SFN19 Brochure For
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2 0 1 9 Your guide to a summer of nature events around the Stroud District, including Steve Backshall on Saturday 6 July and the Big Nature Festival in the Park on Sunday 7 July. As always the highlight of the summer will Spark curiosity be the Great Big Nature Festival in the Invite exploration Park on 7 July. A free annual event that attracts thousands of visitors and over fifty Celebrate discovery organisations. Provide inspiration Help empower Underpinning this annual celebration of our natural world lies the serious issues facing our environment and its wildlife - and Stroud Nature remains focused on the role we can all play. While others take to the streets to exert pressure on our country’s leaders, we will continue to engage people in the way we know best, as we seek to empower people to make a difference in the places where they live and ‘know best’. That is why we have made urban wildlife a feature of the 2019 festival. We are focusing on gardens and neighbourhood spaces. These are places where you may be able to do something. Compared to the challenges facing us on a global scale they are tiny. But multiply them, they get a little bigger and they can make a difference to you, your loved ones and the communities you are part of. The health and well-being benefits of being close to nature and spending time in green spaces are well known and now well documented. Here in the Stroud Valleys and beyond, we are luckier than many; we have a great diversity of landscape around us and some great wildlife. We have corridors of green that bring that wildlife into the heart of our Welcome to the Stroud Festival of towns and villages, into our parks, green Nature 2019. Your opportunity to explore, spaces and into our own gardens. discover and celebrate the natural world around you. The festival brings together a But we must not take any of this for granted. network of local and regional So join us and our partners this summer. organisations to help you understand Stay curious, explore, discover, be inspired more about the landscape and and feel empowered to do something, no environment of the area and its wildlife. matter how insignificant it might seem. Between us, we have created a three month long programme of nature walks, You can make a difference. talks, workshops, visits and exhibitions. Pre -festival events Sat 25 May 12-4pm 8-26 May Bee-Observatory Garden at ‘Discover the Endangered Oakbrook Farm The Bee-Observatory Garden is offering Species’ Children’s Trail open afternoons (12pm to 4pm, weather Find the cardboard cut-outs of endangered permitting) for all bee lovers - bee talk and animals in shop windows around Stroud as close up bee observation (no protection part of the Select Art Trail. or experience required). Beautifully set on organic farmland. All ages welcome. Pick up a flyer with instructions from the Oakbrook Farm, Painswick Old Rd, Stroud, Town Council offices in London Road or GL6 7QN from any of the shops taking part, then For more info visit: bee-observatory.org follow the trail (designed by Bill Jones) These afternoons also take place on 8th, filling in the answers as you go. Drop the 15th and 22nd June; 6th, 19th to 21st and completed flyer off to one of the boxes 27th July; 3rd, 10th and 17th August. in the Town Council Office or the Stroud Valleys Project EcoShop on Threadneedle Street and you may win a prize! Sat 25 May 10am-11.30am Oakbrook Farm walks There are free badges for all children A striving community owned local organic who complete the trail from Stroud Town farm practising nature conservation and Council: 58 London Road ( Opening times: biodiversity enhancing agriculture. Meet Monday – Thursday 10am–1.30pm Friday the Micro-dairy, Chicken and SCA farmers, 9.30am–12.30pm walk the farm, spend time with the bees Stroud Valleys Project Eco Shop: 8 and hear about future developments. Threadneedle Street Farm walks start at the Micro-dairy. Oakbrook Farm, Painswick Old Rd, Stroud, Tue 21 May 10.45-3.30 GL6 7QN. Walks also take place on 8 June and 21 Rock-rose Pot Beetle July ID & survey Workshop Dursley Community Centre and Stinchcombe Hill Mon 27 May 11-1pm Part of the ‘Back from the Brink’ Cotswolds Strawberry Banks project, learn how to identify and survey Strawberry Banks is Gloucestershire’s main for the Rock-rose Pot Beetle, one of the site for the rare Marsh Fritillary butterfly project’s most elusive target species. Led and is home to other butterflies and moths by Buglife, the day will provide you with and a wide range of flora, including Dyer’s the knowledge and skills needed to help us Greenweed, Sainfoin, Yellow Wort and undertake surveys for this very rare beetle. several orchid species. We expect to see The aim is to get a comprehensive pic- Marsh Fritillaries and much more on this ture of the current status of this beetle in walk. There are some fairly steep parts. Gloucestershire. Free event but booking required. Meet at Oakridge Church Please contact Jennifer Gilbert at 11am start. [email protected] Sue Smith 01453 882127 or on 07483 039321. Thur 30 May 10-1pm Stroud Walk Bug Bioblitz (canal) Sat 1 June A guided walk to look for otters, dragonflies, kingfishers & mammals tracks along the banks of the canal & River Frome. Meet at Fromebridge Mill, GL2 7PD. Great for families, all welcome, unmade path. Sat 1 11-4pm Nicer on the Water Take your pick for a taste of floating on the water - SUP Stroud, Stroud Valley Canoe J u n e Club, Boatmobility and Cotswold’s Canal Trust day trip boat all converge at Ryeford for the day. Bring a picnic, a towel, friends Sat 1 9.30-1.30pm and family. The Stroud Walk Accessible location and boating. On the official opening of the Nature Festival, we’d like to invite you on a walk Wed 5 1.10-1.50pm that encompasses different habitats across the town. With expert guides from numerous Lunchtime dawdle organisations joining the walk, this should along the canal (west) be a great way to explore and discover a Organised by CSCIC as part of the variety of habitats Community Engagement programme for the Canal restoration project. Join Stroud The walk commences at Stratford Park and Nature and others for a slow wander along will take in the canal, the river Frome, Capel the canal from Wallbridge. This may allow Mill, the town centre, Park Gardens and us to spot a few things as we go. The canal concludes with a tour around Stratford Park. and the nearby river are great places for Please meet at Stratford Park Car Park (by wildlife. Bring you cameras and/or mobile toilets)in time for a prompt 9.30am start, phones to capture what we find. and bring a packed lunch to enjoy at Capel Today we head west towards Dudbridge. Mill, weather permitting. For all ages and abilities. Free, but booking essential and limited www.cotswoldcanalsconnected. org numbers. Children welcome but need to be accompanied by an adult. No dogs please. Walk approximately 5km (3 miles) and includes slopes, canal path and riverside paths. Bookings and info – Stroud Town Council on 01453 762817 Website – www.stroudtown.gov.uk Orchid Walk- J u n e Duke of Burgundy Thur 6 10-4pm Managing grassland for wildlife Prinknash Abbey Part of the ‘Back from the Brink ‘Cotswolds project. Specifically Sun 9 10.00-12.00pm for landowners and land managers - join us Nature Walk at Bisley to discover how you can play your part in conserving our Cotswold wildlife. Focussing Road Cemetery on plants, bees and butterflies, learn about Come and join one of Stroud Town the importance of limestone grassland Council’s rangers for a guided stroll around habitat and how even simple changes to this delightful nature reserve. With land management can provide vital south- facing slopes of limestone habitat for rare and common species, as grassland, rich in diverse species of well as much needed connections, aiding wildflowers, insects and possibly reptiles, their movement within the landscape. Free, but please book. Suitable for all age groups. Free event but booking required. Please contact Jennifer Gilbert at Tarmac paths, sometimes steep. [email protected] No dogs. or on 07483 039321 Bookings and info – Stroud Town Council on 01453 762817 Sat 8 6pm-8pm Website – www.stroudtown.gov.uk Orchid Walk Nature Walk - Bisley Cemetery Edge Common Common Lizard The walk will start with a short introduction from Paul Griffiths (grazier of the common) about the history of the common, what wildflowers and orchids may be seen, and a brief introduction into the grazing and management of the common for the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly. Charge - Booking essential. £5 per adult Suitability for different groups - No dogs, some steep inclines Bookings and Info – 01453 753358 www.stroudvalleysproject.org Sun 9 All day J u n e Rodborough Hidden Gardens & Sculpture Trail For the day, resident gardeners will be Sun 9 9.30am-1pm throwing open their gates to welcome garden enthusiasts and art lovers. Stroud Yew Tree Farm Open Day Valleys Project will have a stall from their Mark Russell, the owner of the farm invites eco-shop so come along and talk to us you to join him and other organisations in about all things garden. an exploration of the farm’s habitats and wildlife. Charge - £6 per adult, under 16’s free 9.30am - Open the moth traps from the Suitability for different groups – Suitable for night before, 100 species expected; all ages 10.00am - Local Forest School takes you on Bookings and Info – [email protected] a wild trail into the wood; www.facebook.com/HGSRodborough 10.30am - Help Stroud Wildlife Survey Group survey the wildflowers and grasses; 11.30 - Butterfly exploration & identification with an expert, find the caterpillar’s food plant.