By Clive Humphreys
Local communities across Rockingham Forest have been starting to produce Parish Nature Recovery Plans. They have been supported by the partners in the Building the Links for Rockingham Forest Project and, in particular, by Project Officer Sophie van den Bergh.
Many of the plans are being drawn up by village communities, but in the town of Oundle, a wider area and larger group of people have been involved. Here Clive Humphreys presents a very personal view of the collaborative process that has been under way.
Clive is a Master Silversmith (Freeman of the City of London) and a retired Head of Design and Technology at Oundle School. He has a Diploma in Ecology and Woodland Management.
It all started, like most good things, with conversation and food. At the end of 2022 I was invited to a lunch and launch of the Rockingham Forest Vision.
The lunch was excellent, the speakers and the conversations stimulating but, when talking to the converted and enthusiastic, most ideas aren’t hard to sell. By the time we were drinking coffee a small group from Oundle had arranged to meet and see how we could create a deliverable Nature Recovery Plan to the residents of Oundle. The lunch had done it’s work.
Okay – well, we had words and promises but now how do we develop and deliver a ‘Nature Recovery Plan’?
To start with we had to find a group of people – that was fairly easy as we were sitting together just having had lunch – people who were willing to meet regularly, were keen enough to want to create a group that could educated and inform residents about the importance of biodiversity, whilst delivering the depressing news of species decline, sadly much of which is in our own gardens. A tough remit, but we all thought this would be fairly easy for us in Oundle. We have a great mix of residents, many with time on their hands (it makes getting people together at odd times very easy), who are very knowledgeable, when asked, about a great many things.
It has amazed me how much knowledge can be accumulated by a community – it just needs a nudge to get it to cascade out.
We decided that the group had to be made up of stake holders, people who were already doing things that could be connected, no matter how loosely, to the ‘vision’.
We started with the Town Council - they were on board, having just acquired Fletton Field, a small area (0.7 hectare) of green space right in the centre of the town as a community asset.
We spoke to Transition Oundle a group that want to see improvements to the town by recycling - less waste, walking, creating cycle paths and ‘greening’ the whole place.
We spoke to the ‘Churchyard group’ – they were already working to clear areas for wild flowers and to stop an ivy invasion, generally helping the habitat in the old graveyard to breathe.
We then approached Oundle School. They were going to be a major player in the scheme, as they are the largest landowner in Oundle and without their help the project was going to be much harder to get going.
I think at this point I should introduce some of my credentials. I have an academic qualification in ecology and woodland management and I work part time as the volunteer woodland manager of Heron Rogers Wood, part of the Oundle School estate. This is located at the west end of the town and I helped plant the wood back in 2014 ( but that is another story!).
Right, we had a group. What were we going to try to achieve? What could we do practically to help? Where in Oundle (if at all) was nature recovery needed? Big questions! Well we met, had cups of tea, ate cake… and then decided that it was very nice to meet, have cups of tea and eat cake. We would set up meetings at set times but not too regularly, so as to save our waistlines. Monthly seemed to fit into everyone’s calendar and would give us time to get ‘things’ done once those ‘things’ were established.
This is where it got difficult. The danger of all committees is they can get too big to make decisions and they can talk round in circles, actions become impossible and navel gazing is all that’s left. We were very lucky to have had a small group of dedicated enthusiastic people who wanted to see change and had the experience to make it happen, as well as a very large privately-owned estate right in the middle of the town - Oundle School.
Oundle School Site Map (https://www.oundleschool.org.uk/oundle-map/)
The school’s staff and management were willing to embrace the idea of nature recovery, being able to see the educational benefits as well as the practical, and with enough land to make a difference right from the outset.
We then looked at a very large map of the town and surrounding areas and marked out the reasonably wild habitat that was already there and what areas needed to be looked at. To our surprise we realised we had a nearly complete natural corridor, stretching from outside the town boundary on the western side all the way to the river, which makes up the boundary on the eastern side. Yes there were a few roads but insects, bats and birds fly and we all know how foxes, deer and hedgehogs cross roads. So now we had to make sure that everyone was aware that there was a scheme, that it was viable and that it wasn’t a lost cause organised by a small group of oddballs, likely to be regularly found drinking tea, eating cake and ranting on street corners!
Informing people about what our group was trying to achieve was crucial to making progress, so we asked if we could introduce the plan to the town at the Annual Town Meeting. This was a great forum because by law, every town and parish has to have one and although they may be poorly attended, they do get reported and news does escape.
I was very surprised after the event because the plan and the idea of there being a need for helping nature to recover at every level was well received. It might be more of a challenge when we begin to approach individuals about giving over small parts of their gardens to nature, letting their lawns grow longer, putting up swift bricks, allowing bats into their lofts, cutting hedgehog holes in their fences and just generally letting things get a little ‘fluffy’ in their gardens. But that is a battle for the future.
As I have already mentioned Oundle School were and still are, a great help. They were willing to plant wild-flower borders, reduce mowing on certain areas and, with the wood now so well established, there was a variety of habitat.
The Town Council with the help of the Fletton Field Association are going to plant a Community Orchard with a variety of species of fruit trees. Wild flowers and hedges are already there so, combined with benches and play areas, people can sit and … well just sit.
We now found we had grassland, hedgerow, woodland, orchard, wild meadow and river along our Oundle corridor. We have found a rich belt of varying environments, just by investigating and understanding what was there.
We have been very lucky, however I do believe in making your own luck. We have started to help people realise that there are benefits to health and well-being, as well as education to be found in Nature Recovery Plans. Plans have very little financial cost but can give so much pleasure.
Education is very important to us all and by helping local children see the importance of the environment we not only have succession but a way of educating parents and communities to look again at their surroundings.
What we have done in Oundle has made me realise that a Nature Recovery Plan doesn’t have to be big. We have been fortunate with the scale, but if a couple of neighbours get together and plant for insects they would see the almost immediate impact, and that would be a start in any location.
We are planning more social media involvement, some community events such as bat detecting, bug and moth counts and plant surveys. All of these will not only give us community involvement but also ‘citizen science’ data to feed back to national wildlife surveys, helping to build a picture of how we as a country are doing in the environmental survival stakes.
It’s not been easy. It certainly does take planning, time, persistence and resilience. There are many residents who scoff, but they don’t get to drink tea and eat cake with the most entertaining of people!
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