Healing Nature

By Phill Catton

Healing Nature Project Manager

Just outside the dene, presumably perched on a hedgerow, the distinctive rattle and wheeze of a yellowhammer gives me cause to lift the clipboard and make a few marks on the attached paper. An hour-and-a-half later – still well before anyone sensible will have roused themselves on a weekend – and that sheet of paper is covered with spidery scrawls and circled letters denoting the territorial, and likely breeding, birds in this small patch of woodland. Not only has the morning afforded us spectacular views of a tawny owl, as it tried, fruitlessly, to escape the berating blackbirds who mercilessly hounded it from tree to tree, but we have also been serenaded by blackcap, willow warbler, chiffchaff, song thrush and wren, as we have snaked our way along the burn and scrambled up the steep banks gorged out by glacial action. It was just as the survey was finishing that we heard, and then marvelled at, the pneumatic-like capabilities of a great spotted woodpecker, advertising its presence and vigour with powerfully destructive blows rained down in short staccato sequences on a well-battered and bruised relic of a tree. The Healing Nature project may be an investment in improving, restoring, and creating habitat for wildlife, but on mornings like this one, it feels like nature is doing all the healing and we are just lucky shareholders in the venture. But, if we were lucky, it is likely you are too. Because, despite the damage and losses we have collectively inflicted on our countryside, these close encounters with nature didn’t need us to venture to some rural idyll or walk around a members’ only nature reserve. They were on a Sunderland Council Local Wildlife Site, less than 400m away from residential areas, pubs, and busy roads. An oasis in an urban desert. Proof that although we may be pushing nature to the limit, if we can give it a little space and protection, it can, and will, live alongside us and enrich our lives with its presence. And this is where Healing Nature comes in. A 15-month rapid delivery project launched in January 2021 as part of the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund programme. We are working in partnership with Gateshead Council, South Tyneside Council, and Sunderland Council to improve 20 local authority sites for wildlife and running events through to March 2022, to help connect people and local communities to the natural, and incredible, world on their doorstep. As it has across all aspects of life, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted activities and decisions at every level, so launching a project during a national lockdown presented several challenges. Not least the fact that so much of our capability as an organisation is inextricably linked to our volunteers. However, with the realisation that we could lose an entire winter season of practical conservation work, risk assessments were drawn up, controls put in place, and project officers – along with a small group of local volunteers – sprang into action.

Chris Gomersall / 2020VISION

The Folly, Chopwell Meadows, and Chopwell East Fields, are Gateshead sites with lowland meadow and pasture habitat present. One of the risks to these often underappreciated but species rich grasslands, is that without appropriate care and management, they can become dominated by scrub and encroaching woodland species. Ultimately these invaders out-compete plants that favour more open conditions, and there is an inevitable, and corresponding, loss of the specialist species associated with these communities. Throughout February and March, the team raced against time to clear as much of this undesirable vegetation as possible, racking up an incredible 609 hours of staff and volunteer time. Public enemy number one was the spiraea. A garden escapee that has spread across Chopwell East Fields in tall, dense stands of tough woody stems, designed to test the resolve of even the most intrepid brushcutter operator. Durham Wildlife Trust volunteers don’t turn away from a challenge though, and there could only be one outcome. Not only does this work have significant benefits for the grasslands in its own right, but it also paves the way for contractors to install fencing at both Chopwell East Fields and The Folly later this year. This will enable these sites to be grazed – a key component for their future management and continued enhancement.

Bird nesting season, and spring, typically signifies a break in habitat management activities (from a practical perspective), but it hasn’t meant that the team have let up in their efforts to transform the Healing Nature sites. Litter is a scourge of modern life. With many of the Healing Nature sites being in urban areas, it is, along with other antisocial behaviour issues, a real problem. Not just a blight on the landscape, but a real risk to our wildlife. Unfortunately for the litter though, it didn’t get the memo from the spiraea. Poor litter, it didn’t know what was coming. It was the Healing Nature team – and they had brought reinforcements. Organised through Eventbrite, local community members have been choosing to spend their time getting tooled up with litter pickers and bin bag hoops to clean up their local greenspaces. It may not be glamorous, but in six weeks they have collected a mind-boggling 5.5 tonnes of litter from just nine sites in South Tyneside and Sunderland. Both a massive and tangible achievement, but also a damming indictment of the scale of the problem. But, while people choose to come forward to do something about these issues and commit their time to actions which will make a difference for nature, there is always hope for the future.

Whether it is through the social media channels or face-to-face events, community outreach work is key to the project’s legacy. To date, and despite lockdown, we have been able to deliver 37 events which have connected 316 people with nature in some way or another. Whether it is the next generation exploring their local nature sites on a school outing, adults taking time out for mindful moments to de-stress and appreciate their surroundings, or simply families gaining a fresh perspective while visiting familiar and well-trodden paths, it is these moments that inspire and motivate people to understand and value their local environment and our native wildlife. And, in this frantic world, if we can do that, perhaps it won’t just be nature that is healed, but ourselves as well.

Chopwell East Field – Burning Scrub Chopwell East Field

Chopwell East Field