Wibu to introduce wildlife areas and ponds to communal areas

[wildlifeintegration]

I have a tiny garden, I used to have no garden until very recently.
I've always worried about local wildlife, plastic pollution. I miss the days where paper recycling and chopping down trees were my main concern.

Anyway, last year we had a very hot summer and (only anecdotal evidence) I've noticed and my friends and family have noticed less wildlife.

For example, hedgehogs used to frequent my garden haven't been visiting at all, less birds etc, Bees.
Over the last few years I've really gotten unto bird watching and insect identification and plants and there really is less of everything.

There's a big development starting up next year in my area, lots of green space and green areas will be lost. This is a massive project and there's a lot of public support for it.

My idea is to set up a few wildlife areas, a small bucket pond here, a bug hotel there, a few bird houses attached to different places.

I was also thinking of knocking doors and sending out leaflets/ putting up posters asking people to do the same and make a few bits and bobs for people to set up for free.
Maybe get my kids school involved, ask local schools if they are interested in a competition maybe where children draw posters and the best one wins a bug hotel for their garden? (But there are lots of flats around here so maybe for their balcony?)
I was thinking maybe ask the local library and children's centre if they want to do a fun day painting rocks, making natural art, etc.

How would you feel if someone came to your door asking if you wanted a free pond in the corner?

We live in a city and we are losing so much park space and green space to houses and even a school (to accommodate the new houses, it's that big if a project, you can imagine how much we are losing.)

Any ideas? How do I get people to get involved? It's not my land so I'm not sure what I can / can't do.

Ps I'm not on about digging a pond out, just buckets and last pots with plants and stone, gravel and sand in hidden corners to support local wildlife.

I would always welcome ideas of easily achievable ways to encourage more wildlife so I would think that’s a great idea to put up posters etc

You will either need to get permission from the landowner so they can risk assess your plans, or do it guerilla-style alone with no fanfare.

I think you need to approach the council and see what they say. You can just set up your own wildlife habitat on community land without permission.

*can't

Given the movement towards acknowledging the impact of development and loss of green space, I would probably in the first instance contact the planning department and ask them what provisions have been made; you may be pleasantly surprised.

Well i was thinking gurilla style gardening, there are lots of brick built planters which are basically just big ashtrays.

and to be quite honest, I don't care about asking the council, they didn't care about cutting my local park in half, or chopping up a big chunk of woodland. I'm inner city, we don't have much. Some of the trees are dated 400+ years old but the woodland Trust only have the resources to fight development on ancient woodland which is 600 years old or older.

Any way I have had a look online and the consensus seems to be to ask for forgiveness not permission from the council.

You mean on the street? People did this in my previous area and I liked it. They would put it next to a tree though...and there were no buckets of water, which will stagnate. They hung signs on the trees saying "please don't disturb these plants".

You are much better off not asking people but where I lived, it was all sensibly done, so not trip hazards. More like, you know if there's a tree planted in the street, there'll be a patch surrounding it that people don't walk on, they had plants and so on there.

There is going to be new plantings (which is great but not as good as leaving established woodland alone) and bat boxes.

They aren't putting any more money into than they have to.

I would start with aiming to do things like bringing the planters which are already there back to life

X post
agree, don't ask the council, go guerilla.

btw in case people find this helpful...

https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-hedgehogs/link-your-garden/

Will buckets of water not stagnant? Also I'd be concerned about buckets of water left about if it's an area small children may play in.

Maybe try bringing the planters that are already in situ back into usage. You can make it a community project.

Oh and there has been a massive increase in private landlords taking up grass and trees and shrubs and replacing with gravel or that plastic grass.
easily 20 houses, maybe more within a couple of miles that I've noticed. So we are losing garden wildlife space aswell.

I'm not going to be sending buckets round the streets but carefully made up wildlife bucket sized ponds, in small corners that aren't really accessed, overgrown etc.
With a small poster or sign explaining what it is and how to make one.
(this is dream land I'm sorting one in my own garden at the moment)

It could be worth seeing what your local wildlife trust is up to. I live in a city and increasing wetlands and habitat alongside the rivers and ponds are a big focus of theirs at the moment. They may have advice or a project you can join in with.

@EmmaEmerald and @PaperNests thank you!
I'll look into both wildlife Trust and the hedgehog Street signs are great. Kids are that level, so increasing interest for children is great

Do you have any local streams or rivers or parks with streams running through? They can be good places to begin improving the habitat because there's already likely to be an ecosystem of wildlife that uses it. Our local park does a litter pick in the river on a monthly basis. Although bucket ponds are a nice idea and some things will live in it, such as insect larvae which birds may eat, they can be really difficult to maintain the water quality and temperature. I have fish tanks and the advice is always to go as big as you can for better water quality. Also add lots of oxygenating aquatic plants.

I haven't seen a hedgehog for years, it's sad.

@EmmaEmerald we haven't, although we did see 3 dead ones last year during that heatwaves. We 'rescued' one live one that sadly died shortly after so they must have been there but it was so hot loads of dead birds and hedgehogs

Poor things. it really gets you thinking you can always do a bit more considering we collectively bulldoze the whole world.

Does your local council have an ecology officer? They would be glad to help and would have ideas.

I'd go guerilla but not do the ponds.
My council don't care about the enviroment at all. I just chuck flower seeds down and litter pick.