Our projects
We are turning the tide for nature with our wildlife recovery and education projects. Working with national and regional conservation groups, we are tackling biodiversity loss, supporting vulnerable species and creating vital habitats. Discover our latest projects below. If you’d like to support us why not consider volunteering or making a donation?
The UK has become one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world due to centuries of wild habitat being cleared for cultivation, grazed, managed for timber, mined or built over.
Landowners and farmers now need to become custodians of the increasingly threatened wild species dependent for survival on their fields and hedgerows, woods, waterways and wetlands. It is an imperative that can only be achieved with the support of government at every level and an electorate resolved to keep them to their promises.
Last year, Tenterden Wildlife participated with Kent Wildlife Trust in a year-long study, which recruited six Tenterden farmers to contribute to the design of DEFRA’s new Environmental Land Management Scheme, as it is likely to affect the means by which they earn their livings.
This year, we have joined Kent County Council’s ‘Making Space for Nature’ initiative for Kent and Medway in the role of a stakeholder engagement group. The scheme is one of 48 Local Nature Recovery Strategies to be developed across the length of Britain, involving working landowners and farmers in the Government’s commitment to ending the decline of nature and supporting its recovery.
Farming with Nature
‘No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced.’ (Sir David Attenborough)
At this time of global climate and ecological emergency, young people have an important part to play in supporting and protecting the natural world. Empowering young people to care for wildlife engages them in positive and hopeful ways in the face of the intersecting crises.
We are working with our local schools to help our young people to identify, understand and care about the universe of natural species that surround them – and in caring, help protect them for the future.
To extend our vital education work, we are raising funds and bringing together a range of local delivery partners. We are currently seeking opportunities to work with after-school clubs, Scout and Brownie groups. We’d welcome further help from teachers and group leaders, so contact us if you’d like to work with us.
Delivery partners: Tenterden Schools Trust, Kent Wildlife Trust’s Education team, Tenterden and District Museum, Kent & East Sussex Steam Railway and children’s author Jenny Bailey.
Learning to Care
Supporting Pollinators
Globally, pollinating insects are declining fast, with Kent’s flying insect population shrinking by as much as 70% in the last 20 years. To help reduce that loss, we have been planting more wildflowers in the very centre of our town as vital food for local pollinators.
In 2023, we ran a pilot study to experiment with a mosaic of unmown spaces reserved for wildflowers around Tenterden’s iconic tree-lined High Street. We produced an awareness campaign with leaflets and posters to inform residents of the pressing need for this project to help reverse the loss of local pollinators.
The pilot was a success and received significant support from residents. The project will be expanded and improved in 2024 with a larger wildflower area and later blooming plant varieties to extend the pollinating season.
Surveys will be carried out to record the number and variety of pollinating insects visiting the lawns in the hope of measuring significant increases year on year as the wildflowers become established.
Project partners: Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Ashford Borough Council and Kent County Council.
[Photograph taken with permission of K&ESR and under strict control of railway staff]
Nature Corridor
A vital green corridor runs between Tenterden and Bodiam along the Kent & East Sussex Railway line. We have been working to help enhance and preserve its important wildlife, starting with surveys to establish its ecological value.
We have helped organise a series of wildlife surveys along 10 ½ miles of the line. The surveys identified 89 wild bird species, 14 of which are on the Red List for highest conservation concern. We also observed significant numbers of butterflies and bees, including a rare ruderal bumblebee.
In 2024, a summary of two years’ of surveying is expected to confirm the unique importance of this nature corridor as a rare survival of the much richer wildlife habitats of our Kentish past.
We will explore the possibility of grant funding to widen the green corridor by incorporating adjacent land to increase habitats for rare and vulnerable species. We are also looking at opportunities for community engagement and working with local schools to maximise the potential for wildlife education.
Project partners: Janus Foundation, Kent Wildlife Trust, Bumblebee Conservation Trust and Kent & East Sussex Railway.
[Photograph taken with permission of K&ESR and under strict control of railway staff]
Wildlife Havens
Increasing numbers of golf clubs are looking for ecologically friendly solutions to golf course design and maintenance, creating the potential for developing significant wildlife havens, as golf courses occupy 2,700 hectares of land across England.
Tenterden Golf Club is part of this movement and has partnered with us to assess the course’s current ecological status and capacity for improvement.
We carried out surveys of habitats, species, breeding birds and bats to create a picture of the current ecology of the site. We have already started work to improve the biodiversity of the course by:
Clearing ponds of invasive bulrushes and replanting them with marginal and aquatic species that will support more pondlife
Expanding woodland, widening hedges and increasing areas of rough
Regenerating scrub suitable for ground-nesting birds
In 2024, we will plant more native wildflowers on the course and install more bird nesting boxes. We will engage Club members to record the wildlife they observe on the course, which we hope will increase over the coming months and years.
Protecting Habitats
Over 21 acres of land has been gifted to the community of Rolvenden by a local benefactor. In spring 2023, we were commissioned to undertake a Preliminary Ecological Assessment of the land’s three large fields to understand its ecological value.
Detailed surveys were made of the grassland, herbal species, invertebrates, trees, hedgerows and ponds. A bat survey was carried out, supervised by Val Sutton of the Kent Bat Group. Local naturalists and residents also contributed their records of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians to the report.
The important findings of the report were shared with the community via an exhibition and presentations in the Village Hall. Our recommendations highlighted the importance of the land as an ecological resource supporting appreciable numbers of protected species – excitingly, including the priority species hazel dormice, which are vulnerable to extinction.
Your donation enables us to turn the tide for nature.
Support our vital work today with a one-off or regular donation.
