Creating a Wildlife Community

Do you find yourself admiring the birds who land on your feeders? Or are you fascinated by the butterflies that float past your eyes on a warm summers’ day? You might have tuned into 'Wild Isles' on Sunday and been awestruck by the incredible biodiversity on our own doorsteps and concerned about protecting that for future generations. But surely that’s not your job, that’s the job of large conservation organisations. You can’t possibly have an impact on the future of our planet, right? What if we told you that in fact, you could help to change the world.

The Wildlife Community is here to do exactly that. We want to connect people who are passionate about nature, like you, and empower them to take action and get involved with the fight to save our planet. You may have read about the ‘Toad Patrol’ in last weeks blog. Well, the Toad Patrols that go out every night to ensure the toads are safe on their migration to the breeding ponds, aren’t just made up of groups of experienced conservationists. They are groups of volunteers up and down the country who have spotted a problem and come together to make a difference. And that is what you can do.

So how can you get involved? We put together some top tips for the steps you can take if you’re not sure where to start:

1. Identify what you want to do. What are you passionate about?
2. Think about why you want to get involved? What change do you want to see? Establishing this will give you the motivation to take part.
3. Have a look online to see if there are any established groups in your community. Get in touch and join them, where you will meet people who are determined, like you, to create a world where we live in harmony with wildlife.
4. Can’t find a community group that already does what you want to do? Why don’t you set one up? The chances are, if you are keen to do something, there will be other people out there in your local area who will jump at the chance if you take the lead!
5. Think about how you want to approach your cause. Do you want to educate the public? Engage with a wide audience? Start a campaign or do hands on work on a project in your local area?
6. Most importantly, have fun doing what you are doing!

Whether you are mad about hedgehogs, keen to protect toads or determined to plant more trees in your local area, it doesn’t matter. Every step you take towards forming a community that is dedicated to creating change is a step in the right direction.

Over the next few weeks, we will be bringing you inspiring stories from community groups up and down the UK that we support. We hope that by sharing the work of passionate people, you will be inspired to get involved in the fight to save our beautiful home.

If you have a community project that you would like to talk to us about, please feel free to get in touch! We would love to talk about and promote the work you are doing. Our voices and actions can be so powerful if we use them together. So let’s go and create a wonderfully wild world.