Biodiversity
We live in an area of great natural beauty but like much of the rest of the world, our local environment is seriously threatened. Find out more..
Image: Jonathan Buckley
Our Community and Biodiversity
It can be easy to feel helpless about the effects of climate change and loss of biodiversity. However, we can all make a difference. As individuals, we can make changes and every little helps. We can also act together – together we’re bigger, stronger, and more effective!
Community takes many forms and can be coming together in person, in spirit, online. It can be local, national, global…. and coming together can make change happen. It can provide company, be good for physical and mental health, and good for the planet. Win, Win!!
We welcome your involvement. We can provide information, advice and volunteers. We work with individual residents and local organisations, such as schools. We have worked with local landowners to plant trees and hedges. The Parish Council has been working with us to change the way in which verges and public green spaces are managed. In some of these green spaces, we have planted wild flowers and trees.
We have helped Friends of Frithwood and worked with Stroud Valleys Project. There is a 10 kilometre Biodiversity Trail that highlights some of the most biodiverse sites in our Parish. It is fully waymarked, thanks to the generous donation from the Open Garden Trail. We run workshops, so far on, how to make compost, create a wildlife pond, make Biochar, identify birds on a dawn chorus walk and learns about moths in a local garden.
A working party is good fun, friendly, good exercise and helps to make you feel you are doing something to restore biodiversity and fight climate change. They’re often suitable for all the family and you don’t need to be really strong or fit to help. There are all sorts of activities involved, some of us have even learnt to scythe!
If you or your organisation would like to plant a tree or hedge, sow wildflowers, build bird and bat boxes, put up a swift box on your house, improve biodiversity in your garden or on a piece of land or make hay while the sun shines – contact us!
More information
Events and Workshops
Chalcan Biodiversity offers a range of events and workshops which provide practical help in how to support and better understand local biodiversity. Over the last year, these have included: a
Trees and Hedgerows
First the good news … About a third of our Parish is currently covered in trees and hedgerows. Many of these trees are on the steep slopes of the Frome
Green Spaces
There are lots of community owned green spaces scattered over the Parish, all managed by the Parish Council. Some are tucked away, quietly acting as mini wildlife reserves without the
Gardens
About a third of our parish is covered over with houses and gardens. If we are going to increase biodiversity, all those hundreds of gardens need to be put to
Biodiversity Survey
Chalford Parish Council has acknowledged that there is a climate emergency and that we should become carbon-neutral by 2030. To do this efficiently and effectively, ways need to be found
Wildlife Friendly Allotments
Your allotment is mainly for growing fruit and vegetables, and maybe keeping some chickens; but allotments are also really important for biodiversity. There are lots of things you can do
Roadside Verges
Yet, the way we currently manage our verges unintentionally reduces this richness of life year by year. Research shows that most verges are cut too often and at the wrong