During May half term WildAid ran a community project in Newtown, Exeter.

The WildTown project is centred on community based activities reconnecting people to wildlife and will run in a different city each year. The activities are developed to encourage people to ‘Get Out There’, have fun, experience wildlife and recognise the healthy lifestyle benefits of interacting with nature. WildAid were lucky enough to have been awarded Big Lottery funding through the Community Wildlife Grant for Wild Town and that meant that all of the activities were free and fully funded by our charity.  

WildTown included a Bioblip at Newtown Primary school conducted by TV Presenter Nick Baker! This was a great day where everyone got stuck in and hunted down species and WildAid are now collating the data gathered to provide the school with a baseline survey of the wildlife in their grounds.

Here is what people had to say …“It was a fab day. Had a great time ... I bought my son one of the fold out ID charts on shield bugs ... which he calls his "shield bug menu". We have since been out on 3 expeditions in search of specimens on the menu ... he is a little disappointed to have only found one species, but he is taking his menu on holiday this week! So if the plan was to inspire little ones to engage in more bug hunting I think it worked!”

Local wildlife enthusiast Nigel Pinhorn of Devon Nature Walks led a group through Stoke Woods to explore and connect with the Habitat which was great fun! A favourite quote from that day was from two girls who said “we are joining together so we can find more bugs and we are making friends!”

WildAid worked together with other organisations such as Devon Wildlife Trust, Wildwise and local group Harvest to highlight the nature on the door step of Newtown. Storytelling, making up seed pots and hunting for wildlife were all part of the activities in the Belmont Park during the week. Throughout the week we had approximately 300 people attending events at Wild Town and that to us is a huge success.

People living in Newtown, Exeter, may have noticed that as part of the Wild Town project a haven for urban wildlife was created in an unused site. WildAid and the local people of the community worked really hard to put in a pond and surrounding natural habitat. We even had the help of Devon Fire Brigade to fill the pond!

The feedback from people in the area has been fantastic even though this project is still in its early stages. WildAid are encouraging the community to take ownership of their Wildlife Corner and help to take care of the pond and surrounding habitat as it develops. So far there has been a great response from all ages of the community. 

“You have turned an area that was unsued into something interesting to look at and a place for wildlife. It is bringing the community together” 

Anyone that has any questions or would like to find out more can contact us on 0845 601 2599, info@wildaid.co.uk.

WildAid would like to say thank you to everyone involved for making the week such fun!