Boothby Community Nature Day

Boothby Wildland, July 2023

Making connections with friends and neighbours is one of the most important parts of running Boothby Wildland. And so our first Nature Day, held at the end of June 2023, was a chance for us to meet more people, share thoughts on our rewilding progress, and get feedback on the things you want to know more about.

Back in June, days were hot and sunny (remember them?) and so it proved on 25 June. But that didn’t curb people’s enthusiasm and we were delighted to see so many – including a lot of families – come to the event.

And, as we hoped, we learned so much. One of the most important bits of feedback was about our footpath and bridleway network and questions about how we plan to maintain and extend them in the coming years. We also found out more information from some of our neighbours, such as understanding the local wildlife on site (nesting barn owls, for example) and snippets of history about the land from years gone by. We also learned about people’s interest in potentially volunteering with us, which we’re looking to make more opportunities for in the coming months.

Highlights of the day included visitors going on field strolls to see rewilding in action (our first saplings were looking very happy!); bee and butterfly walks (thanks to Butterfly Conservation for helping us with those); and moths traps (set the night before so visitors could see them on the day).

Thank you to everyone who came: those who were very local, as well as those from Leicestershire and Rutland who made the journey too. We will be doing another nature day next year and have loads of ideas to make it bigger and better. Please do keep in touch and let us know if you’d like to get involved or help out – email our coordinator: lizzie.lemon@nattergal.co.uk