Nurturing Nature: Creating a new wave of wildlife surveyors

By Anna Cooper, WSBRC Citizen Science Project Officer

Our Nurturing Nature project is one of 20 projects that form the Cranborne Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership Scheme, made possible through funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

What is Nurturing Nature?

The Nurturing Nature project is focused on collecting data on the distinctive flora and fauna of the Chase & Chalke area within the Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which covers 380 square miles of countryside, overlapping the boundaries of Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire and Somerset.

The habitats of Cranborne Chase include chalk grassland, chalk streams, arable fields, and small woodlands. This exciting project aims to create a new generation of biological recorders, by training over 100 new volunteers, with little or no experience in wildlife surveying.

We aim to use this data to improve our understanding of biodiversity in Cranborne Chase, and provide a new baseline of information, which we can use to inform future conservation projects.

Free training by experts

Since February, we have been running a vast range of training activities for our volunteers, based both online and in-person, run by a variety of wildlife experts, nature organisations and local groups. More training is planned throughout May and June, and trainees have already started undertaking wildlife surveys within the Chase & Chalke area.

We have also been delivering many community events, including coffee and cake mornings, to reach out to local communities across Wiltshire, Dorset and Hampshire, in order to highlight volunteering opportunities and talk about the special landscape and nature of the Cranborne Chase AONB.

How to get involved

If you would like to sign up as a volunteer, simply fill out an application form at: www.bttr.im/cnmw2

Although some training has passed, all of our surveys have a training element.