Nextdoor Nature is gathering momentum, seedlings have been sown and a community murmuration has begun. Our wilder community work did not start with Nextdoor Nature, nor with Urban Green. Dorset Wildlife Trust has always engaged with local communities, sharing our love of nature and our commitment to its biodiversity and protection. But we are learning to take a step back and listen first, giving strength and confidence to people who have as deep a need to make their environment richer for wildlife as we do.
Turlin Moor sits on the edge of Lytchett Bay, an internationally important area of marsh and wetland habitat which attracts rare overwintering birds, sand lizards, Dartford and reed warbler and the evocative sounding nightjar. Our own Lytchett Bay nature reserve includes part of the shoreline serving the fishing and boating community of Turlin Moor. This provided the backdrop for a film being made by Bournemouth and Poole College students alongside Nextdoor Nature, demonstrating how valuable and successful collaborative partnership working is. The film project involved a team of over 40 people, representing the Turlin Moor community, The College, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Homes, and Birds and Recreation Initiative, and demonstrated how a single idea from the Nextdoor Nature project can bring together local elders and teenagers from the community and sow the seed for a greater awareness of their own environment and the importance of its protection.
The murmuration doesn’t end there, further projects can be heard chattering through the Moor. A group of local craftswomen, The Get2Gethers, some highly skilled in sewing, embroidery, knitting and crotchet come together every Thursday for warmth, laughter, company and creativity. They will shortly be starting a Community Map project with Nextdoor Nature. Having welcomed me into their space over the past few months, we will collaborate on a nature in art project, demonstrating their creative skills by carefully weaving their love of stitching, with a new awareness of the myriad of nature they live next door to.
These and many more Nextdoor Nature projects all have one thing in common. We, as environmental professionals are here to gently guide, to sit back and listen, to lead from behind, but with an intuitive awareness of the essence of the group and always an eye on our aim of 30 by 30.
