Rewilding Trafford
The One Trafford Partnership, a collaboration between Trafford Council and Amey, has been striving towards creating a nature rich environment to encourage more wildlife across the borough. Whilst working closely with In Bloom groups, Friends of Parks groups and The Conservation Volunteers on the continuing Wilding Trafford project; the borough has seen thousands of new bulbs, wildflower seeds and hundreds of shrubs planted in the last three years. Over £100,000 has been invested in improving the habitat, through the green space capital programme, during this period.
What did we do?
Areas of parkland were identified in partnership with Park friends' groups, consisting of wildflower meadows and beds in seven parks in Trafford; Hullard Park, Seymour Park, Longford Park, Turn Moss Park, Lostock Park, Moss Park and Gorse Hill Park.
减少grass cutting means the wildflower meadows within these parks will only be mowed once a year, giving the wildflower meadows a chance to flourish and attract pollinators in the summer months. These parks provide stepping-stones for habitats from the River Mersey Valley towards the centre of Manchester and north of the borough, all the way south to the Cheshire plain.
One Trafford is moving away from seasonal planting to perennial plants, which support a longer lasting season of nectar sources for bees. Thousands of perennial bulbs such as native daffodils, crocus and snowdrops have been planted at John Leigh Park, Victoria Park, Walton Park and Worthington Park.
One Trafford has also installed information boards in several parks with details of plants, shrubs, meadows and even some orchards, to improve awareness. In addition, several parks now have beekeepers and honey-beehives to increase wider awareness on the importance of bees by the wider community and users of parks.
What was the impact?
The project has
- secured a network of habitat and feeding area improvements along with longer lasting season of nectar sources
- enhanced and strengthened existing green corridors that are essential for connecting wildlife communities
- provided the opportunity to increase skills and understanding among volunteers on maintenance requirements and good practice in caring for these styles of planting.
One Trafford Partnership’s Wilding Trafford project received a Bees’ Needs Champions Award 2020 by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
“Over the last few years the Wilding Trafford project has been flourishing in the borough. Not only has the project helped to establish a better network of essential habitats and feeding areas for pollinators, but it’s also given us a better understanding of how we can support the wildlife population.In addition to Wilding Trafford, we’ve also been planting more and more trees throughout the borough as part of the Urban Tree Challenge. With funding through City of Trees, we were able to plant hundreds of new trees to create better green spaces and to improve air quality.”Councillor Stephen Adshead, Executive Member for Environment, Air Quality and Climate Change.
“Receiving the Bees Needs award was a fantastic achievement and really showcases all the hard work that went into delivering Wilding Trafford, a community led habitat improvement project. Supported by the Conservation Volunteers, we delivered a wide variety of schemes suggested by members of community groups; including tree and hedge planting, planting bulbs and sowing wildflowers in parks and on roadside verges to enrich these local habitats.”Dave Sykes, Amey Greenspace Coordinator