All creatures great and small

The Three Hagges Woodmeadow project near York is providing a safe haven for types of biodiversity that sometimes are neglected in favour of the more conspicuous, colourful and noisy of critters like birds.  Here’s a biodiversity ‘motel’ – a refuge for lizards, invertebrates, fungi and countless species we usually do not see.  The structure provides a microcosm, a miniature ecosystem all of its own that offers smaller life forms shelter from the elements and predators, moisture and food and a space for the natural cycles of life and death to take place within a reserve.  Bat roosting boxes and ‘motels’ for wasps and bees are provided (see Extra Photos for examples of the latter).

The Three Hagges Woodmeadow Trust is an awesome example of the way ecological restoration is going bottom-up.  Lots of community groups and empowered locals are stepping forward to create reserves and manage reinstatement and protection of threatened species and habitats rather than leaving the work to national and government funded organisation.  Trees are being planted, and traditional diverse meadows are being fostered with appropriate sward management at this woodmeadow.  The project attracts school parties to look and learn e.g. classes monitor carbon sequestration of the growing forest around the margins of the woodmeadow.  ‘Citizen science’ approaches monitor biodiversity (e.g. bumblebees and dragonflies, as well as birds and bats). Involving people in creation of reserves, monitoring and doing the hard work is transformational for many participants – it locks in the conservation values in a way that transmits the belief from the head into a contentment felt in ones heart and hands … or sore muscles at the end of a long day of work,

A cultural dimension is included in the Three Hagges Trust’s work by demonstration of traditional ‘bodgering’ techniques where green wood is cut and worked on the spot.  The bodgers constructed furniture and shelter (called “Bodgers Hovels” – an example is in the Extra Photos section).  In many places around the world, an ‘ecological restoration’ paradigm is being supplanted by a ‘biocultural restoration’ approach where peoples past, current and future connections to local plants, animals and places is fostered as well as the biodiversity itself. By reconnecting people to nature, conservation can be more successful and enduring.

The Three Hegges Woodmeadow project is inspiring - pay them a visit if you are near York,