.

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Thames Water Site at Hughenden As part of the River Wye restoration project, Thames Water provided funding for Chiltern Rangers to organise a clean up of the Hughenden Stream.

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Community Ranger Update Read about how schools, clubs and the Marsh & Micklefield community are helping to improve their local environment.

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Support from John Lewis & Partners We were delighted to receive a funding donation recently from John Lewis & Partners and we’re excited to continue working together.

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Impact of LAF work on Duke of Burgundy We are seeing the impact of our North West Chilterns Local Area Forum (LAF) work - Duke of Burgundy butterfly numbers are on the up!

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Bucks County Council/Wycombe LAF This year we are working with many different community groups delivering health and well-being projects.

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Volunteer of the Season With so many fantastic volunteers to chose from, who has won the Volunteer of the Season award for spring? 12

Rangers Day Out Chiltern Rangers had a day out! Not working, just having fun in the great outdoors and learning more about wildlife at London Wetland Centre WWT.

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Spring Cleaning High Wycombe As some of you may know there was the Great British Spring Clean during March and April so we got involved. It really isn’t unusual for us to find rubbish in our woodlands. In fact I could take you to any of the sites we manage and you will find some rubbish. In reality we don’t need a Spring Clean to get us out clearing litter, we do it every time we are on site but we did spread our wings and help out in the town centre and along the river, clearing over two kilometres of waterway.

During just these two months, we went to 16 sites within High Wycombe with a lot of willing volunteers including several schools, High Wycombe Rugby Club, Bucks New University several local businesses and our regular volunteers.

In total we collected the equivalent of over 900 bags of rubbish. As you can imagine we found a lot of cans, bottles and crisp packets but the volume was taken up by the larger goods that people were throwing away because they no longer had a use for them.

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In no particular order, we found: Mattresses Fridges and Freezers Doors Insulation Tyres Bikes Toys Fluorescent tubes Plant Pots Lawn Mowers Cement Mixer Carpet Compost Bins Guttering Fencing Garden Shed Car Parts (bumpers, lights, engine parts…)

Vacuum Cleaners Moped Car Park Ticket Machine Cash Register Knives Scooters Clothing Arm Chair Car Roof Box Greenhouse Glass Rubble Televisions Gas Canisters…

This is by no means an extensive list, just the edited highlights to give you a flavour of what there is to discover in our woodlands. It still amazes me that some people think that this is an alright thing to do. You might not be too surprised to hear that we filled up six 12 yard skips and a 6 yard skip during March and April so we were collecting nearly 10m3 of rubbish a week.

mess is a pound less spent on hospitals, roads, disability payments etc. All of this is not including the huge environmental impact!

Sadly we have also been finding that there is an increase in the amount of drug paraphernalia including quite a few needles, spoons and wipes. The other common find are used Nitrous Oxide canisters which can be found in large quantities in certain hot It still baffles me that this goes on as much as it spots. We make an effort to ensure that the does. Most of what we find fits in a household relevant authorities are informed to help them bin and most of the rest can be taken to the tip understand the local picture and give them the for free (and yes, we know that has changed opportunity to increase patrols in particular recently for some waste). It costs so much hotspot areas. more for us to clear it up than it does for someone to dispose of it personally. We have Hopefully with the continued work of to pay staff, skip hire, tools, bin bags, vehicles, ourselves, volunteers and many other trailers, admin costs‌ and if anyone thinks it organisations we can get the message across is saving them as an individual money, they and over time reduce the amount of effort that really aren’t. The funding to pay for it comes needs to be put in to this wholly preventable from local government or central government task. whose money comes from the taxpayer. Every pound we spend clearing up other people’s Tony Speight

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How to improve the health & wellbeing of your staff Making a difference to your health and well-being has never been a more clear and present issue. We believe in the 5 ways to well-being: • Helping people to Connect • Be Active • Take Notice • Keep Learning • Give Bringing these aspects together in the workplace is crucial for business in an array of ways: 1. Happy staff are more productive 2. Staff feel valued and are more likely to be retained therefore saving time and money on business interruption & recruitment 3. Brand Reputation is enhanced - a commitment to CSR is crucial for responsible, contemporary business 4. Wellbeing and giving back are key items and job seekers must have a list when choosing employers to work for especially for millennials 5. Healthy (physically & mentally) staff have less time off due to stress or stress induced illness 6. Your team gets to work together in a really different way to the norm - will new leaders emerge?

7. People have a really positive, fun day with a tangible sense of achievement for their efforts.

These are just some of the reasons your business should choose to invest in our Be a Ranger days. Not only do these sessions contribute to the above, but they also have a positive environmental and community impact too.

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Who’s making a difference this season?

Just this week a team of 12 from PwC joined us for a session. They had a varied session making a bench bird boxes and opening up a path in the woods.

“A great way to get out of the office and turn colleagues into friends” - testimonial from a participant

Clinimed joined us to continue the work at the Hughenden Quarter to enhance this urban green space for wildlife by planting wildflowers great for bees and clearing litter too!

There are lots of projects to be involved with please get in touch to find out more and to book your session.

Email kate@chilternrangers.co.uk or phone us on 01494 474486 to discuss your requirements.

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Thames Water Site at Hughenden Quarter As part of the River Wye restoration project, Thames Water provided funding for Chiltern Rangers to organise a clean up of the Hughenden Stream which is a tributary of the River Wye. Together with help from staff from the The Royal Star & Garter Home in High Wycombe, Bucks New University students, Extra Care Charitable Trust’s Hughenden Garden Village residents and charity volunteers we cleaned up a stretch of the Hughenden Stream. This was part of a community project to return the River Wye to a condition which can be enjoyed by people and wildlife. They donned wellies to pick out bottles, crisp packets, cigarette ends and other rubbish along a 400 metre stretch of the stream. We also started to develop a wildflower meadow and carefully removed inchannel vegetation to improve the flow.

In the end 45 people managed to fill up a large skip full of rubbish. Thanks to the Extra Care Charitable Trust team for finding space for the skip and the Spindle & Thread pub who provided free refreshments for all those taking part. Royal Star and Garter’s Chelle Daly said: “It was great to work with Chiltern Rangers and our neighbours to tidy up this beautiful stretch of water, for our residents and the whole community to enjoy.”

Paul Stack, Education and Community Engagement Manager at Chiltern Rangers, said: “It was a hugely successful community event. It was great to see everybody joining in and working together. This is only the start, we have more to do!”

Click here to see a YouTube video of the day.

Fishy news

Four fish fry have been found recently for the first time at Bourne End which is a good sign for the river’s biodiversity and is a great result for all the hard work people have put in to reviving the Wye.

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Community Ranger Update Over the past few weeks my main focus has been the development and planting up of Wildflower mini-meadows in the Marsh and Micklefield area. Meadows have a rich and diverse range of flora and fauna and are a rare, important and threatened habitat – since the 1930s we have lost about 98% of them. Urban meadows are therefore hugely important. They develop into beautiful places and also help provide life-support for many invertebrates, birds and mammals. The planting up of small spaces through the area creates important ‘stepping stones’ of habitat, making new wildlife sites and helping to connect existing areas of grassland – the orchid and wildflower-rich areas behind Ash Hill School and on Gomm’s Bank, and the grassland areas in Highfield and Hangingcroft Woods are good examples.

With the help of local families and volunteers (thanks to the Polish Klub helpers!) and the valued support of Red Kite Community Housing we have planted over 500 wildflower plug-plants at sites in Micklefield from Woodside Road, below Ash Hill School and on to Herbert Road.

We are really looking forward to seeing how the areas will develop over the coming months.

I have also worked in conjunction with Wycombe Marsh Community Environment Group, planting over 100 wildflower plugs near Beech Road ford and am also very pleased that the wildflower area at Wrights Meadow Centre is really coming to life with the ‘Shadows of the Meadow’ mural providing an impressive background. Simply by not mowing and planting some wildflowers this space has become a fantastic habitat for bees and butterflies.

I’ve also had the great pleasure of working with the Ilm2Amal Tarbiyyah Club who came along to help with the Community Litter Pick in Highfield and Hangingcroft Woods and later in May had a fantastic session in the Wye Backstream where we did some Riverfly sampling and cleared lots of rubbish. The group also took the time to learn about the precious chalkstream habitats we have in Wycombe Marsh and to discuss the threats posed by pollution and litter. They have been hardworking, enthusiastic, engaged and a joy to work with!

John Taylor, Community Ranger 9

John Lewis & Partners support Chiltern Rangers We were delighted to receive a funding donation last week from John Lewis & Partners.

Dawn Stokoe, Community Liaison Co-ordinator presented Chief Ranger John Shaw and our Fab Friday volunteer group with the cheque, during a visit to a sunny Keep Hill Wood in High Wycombe.

She said ‘In South Bucks we are extremely fortunate to have many beautiful outdoor spaces. Huge thanks to Chiltern Rangers for managing many of the woodlands and commons; we are delighted to be able to support their engagement of volunteers with this conservation by funding the purchase of more equipment.’

We are delighted to work with John Lewis & Partners, having hosted them on Be a Ranger days in the past as well. The equipment is always put to good use on our many projects across the Chilterns making our green spaces better for people and wildlife.

As we toured the area, we were excited to see Blue Tits and Great Tits making use of some of the nest boxes in the wood!

For your chance to use some of the new tools, please feel free to join one of our volunteer sessions.

Check out our upcoming events on our website: www.chilternrangers.co.uk

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Impact of our LAF Work - Duke of Burgundy We are seeing the impact of our North West Chilterns Local Area Forum (LAF) work - Duke of Burgundy butterfly numbers are on the up!

In the middle of May, Ranger Paul and Nick Bowles from Butterfly Conservation surveyed one of our Duke of Burgundy sites which we worked on over the winter as part of the North West Chilterns LAF. They saw 13 Duke which is a great sign that the colony is growing from small to medium. We are excited that we have more funding from Bucks County Council to work with Bledlow Ridge and Hughenden Primary Schools to create wildlife areas in their schools and do more valuable work on predominantly Duke of Burgundy sites.

Total number of butterfly species spotted during this survey in just over an hour: • Dingy Skipper 28 • Grizzled Skipper 7 • Brimstone 6 • Green hairstreak 9 • Small Copper 1 • Holly Blue 5 • Common Blue 1 • Duke of Burgundy 13 almost certainly 12 males and maybe one female.

• Speckled Wood 3 • Small Heath 7 Butterflies from top: Holly Blue, Duke of Burgundy, Small Copper

One of the NW Chilterns LAF sites

Bucks County Council/Wycombe Local Area Forum

This year we are working with many different community groups delivering a community health and well-being project.

For example, members and volunteers of Wycombe Mind enjoyed a walk along the river at the end of May ending up with a picnic at Funges reserve.

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Volunteer of the Season Last winter, on a particularly bleak and dreary day, our lives became warmed and enriched by an instant ray of sunshine... a new volunteer!

An article featured in the Wycombe District Times calling for new volunteers to help out with a project focusing on the restoration of the River Wye enticed many people to get in touch and get involved. One chap in particular started giving up his time to volunteer with us a couple of times a week, not just in the river but across our sites; lending a hand with all sorts of tasks from tree felling to litter picking to fixing leaky waders.

Colin has quickly become an invaluable part of our team and we love working with him - he is outstanding with our other volunteers as well as encouraging and supporting students here on work experience. Colin’s enthusiasm for the natural world and learning new things is refreshing but, equally, we welcome

how he shares with us his passion and existing knowledge about the world and our environment.

All of these things have contributed to Colin being voted as our Volunteer of the Season for Spring 2019 - that and his winning smile of course! Well done Colin.

Support Bamboo Toothbrushes and help the environment Networking events can be a little hit or miss: preparation is key so we went to the Royal Oak, Bovingdon Green as part of the 'Young Directors Networking' hosted by Bucks Business First interested to learn from two local businesses.

Thanks to our customers, over 12,000 brushes have been saved from landfill or ending up in our oceans. We're all about helping UK families take a step towards a zero-waste lifestyle, starting with the humble toothbrush.

The event was well organised, with inspirational local business men Udhi Silva (Snaffling Pig) & James Capel (Simply Waste Solutions) as key speakers sharing their stories. It was in the mingling phase, whilst eating sausages in honey and mustard, drinking a Rebellion IPA and munching the delicious peanuts from Snaffling Pig, we met Seb of Blue Rock.

We sell our toothbrushes on a subscription basis, delivering the exact number of adult and kid brushes your household wants, right when you need them. For every toothbrush sold, we make a small donation to the WWF in aid of ocean conservation projects.”

He explains his business as follows: “Est. in 2017, BlueRock was founded by Seb Gauthier, impact-entrepreneur and designer, specialising in eco-friendly bamboo toothbrushes for adults and kids.

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Chiltern Rangers now include a Blue Rock bamboo toothbrush in our Be a Ranger bags as we help signpost people towards ecofriendly non-plastic lifestyle solutions.

Get your own environmentally friendly toothbrush at: https://www.bluerockliving.com/

Rangers Day Out: London Wetland Centre WWT

Chiltern Rangers have a day of inspiration and education. Enjoying the great outdoors in an urban Wetland centre, having fun, learning more about wildlife and socialising together! This place is an amazing example of development paving the way for conservation as part of a partnership - hat tip to Thames Water, WWT & Berkeley Homes. Learn more: www.wwt.org.uk

A well-earned away day honing our cake eating and coffee drinking, I mean bird identification skills. Thank you John and Tony, it was such a lovely treat!

They have six hides, perfect for wildlife watching and the two-storey Observatory for a panoramic view of the reserve. I certainly learned a lot more bird identification, especially from Alex our Office Manager.

(Secretly I think she knew more about birds than the rest of us.)

Highlights included Cetti’s Warbler, Snipe, Great Crested Grebe, Heron and Reed Bunting.

Sadly no bittern... it was twice shy!

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From left: Kate Eakins, John Shaw, Steph Rodgers, Alex Harley, Tony Speight, Dan Andrews and John Taylor (Paul Stack taking the photo).

I am a new team member of Chiltern Rangers and today made me realise how important it is being out with my co-workers in the peace and quiet amongst the wildlife. It is a brilliant way to really get to know the team you work with. Making time to be outdoors with them amongst nature, I actually learned more about my colleagues than ever before. We found time to talk, we found time to be silent and of course time for eating lunch and having a laugh!

Ranger Days” working together in the outdoors having fun, lots of fresh air, team building and at the same time we continue to enhance the Chilterns by improving habitat for wildlife.

So, what I really mean to say is that, “this is actually what we offer at Chiltern Rangers!”

We get teams of people to come out on “Be A

We hope that you all can make some time this summer to enjoy the beautiful countryside we are privileged to live in.

Do not hesitate any longer, get in touch with us and book yourselves a Be A Ranger Day for you and your colleagues. Have fun, outdoors with your team and get to know them better. It will be the best decision you will ever make. We are here waiting for you to join us.

Kate Eakins, Admin/Marketing Assistant

For more information, check out our website: https://chilternrangers.co.uk/team-building-days/

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Best wishes from the Chiltern Rangers team!

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