BTCV : Practical Local Action
Taking practical local action
BTCV welcome the opportunity to support Energy Saving Day. As the largest practical environmental charity in the country, we recognise the threat that climate change presents and the need for urgent action to address it.
Practical action to address climate change
BTCV’s great strength lies in our ability to mobilise mass community action - providing opportunities for individuals and groups to protect both communities and habitats threatened by climate change.
To do this BTCV organise many 1,000s of projects every year in both urban and rural locations. No previous experience is necessary as full instruction is given in the simple practical techniques we undertake.
These conservation projects are a great way to get to know your local environment, make new friends, gain new skills and feel that you have made a real difference through volunteering.
Every week we and members of our Community Network, undertake hundreds of practical conservation projects - offering practical solutions to environmental problems such as climate change.
Our opportunities also include:-
- The BTCV Green Gym, which inspires people of all ages to improve their health and the environment at the same time through by 'working out' in the open air.
and
- BTCV Holidays which take place all year round in some of the world's finest landscapes. Living, laughing and cooking together we're busy all over, all the time. BTCV holidays don't just improve the environment - they're good for your health and could change your life.
Many of these projects lock up carbon, help with flood control, reduce "heat islands" and help native flora and fauna adapt to climate change.
Examples of the types of tasks that you could undertake include:-
• Maintaining wetlands, ponds and water courses to help reduce flood risk and create wildlife corridors. Conservation volunteers play a vital role in managing wetlands for the benefit of both people and wildlife.
• Helping to create and stabilise sand dune systems where they protect against coastal flooding. Many parts of the country’s coastline are under severe threat from rising seas. In places sand dunes are the main line of defence against flooding and volunteer activities help to maintain them.
• Planting trees in urban areas to provide shade, reduce the impact of ‘heat islands’, absorb rainfall and dissipate excess rainwater run-off. The importance of trees in urban green spaces has never been greater. Conservation groups plant many 1,000s of trees every year. Great care is taken to ensure the correct species for the conditions are selected and planted by the volunteers.
• Managing woodlands and conserving peatland for carbon sequestration and for biodiversity. Some of our best-loved woodland species, such as the bluebell, could be lost from parts of the country. Come and help give it the best chance of survival by managing woodland in a traditional and sympathetic way.
• Protecting at risk species. Whenever possible priority is given by BTCV to volunteer projects concerning animal and plant species which are deemed by Natural England to be at medium or high risk from the impact of climate change.
• Creating new habitats new habitats which provide stepping stones for wildlife migrating between existing areas of fragmented habitat. Through owning no land of their own BTCV volunteers and groups are able to negotiate to work on a landscape-wide basis rather than being restricted to limited self-owned sites.
• Expanding existing habitats - where this helps reduce fragmentation and give species the space to move to nearby areas with more suitable conditions.
• Managing and maintaining hedgerows. Often this involves undertaking traditional techniques such as hedgelaying. Sympathetic care and management of hedgerows helps maintain the network of wildlife corridors which allow species under threat owing to climate change to migrate to more suitable areas of the country.
BTCV offers a range of ways in which people of all ages can become involved. Find out about projects near you at www.btcv.org
To find your nearest Community Network member group, visit www.btcv.org/network…and don’t forget to join BTCV on Energy Saving Day in turning off office and household electrical items, which do not need to be left on or on standby.