CONSERVATION
Phill Catton
Healing Nature Project Manager
By Phill Catton
J
ust outside the dene, presumably perched on a hedgerow, the distinctive rattle and wheeze of a yellowhammer gives me cause to lift the clipboard and make a few marks on the attached paper. An hour-and-a-half later – still well before anyone sensible will have roused themselves on a weekend – and that sheet of paper is covered with spidery scrawls and circled letters denoting the territorial, and likely breeding, birds in this small patch of woodland. Not only has the morning afforded us spectacular views of a tawny owl, as it tried, fruitlessly, to escape the berating blackbirds who mercilessly hounded it from tree to tree, but we have also been serenaded by blackcap, willow warbler, chiffchaff, song thrush and wren, as we have snaked our way along the burn and scrambled up the steep banks gorged out by glacial action. It was just as the survey was finishing that we heard, and then marvelled at, the pneumatic-like capabilities of a great spotted woodpecker, advertising its presence and vigour with powerfully destructive blows rained down in short staccato sequences on a well-battered and bruised relic of a tree. Chris Gomersall / 2020VISION
The Healing Nature project may be an investment in improving, restoring, and creating habitat for wildlife, but on mornings like this one, it feels like nature is doing all the healing and we are just lucky shareholders in the venture. But, if we were lucky, it is likely you are too. Because, despite the damage and losses we have collectively inflicted on our countryside, these close encounters with nature didn’t need us to venture to some rural idyll or walk around a members’ only nature reserve. They were on a Sunderland Council Local Wildlife Site, less than 400m away from residential areas, pubs, and busy roads. An oasis in an urban desert. Proof that although we may be pushing nature to the limit, if we can give it a little space and protection, it can, and will, live alongside us and enrich our lives with its presence. And this is where Healing Nature comes in. A 15-month rapid delivery project launched in January 2021 as part of the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund programme. We are working in partnership with Gateshead Council, South Tyneside Council, and Sunderland Council to improve 20 local authority sites for wildlife and running events through to March 2022, to help connect people and local communities to the natural, and incredible, world on their doorstep. As it has across all aspects of life, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted activities and decisions at every level, so launching a project during a national lockdown presented several challenges. Not least the fact that so much of our capability as an organisation is inextricably linked to our volunteers. However, with the realisation that we could lose an entire winter season of practical conservation work, risk assessments were drawn up, controls put in place, and project officers – along with a small group of local volunteers – sprang into action.
River Don - Rachel Richards
Healing Nature
