News from HWT City Branch

Herefordshire Wildlife Trust City Branch have an update on branch activities around the city:

Nic Howes gives an interactive update on the Yazor Brooks project via the link below:

‘There’s been a lot of work happening on the City’s Brooks – see what’s been happening on this interactive map: Click here


Also a request for info from HWT: Can you help with identifying who owns Local Wildlife Sites in Hereford City, please?

Sam Price is Nature Recovery Network Officer for HWT and he says:

“I will stress that I am not asking anyone to go out to actively investigate ownership, I merely hope to take advantage of any existing knowledge out there.”

Any information you may have on ownership of any of the sites in Hereford City can be emailed to HWTCB committee member Nic Howes at nicjanemoya38@aol.com. The map is available on the HWT website and shows the grid reference locations. To view, Click here


Art activities in the city

Richard Bavin, well known as the Trust’s artist in residence, has recently set up a Wilder Artists and Poets group, to explore and record in more depth the heights and crevices of nature across our city.  Below Richard recounts a recent walk his group undertook from Three Elms to Huntington, led by local expert at large, Nicky Geeson.

‘As one of the Wilder Hereford artists and poets working alongside the City Branch, I have thoroughly enjoyed the guided walks to see all that has been achieved in the Yazor Brook Restoration Project. We are just beginning to get a feel for the brook in its different moods and seasons.

Our exploration of the reach down to the Wye in pouring rain with Anne and Nic was followed by a walk led by Nicky around the Huntington Conservation Area on a perfect spring morning. What a contrast to cross Three Elms Road from The Range, from city to flood meadow in a few steps. Car noise receded and we were surrounded by birdsong including a very vocal mistle thrush. The hamlet of Huntington is beautiful, and we were fascinated to hear something about the geology, history, and ecology of the area – so many diverse elements to engage with.

Upstream from here the brook is framed by twisted, bending willows calling out to be drawn! I returned to this part of the brook the following week to observe river fly monitoring led by Anne and found myself standing in the brook in waders to help collect samples. Another world opened up as we identified and counted the extraordinary creatures.

Looking online for more information afterwards, I found the laminated River Fly Extended Guide from the Freshwater Biological Association covering 35 invertebrate groups in case of interest to others.’


Other Important News 

Herefordshire Council are developing the business case for a project called Greening the City. The project is included within the Towns Fund programme and following sign off of the project business case, will receive £400,000 of funding from this government programme.

A small but important element of Greening the City is a grant pot for community groups to bid into to enable them to undertake works that contribute to “greening” improvements to their community. The aim of the grant would be to tidy up run down areas, introduce planting and greenery into areas of buildings or paving, make the city safer and more visually pleasing for residents and visitors, and to increase biodiversity by increasing plant and tree cover. Good recent examples of the types of works that demonstrate meeting these aims include the planting works along Station Approach outside Morrison’s supermarket, and the introduction of orchard trees along Bath Street outside the police station.

Although the exact criteria of the scheme have yet to be developed, any grant would need to support the aims outlined above, be able to deliver within the next two financial years, have community support, and be applied for a group with suitable governance and constitution. Grant levels and any match funds have not been set yet but are expected to be in the region of £2,500 to £5,000 depending on the scale of works and expected benefits. All works would need to be undertaken within the built-up area of Hereford city. The business cases for Towns Fund projects will be assessed and approved over the coming months.

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