Nature Conservation Lewisham

Get involved in Lewisham's parks and nature reserves

Author Archives: Jess kyle


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Nature’s Gym help out at Firhill Road Allotments

Firhill Road Allotments

For a couple of weeks the Nature’s Gym volunteers worked in Firhill Road Allotments. The plan was to clear an area at the front of the site to make a wildlife area and a place for allotment holders to have a seat and relax. The volunteers also cleared some of the planters with a view to potentially allowing a school group to do some food growing. Nothing it set in stone yet and there is still a lot of work to do, be we still spent a happy few hours digging and hoeing, cutting and clearing. It is very satisfying seeing the result of our work and then being able to sit down and enjoy a cuppa in the newly cleared seating area!

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Tree of the year 2017

Sayes Court Mulberry Tree ©DeptfordFolk

 

DeptfordFolk a park user group in Deptford have nominated John Evelyn’s Mulberry Tree in Sayes Court Park, Lewisham for the Tree of the Year. The competition is run by The Woodland Trust and the winner will receive £1000 to go towards the upkeep of the tree.

They had a spot on ITV London news and they would love to bring the award to Deptford and South East London. The tree has an interesting history and local legend has it that the tree was planted 4oo years ago by Peter the Great of Russia to atone for a drunken rampage through John Evelyn’s garden.

John Evelyn was a writer, gardener and diarist who wrote about trees, pollution and street design. His writings are as relevant today as ever and is a figure of cultural significance for Lewisham.

The whole campaign ties into the #LoveItLewisham and the London Borough of Culture bid.


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Crofton Park Railway Garden Open Days

Crofton Park Railway Garden Open Days

Crofton Park Railway Garden Harvest Open Days

The garden volunteers welcome you to this year’s harvest open days:

Capital Growth – The Urban Harvest

Event: The Urban Harvest – Community gardens across the capital will be open on Saturday 16 September to welcome in visitors and volunteers to take part in garden activities and share the harvest as a community.

Date: 16 September 2017

Time 10-1pm

Croftfest

Event: Croftfest is taking place on 30 September this year with many activities around the neighbourhood. The garden will be open this year too.

Date: 30 September 2017

Time: 12-5pm

Open Day Activities

  • We will have a mini-popup market with harvest produce, seed packets and plants
  • Gardening tasks for anyone wanting to help prune, dig, clear, sow, weed
  • Look around and find out about forthcoming plans

Call to Action

  • We are always looking for regular volunteers to join a small group of dedicated local residents working towards transforming this space, and making Crofton Park greener.
  • We’d also like to hear from anyone who is a landscape gardener, landscape contractor, arborist, etc, who might be able to volunteer some time, or cost up some of the works. Please forward details if you know anyone who might be interested in helping us implement our plans.
  • We are also looking for any spare compost, good solid plant pots, spare functioning garden tools, etc. We don’t want spare junk, but if you feel you might have something useful for us, please get in touch. Email us photos to see if it might be something we need.

We really appreciate all the support offered thus far and look forward to commuinicating our continued progress over the coming year.

Hope to see you then. Please feel free to forward to your friends.
Please note other opening days on the website and follow us on Twitter @CroftonGarden for further info.

 


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Nature’s Gym change of date

9. Checking the level

Hither Green Triangle

Unfortunately, we have had to change our work day date at Hither Green Triangle. Our work session will now be on Saturday 9th September, 11am-2pm. Please remember that steel toe capped boots must be worn on site, and unfortunately, you will not be able to work without them. We have very few available to lend to people, so if you are keen, please contact us for more details.

We will be meeting by the entrance to the site on platform 5.


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New Cross Gate Cutting Open Day

Saturday 26th August 2017 – 1:00pm – 4:00pm

Come and explore this beautiful nature reserve which is usually closed to the public.

New Cross Gate Cutting is a secluded area of woodland with small grassy glades, set on the broad slopes of a deep railway cutting, which supports 170 species of flowering plants.

The reserve is predominantly oak woodland with open glades of neutral and acid grassland in which reeds and tall herbs grow. Some flowers are locally rare, and the site contributes to one of London’s most important railway cuttings for wildlife, stretching southwards to Forest Hill.

The cutting was dug in 1838-39 and still bears the legacy of once being part of the old Great North Wood, and at times the route of the Croydon Canal, brickworks, and wartime allotments.

Venue location

New Cross Gate Cutting,
Vesta Road Entrance,
London,
SE4 2NR


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Great North Wood Walk – Saturday 12 August, 12pm-4pm

2016_04_11 Sydenham Hill and Dulwich Wood ©Daniel Greenwood

Sydenham Hill and Dulwich Wood ©Daniel Greenwood

A walk of 6 green miles through the remnants of the Great North Wood

This is the annual Great North Wood walk in  partnership with London Wildlife Trust, the Friends of One Tree Hill, and The Conservation Volunteers.

The walk will is six miles long and will begin at One Tree Hill, passing over the hill down to Brenchley Gardens, Wood Vale, Cox’s Walk, Sydenham Hill Wood, Dulwich Wood, Dulwich Upper Wood and finally to Crystal Palace Park, finishing at the station.

The Great North Wood is an ancient landscape of woods and commons which has remnants in the wildwood that colonised after the Ice Age ended 10,000 years ago. Though London has been much developed and altered by human industry and settlement, large tracts of the Great North Wood’s ancient woodland still remains, namely in Sydenham Hill and Dulwich Woods.

This is a walk of approximately six miles, taking around 3-4 hours with regular pauses along the way to talk about the wildlife and history of each place. Please wear walking boots, bring water, sun hat and sun cream if needed, and clothing suitable for the conditions.

Venue location

Meet at the Friends of One Tree Hill notice board next to the temple, near to the junction of Hengrave Road and Honor Oak Park,
One Tree Hill,
Southwark,
Greater London,
SE23

Contact:  Daniel Greenwood

Tel: 07734 599 728  Email: dgreenwood@wildlondon.org.uk


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Come on an Outfall Safari and help us raise awareness about river pollution!

Outfall Safari

Following the successful first year running the Riverfly monitoring scheme on the Ravensbourne Catchment, we’re offering you another opportunity to help identify pollution hotspots and raise public awareness around drainage misconnections that can harm our rivers.

The waterways of the Ravensbourne, Quaggy and Pool join the Thames at Deptford and like all London’s rivers, they can be polluted by chemicals from detergents and by sewage, due to misconnected plumbing.  Pipes that lead into surface water drains, rather than into sewers, bring these pollutants into our rivers.

While Thames Water and the Environment Agency monitor the river catchment and respond to pollution incidents, it is very hard to create a detailed map of all the troublesome outfalls that have, so far, remained under the radar. An Outfall Safari is the answer. 

Designed to be undertaken by local volunteers, an Outfall Safari requires no expertise beyond simple data collection, which is covered in the bespoke training in September, and keenness to take walks alongside our rivers (and occasionally in them). 

This is a short-term commitment: it will be run over a period of around one month (October 2017) and relies on lots of small teams of volunteers each doing as much or as little as they want.  One team member will record the observations of the group using a simple mobile app and the uploaded data collected by all the teams will create a detailed picture of the current state of the catchment.

 Our Outfall Safari training will be on Wednesday 27th September 2017, from 10-12 noon.  Our trainer is Joe Pecorelli of the Zoological Society of London.  Flyer attached with full details – training is of course free.

An Outfall Safari gathers valuable information.  Data from the app is mapped and passed on the Environment Agency and Thames Water.  And any severe pollution revealed can be investigated immediately by these agencies.  It is a proven method of checking on London’s rivers, already tested on the rivers Crane, Hogsmill and Dollis Brook, and about to be used on the river Pinn.  It relies fully on Citizen Scientists!

Please contact Lawrence for more information or if you are keen to take part.