Shropshire festival turns the spotlight on nature
The Shropshire Love Nature Festival launched at the weekend with a month long series of events turning the spotlight on local solutions to the nature and climate crises across the county.
The four weeks of events kicked off on Saturday with up to 20 different organisations taking part to help Shropshire people connect to nature in the county and discover ways to make changes in their lives to support positive change in the natural environment.
The festival, a collaboration of organisations and individuals, runs until August 21st, and is supported by Zero Carbon Shropshire, Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Shropshire Good Food Partnership and the Lottery Heritage Fund.
So far events have included an open day at the Tom Adam’s Fruit Tree Nursery at Weston Rhyn, near Oswestry, the first appearance of The Grow Your Own Roadshow in Oswestry, and an open day at a wildlife garden in Church Stretton,
It continues this week with an illustrated talk on the importance of the biodiversity of roadside verges on July 28 at Pontesbury Pavilion with Janet Cobb, chair of the Restoring Shropshire’s Verges Project.
The festival moves to the churchyard with a Love Your Burial Ground Day at St Cuthberts’ Church, Clungunford on July 30 from 2pm.
The joys of allotments are highlighted on Sunday, July 31 with the Street Allotment Volunteer Sunday at The Abbey Pub in Shrewsbury, while Fordhall Organic Farm in Market Drayton hosts a Wild Wellies in the Woods event for toddlers on Friday, July 29 as well as a Farm Friday and Afternoon Amble.
The Grow Your Own Roadshow returns to Oswestry’s Bailey Head on Saturday, July 30 plus Derek Crawley, lead author of the Atlas of the Mammals of Great Britain and Northern Island 2020 and Chair of Staffordshire Mammals Group, will speak in a webinar on harvest mice and the Mammal Society Harvest Mouse survey on Tuesday, August 2.
Shropshire Wildlife Trust Communications Officer and Chairman of Shropshire Mammal Group, Stuart Edmunds shares the trust’s top 10 camera trap clips at the wildlife trust’s headquarters in Shrewsbury on August 3. And on Thursday, August 5, the Osnosh community kitchen project in Oswestry opens up its community garden.
Festival chair, Liz Knowles said that this was a snapshot of events across the county with something for all ages, abilities and interests.
“We have been absolutely delighted with the response to the first few days of the festival. We have had a really enthusiastic response so far. We sense a real desire from people to make changes to protect our natural environment and we hope this festival will show them how they can do that. Just a few small changes can make all the difference,” she said.
For further information on the festival see https://www.shropshirelovenaturefestival.org.
