Thanks to grants from TOE’s Local Environment Fund, volunteers from three community groups are now out and about recording the wildlife near where they live.
Wild Tilehurst, Wild Cookham and Keep Nethercote Rural have all received grants this year from TOE for equipment used in citizen science projects which are recording species, increasing awareness of their presence, encouraging volunteer involvement and providing new data to wider projects that will help protect our environment into the future.
Wild Tilehurst promotes awareness of wildlife locally, encouraging residents to participate in events such as bat surveys, bird watching, nature walks, wildlife friendly gardening as well as sharing wildlife sightings in the area. Wild Tilehurst only formed this March (2024) and their grant has funded some of their set up costs, a trail camera and a bat detector.
Wild Cookham, established in 2014, takes action and encourages personal commitment to champion local environmental issues, biodiversity and wildlife protection. Their successful application was for pond testing kits that will enable the group to survey the numerous ponds and waterways in Cookham. The rigorous level of testing and analysis will be used to identify where changes in management could result in an improvement in the biodiversity found in the ponds surveyed, and provide evidence to those responsible for the upkeep of the ponds to make those changes.
#KEEPNETHERCOTERURAL have bought a bat detector with their grant enabling volunteers to identify the species that make their home around Nethercote and help protect them. Established in December 2021, one of the aims of Keep Nethercote Rural is to record the biodiversity presence in the hamlet close to Banbury and to make the species data available to relevant authorities and bodies to support preservation and enhancement. This aim then supports their wish to enhance local biodiversity and to promote Nethercote as a place for recreation and access to green space.
Are you interested in helping survey nature ? There are loads of groups and organisations who need volunteers ! But if you are one of those groups or organisations and you need equipment to survey wildlife on your doorstep then do contact us at TOE to see if your project could be supported by a grant and how to go about it.
https://www.trustforoxfordshire.org.uk/local-environment-fund