Meet our Champions

Unsealed

Elsenham Eagles

Dean Muslin

South East Essex Friends of the Earth

Janine

Across the town of Leigh-on-Sea, Janine is working hard to raise awareness of local rare bumblebees (two of which visited her garden last Summer). The Brown Branded Carder Bee, the scarcest of all ginger carder bumblebees, and Shrill Carder, now only found in a handful of locations in the UK, both call the Thames Corridor home. The aim of the awareness campaign is to put a spotlight on the bees and pollinators, encouraging residents to provide forage, shelter and water in their gardens. Janine's articles have been featured by the local council, appearing across their social media platforms as well as being published in the local residents' news magazine. You can view articles here:

   Rare bumblebee sighting in Leigh (leighonseatowncouncil.gov.uk) 

p.24

   https://www.leighonseatowncouncil.gov.uk/uploads/assets/Magazine/Issue%2014.pdf 

Charmaine Beckett

In the village of Great Saling, Charmaine and her team of volunteers are restoring the fragmented wildlife corridors along footpaths, through parks and around housing. This involves liaison with the Great Saling Parish council and surrounding landowners. Hedgerows that have been lost or degraded around the village are being replanted and connected up. Pockets of woodland are being managed and encouraged to expand and margins of green space are being naturalised so wildflowers can thrive. The local residents are also hoping to begin surveying and monitoring the spaces of wild they create to record and showcase the species it supports. Primroses are already on the rise!

John Denis Le Seve

John leads the Wickham Bishops Biodiversity project, a community group with a vision to create wild spaces throughout the village of Wickham Bishops. In a short space of time, the group have already crafted and installed various beautiful bird and bat boxes along a popular route many of the residents enjoy walking. They are now looking to develop a community nature trail to raise awareness of the wildlife that can be found on the doorstep of Wickham Bishops. This nature trail will pass a number of places the community group aims to enhance habitat quality and availability such as pond restoration and grassland management!

Recently, John has also taken on a rewilding project on the edge of local farmland within Wickham Bishops. Natural regeneration and planting will play a role in making a wildlife corridor.

Sarah Lennard-Brown

Sarah, Chair of the Green Group at Leigh Road Baptist Church is collaborating with the on-site pre-school to take action for wildlife in the church gardens. Alongside support from the nursery manager and buildings manager, Children will be encouraged to take part in wildlife surveys such as  FIT Counts: help us monitor pollinators | PoMS (ukpoms.org.uk)  over the coming months to help inform future management. This action will also help the Church apply for a Silver Eco Church Award. To involve the local community, Sarah is also looking to reach out to local residents to create a community veg patch where produce can be harvested for free and events such as seed swaps can take place. An extension to this is the vision that the local residents involved in the community veg patch, will also be inspired to support the change in road verge management to encourage wildflower growth.

Daniel Higgs

In the town of Saffron Walden, Daniel is looking to revive his local park situated in the middle of a housing estate with a vision that action will bring back wildflowers for both local people's enjoyment and the insect population. Alongside liaison with the Saffron Walden Town council, Daniel is reaching out to local residents to discuss which areas could be naturalised and managed for wildflowers with an early spring mow and an autumn mow. It is also Daniel's ambition to use  Every Flower Counts | Plantlife  to engage families that are on the doorstep of the park.

Angela Barnes

Angela who is part of the Weeley in Bloom group is taking action to make Weeley wilder! Alongside flowers the group plants and cares for each year, Angela is looking to transform two unused and mismanaged green spaces. The first trial site will be situated in Second Avenue, an area currently mown monthly. With a new team of volunteers they will manage an area in the green space as grassland habitat in which wildflowers will be encouraged to grow with the cut and collect method. Fruit trees and berry bushes will also be added for both wildlife and people. The second trial site will be situated in Spencer Way, a site next to a busy main road and roundabout. Alongside naturalisation plans, an area on the site will also be managed as grassland habitat.

Julie Callow

Julie is at the very early stages of her Urban Wildlife Champion journey, and aims to collaborate with both an industrial estate and local residents to create a mini meadow on a currently unused mown patch of grass.

Door knocking, lettering and liaison with the industrial estate are all planned for the coming months.

Julia Mason

Julia Mason is leading on the development of a piece of waste ground – a narrow strip of land on the light industrial estate connecting Haven Road at The Hythe in Colchester and the path running alongside the River Colne.

Neglected and rubbish strewn, it has been used for fly tipping, overgrown with brambles and nettles concealing burnt car parts, drink cans and food wrappers. With the help of friends, rubbish has been cleared, brambles cut back, and an initial survey has identified several different lichens, mosses and 24 different flowering plants. Julia has engaged the houseboat residents on King Edwards Quay and is reaching out to local businesses and community groups in the area to help transform and maintain this unloved space into a sustainable wildlife garden.

Thorpe Bay Resident Association

Tina Higginson

Tina works with local schools across Harlow to teach the Four R's (reduce, reuse, recycle, repeat) with an aim to encourage them to create ecobricks from plastics that don't fall into the Four R categories. For 2022 Tina has secured a space in the local art gallery to showcase these, but for future ecobricks she hopes to create an outdoor eco/nature area for the community using green infrastructure concepts to support local wildlife. This will include eco-sensory walls, habitat panels, planters, wildflowers, seating areas and mini green roofs! Her first location will be in the Walled Garden of Harlow.

Clive Black

At Willow Park Lifeskills Centre, Clive with support from his learning groups are transforming a neglected road verge into a wildlife haven. This year they have already established and built dead wood habitats, bug hotels, hedgehog homes and mini wildlife ponds. Clive also scythed the patch in spring ready to let it bloom over the summer. During the months of June, July and August groups attending Willow Park will support Clive to monitor the wildlife using the road verge! Using wood work skills they are also hoping to make a sustainable, free from plastic sign to highlight the work taking place. Find out more about Willow Park Lifeskills Centre below:

 Lifeskills Centre for people learning disabilities, physical and or sensory impairment in Essex - Willow Park Lifeskills Centre 

Lindsey Raven Emrich

In the small village of Fingringhoe, Lindsey lead of the local Green Group is launching a project to support local pollinators. To kickstart this project, leaflets were delivered to all residents asking them to make a pledge to pollinators with 5 easy options - plant wildflowers seeds, go pesticide free, leave an area wild and take insect-friendly action.

Local residents who pledged, popped a sign in their window to show they were taking part.

Alongside this project, the Green Group are also hoping to take over management of a grassland site that is no longer used for agriculture. This will add to the mosaic of habitats the village has to offer.

Karen Perry

Karen is the Horticultural Coordinator at Wellgate Community Farm, situated in Romford. Alongside her team and volunteers, Karen is looking to create a wildlife corridor through the farm's allotment site consisting of new hedgerows and wild patches. Find out more about Wellgate Community Farm below:

 Home » Wellgate Community Farm • Wellgate Community Farm (wellgatefarm.org) 

Donna Goddard

Donna, a resident of Hatfield Peverel, is currently liaising with her parish council and local residents to form a plan of action to make the town wilder.

Donna, would initially like to start by wilding up some of the larger road verges around the much loved local pond to create wildlife corridors to connect up habitats, as well enhancing a small area of the cemetery that borders a local field to mimic a woodland habitat.

Kate Clifton

Katie, alongside her gardening team at Colchester Christ Church, is taking action to enhance wildlife in the churches urban setting. Initial actions included creating a small wildflower meadow through managed mowing regimes and seed planting, tree planting to create wildlife corridors and the installation of stag beetle hotels. Future actions include adding a water source to the mosaic of habitats, installing bird and bat boxes and enhancing the quality of the wildflower meadow through management cycles. Katie and her team have also been keen to engage with local neighbours, sharing their visions to bring them along on the churches journey. They hope to heighten this engagement with interpretation signs.

John Clifton

John, with support from Chris, is pulling together a plan to take action for wildlife at St. Stephens Church in Colchester. Situated within an urban setting with little space to work with, imagination has been key. An initial wildflower meadow strip has been allowed to naturalise with the hopes it will provide for the various birds that already call the area home such as sparrows and swifts. Knapweed, Red Clover and other species are already present! Future actions include creation of bee banks and bee paths using sand, the installation of bat boxes and swift boxes, plus a wildlife pond and vegetable patch in the church garden.

Stephen Collitt

Stephen, as part of his Holland Residents Association role, is looking to bring nature back to the streets of Holland-on-Sea. Initial plans involve the wilding of Ipswich Road open space.

Stephen began by pulling together a team of people across Holland Residents that would like to volunteer and be involved. Liaison with Tendring District council has been successful, and the group will be starting work in 2023.

Ginny Andreas

Ginny wants to transform a small green patch in Chelmsford into a haven for wildlife. Various actions are being considered such as meadow creation, habitats for hedgehogs and natural regeneration. Ginny is hoping to replicate her learning and work in Upminster where she works at a school.

Collaboration with Love Chelmsford are the first steps, to help provide support through the already set-up volunteer network.

Diane Cattermole

Diane, Chair of the Colchester Local group, wants to convert a narrow strip of grass surrounded by housing into a wild flower corridor for connectivity. Diane is currently liasing with the local pub and nearby residents to get a plan in place. The site will be mown twice annually and planted with UK native wildflower seeds. Diane hopes those that walk the route for the school run every morning will be able to enjoy the wild flowers and the many invertebrates they will support.

South Woodham Ferrers Wildlife Group

Heather Blogg, alongside other champions like Emma Bickford are in the midst of creating a constituted group with the aim of developing micro-projects across South Woodham Ferrers for wildife.

Initial visions revolve around the creation of a swift and house martin friendly town. With only 2 nesting sites known in the area, funding and council support will help install various boxes across the town.

Further actions will focus on the development of hedgehog highways, inspiring neighbourhoods to create DIY holes and gaps in fences to allow hedgehogs to roam and forage freely. Plus the restoration and enhancement of communally shared community ponds.

Stanway Green Lodge

A residential care home is taking action to reverse the decline of bee populations in Stanway Green. Inspired by Essex Wildlife Trust's Big Wild Seed Sow, they have created bee saving kits with aim to establish a wildflower corridor along Heath Road in Stanway Green.

So far, the bee saving kits have been handed out to local residents, schools, churches and the village hall.

 Stanway Green Lodge | Care home in Stanway, Colchester 

Jacky Rossi

St. Johns Church in central Southend are wilding up their churchyard.

A wildflower trail is being set up for 2023, where visitors will be able to enjoy a weaving wildflower meadow across the site. Not only will this be an oasis for local residents, but it will be a safe haven for insects. Alongside this log piles, a bog garden, pollinator friendly planting and bird and bat boxes are all being added to the site to enhance its biodiversity.

 St John's Southend (stjohnssouthend.org) 

Braintree and Bocking UWC Group

David Lane, a Hedgehog Champion, alongside other local residents are forming a new community group with the vision of transforming a small rundown urban space for wildlife and people.

The group have already pulled together a constitution and opened a bank account. The next steps will focus on engaging with on the doorstep residents through door knocking and lettering.

Melissa and Wendy

In the small village of Little Baddow, Melissa and Wendy are developing a hedgehog highways project. Leafletting their local residents to map our where hedgehogs are currently being sighted, as well as gaining an idea of how many people would be interested in their mission to protect hedgehogs is their first step. To kickstart action, they then hope to run a coffee morning and invite the community come along, so they can map out a hedgehog highway across the village taking into account current sightings and active gardens.

Elaine Williamson

To empower people to take action for wildlife in the village of Sandford, Elaine has pulled together a plan to gather community visions, thoughts and opinions at the 2023 Annual Assembly. The interactive survey outcomes will help to shape and mould a future project for the benefit of wildlife in Sandon.

Grassroots Westcliff

Alan Hardiman the Chair of Grassroots Westcliff, and a dedicated committee are developing plans to create pocket parks in Westcliff-on-Sea. With their first in development at Westcliff Station, they plan to create a series of pocket parks along a well used commuter walking route.

Alongside this, Grassroots Westcliff are also tackling the root cause of litter in the area through community events and actions.

 (1) Facebook 

Byron Jenkins

Byron is encouraging neighbours and friends to get involved with Hedgehog Highways. So far, 6 immediate neighbours' gardens are now linked in an area of South Woodham Ferrers.

Further action includes campaigning for more Hedgehog Highways and spreading awareness through Facebook.

Tony Thorn

Tony leads on the Brightlingsea Environment and Biodiversity Project, a citizen science project that aims to get people across the town and wider area observing wildlife and collecting data on the species they identify.