Lewisham’s parks and green spaces have been awarded their highest-ever number of Green Flags, the award given to the very best green spaces in the UK. The latest green spaces in Lewisham to be given prestigious Green Flag Community Awards are Garthorne Road and Dacres Wood, managed by Lewisham Council with the help of the Friends Groups
Local Councillors voted at a meeting last week to endorse the new plan called, ‘A Natural Renaissance 2021-2026’. The plan sets out how Lewisham's Biodiversity Partnership (LBP) will work with the Council, the local voluntary and community sector and other partners over the next five years to help protect local wildlife, plants and natural habitats.
The Council has produced a step-by-step guide as part of the Lewisham Climate Conversation campaign, which shares some inspiration and positive actions that residents can take to decrease their carbon footprint. This includes advice to help start a climate conversation and ten practical and easy ideas that can benefit the planet.
A small group of volunteers has been looking after the site over the last few years on the basis of the Council’s management plan, leaving most of the site largely undisturbed. New fruit trees were planted c.2014 to maintain orchard use, and they are thriving. We have a series of volunteer sessions arranged over the next few months as follows:
T.O.A.D is a new Froglife project and is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project aims to benefit the UK’s beleaguered common toads through a range of engagement and practical conservation activities.
London Rivers Week is a week-long annual campaign inspiring the public to celebrate London’s rivers and the projects taking place to rewild and renaturalise them and connecting them with their local communities.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have to cancel the open day on Saturday 25th September. We hope to be open again on Saturday 30th October. Apologies for those who were hoping to come.
Above image: Nora Bzheta, Release, 2021 ©Nora Bzheta. Courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Ling Zhang
Festival in the Forest is back at Devonshire Road!
Thank you all who joined our meeting last week. We had a very busy agenda starting with a presentation by Steve Bolton from Butterfly Conservation about their new 4-year project, Big City Butterflies. There are many opportunities to get involved in the project (e.g. receiving training, organising events, get advice on habitat management) so please find further details in the presentation attached and contact Steve (sbolton@butterfly-conservation.org) directly if you would like to be involved in any activities.
