The local community welcomed the Nottingham Green Guardians to Clifton recently to help create new areas of planting and to maintain existing hedgerows.
This was Nottingham Green Guardians biggest planting event so far, with them hoping to plant around 3,000 new trees over two weekends.
Launching this new conservation initiative in 2021, they visited the Clifton Playing Fields with the hope of the local community getting involved.
Projects like these not only bring about important changes to the environment it also brings positivity and greener changes to our local community.
The two weekends were led by Park Ranger Simon and Green Guardian Sandra, who made the volunteers feel welcome with their friendly leadership, knowledge, skill and, more importantly, rewarding the hardworking volunteers with a much-needed hot drink and a variety of biscuits.
Volunteers learnt about the importance of planting new trees and hedgerows – and many discussions were had with the children about the insects they found while digging. There was even a friendly competition between the children of who could find the most worms.
Nine-year-old James Dickens-Hayman, who lives in Clifton, came along with five members of his family and his enthusiasm was infectious.
He said: “I had so much fun and can’t wait to help and plant more trees again. I learnt about different trees and dug lots of holes.
“I found out that there are lots of different species living in the soil and I won because I found over 100 worms.”
The Nottingham Green Guardians conservation may have been hampered by the pandemic but that hasn’t stopped an increase in volunteers, with nearly 250 registrations since starting.
The Clifton volunteers ranged from primary age children to retirees, showing the importance of all generations joining together for the benefit of our environment.
Volunteering gives back to your local area, but is also a great lift for people’s mental health. Many mental health charities talk about the positive benefits of being outside surrounded by nature and how it helps our mental and physical wellbeing.
Nature can improve our mood, can be relaxing which reduces stress and projects like this can help the community come together and combat loneliness.
Nottingham Green Guardians are part of Nottingham City Council Parks Team who manage 250 parks, local nature reserves and open spaces across the city.
For more information on how you can get involved with future volunteering projects find them via their website mottinghamgreenguardians.co.uk or on Facebook and Instagram.
Written by Lisa Dickens