Celebrating World Rewilding Day: School updates and top tips!
Each year, World Rewilding Day acknowledges the benefits of a wildernature for wildlife, people, and the planet, whilst championing rewilders across the globe. This includes the fantastic work our Wilding schools have been doing, progressing towards their goal of wilding 30% of their grounds.
This year’s theme is #RewildingTogether, celebrating community and collaborative action. The Global Rewilding Alliance started the event in 2021to coincide with the start of the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.
Across the world, nature is crisis, with recent studies finding that species have declined by 19% in the UK since 1970. In a time where the need for wildlife and its benefits have never been greater, World Rewilding Day demonstrates how joining together for a shared interest can help nature thrive .
What is rewilding?
Rewilding may come in many forms, but simply it means restoring an environment back to how it was before humans altered it to create more biodiverse habitats and re-establish wildlife populations. This large-scale restoration of habitats and ecosystems means that eventually, nature will be able to look after itself without human intervention.
Why is rewilding important?
Rewilding is a source of hope in the ongoing climate and nature emergencies. It also has a variety of benefits and helps to tackle multiple challenges simultaneously.
The key benefits of rewilding include:
· Reversing biodiversity loss and supports threatened species.
· Addressing the climate crisis through carbon storage.
· Helping clean the air,water, and soil.
· Improves mental well-being.
· Supporting local economies and strengthening communities.
What are our Wilding schools doing?
The Green Schools Revolution project supports 16 schools across the UK to bring back nature to school grounds. From biodiversity mapping tools, completing baseline surveys of biodiversity, identifying target animal groups for wilding in their area, and implementing their own wilding plan, students are leading sustainability practices in their schools!
Exciting school updates:
All of our schools have completed their onboarding and all but one have now completed their Wilding Plan workshop. With help from local Wildlife Trusts and other ecological support partnerships, we are now working hard over spring and summer terms to put this plan into action, purchasing resources and planting.
Three of our newer schools, St Boniface and Notre Dame schools in Plymouth, and Clare Mount Specialist Sports College in the Wirral have officially finished their welcome assemblies and onboarding sessions! It’s been amazing to see the final schools complete this stage in their wilding journey,and we can’t wait to see what outcomes they produce, starting with baseline surveys of the current wildlife present.
Plymstock School in Plymouth are currently in the planning stage of adding three large wildflower meadow bank areas to support insects and plant biodiversity on the grounds.
Tongwynlais Primary School in Wales are working on a wildlife pond, have planted an area of native trees and shrubs, and has spotted hedgehog prints in a survey!
The Polygon School in Southampton are focusing on supporting local swiftand bat populations and have been building birdhouses in DT classes to support on-site habitats.
East Norfolk College have installed a green wall to support insects and have recently ordered lots of native fruit trees to create an orchard area that will provide blossoming flowers and fruit to support a range of wildlife. They are also installing a beehive, and looking at how to add more pollinator friendly planting across their site to support local insect populations.
St Mary’s Catholic School in Newcastle have been focusing on supporting birds in their grounds, following their Wilding Plan Session with Northumberland Wildlife Trust last summer. Through the project, we provided the school with a wildlife camera trap, which they used to record a baseline of species found in their grounds, including squirrels, magpies and robins.
They've since recorded some more exciting new species being spotted in their grounds, such as a wood mouse, goldfinches, hedgehogs and a woodcock! The school now creates a weekly video update from the camera trap, which is shared with the wider school and teaches the pupils facts about the wildlife spotted that week.
Tips for rewilding
When it comes to getting involved in rewilding, no job is too big or too small. If you can, start rewilding where you are- this could be in your garden, school, workplace, or community.
Some handy tips to use when rewilding schools or other spaces include:
1. Speak to your school, workplace, or community about ideas for rewilding your local spaces.
Get creative and find out which natural environments can be easily restored or even added, whether any land management practices could be changed, and whether there are areas that could be improved for wildlife.
2. Let areas grow wild!
This could include introducing a no-mow policy (No Mow May is a great campaign to get involved with this spring!) orensuring leaf piles are left in the autumn. Planting wildflowers in grasses,meadows and beds can naturally attract a wide variety of pollinators and wildlife, from bees to birds.
3. Create a wildlife garden:
Gardens and road verges are essential to nature's recovery and join up habitats for wildlife. Transforming these spaces into habitats that are similar to natural and local ecosystems provides a home for local wildlife such as choosing a wide variety of native plants.
4. Add wildlife highways:
Putting a small hole in a garden fence or wall to make a hedgehog highway ensures that hedgehogs and other wildlife can pass freely through your garden/ground.
5. Start a Composting Program:
This not only provides a source of nutrient-rich soil (which plants, insects and bugs will thank you for), but it reduces waste and teaches us all about the importance of reducing waste and reusing what we would otherwise throw away, such as food waste.
6. Create homes for nature:
Help build homes for a variety of animals. This includes bird boxes, bug hotels, hedgehog houses and ponds - to encourage aquatic wildlife such as frog sand newts.
7. Organise a litter pick:
Litter picks are an essential and fun way to keep grounds clean and safe for wildlife. Running a competition to collect the most litter or encouraging those involved to collect litter can be a fun way to engage the wider school or community!
8. Continue to measure and monitor:
Keep recording what’s happening on your ground as this is what enables you to understand what’s happening in the ecosystems around you. The iNaturalist app is a super accessible tool to record your observations and share findings with others. Similarly, small mammal footprint tunnels and POMS fit counts (recording the number of insects that visit a patch of flowers) are simple ways of keeping track of nature data and also really easy to complete!
9. Contact your MP about rewilding in your local area:
You could send a letter, email, or meet in person and ask them what they are doing to restore nature locally! Let them know this is something that matters to you, your school or local community. Wilding urban green spaces is not only fantastic for our planet, but also helps improve access to nature and encourage local residents to get outside more, learn from the natural world, and connect our lives and education with nature.
If you would like to learn more about rewilding, here are some handy resources!
- Rewilding Europe
- Wildlife Trusts
- Hedgehog Street
- RewildingBritian
- State of Nature report
- Plantlife
- Royal Horticultural Society
The work of Green Schools Revolution: WildingSchools is made possible by the generosity of the #iwill Fund, a joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) which supports young people to access high-quality social action opportunities.