Local Councillor Joins Nottinghamshire Youth Team to Keep It Wild at Attenborough Nature Reserve
Tuesday 17th January
The ‘Keeping It Wild’ youth team from Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, the county’s largest locally based conservation charity, met with local Councillor Kate Foale on Saturday at the County’s flagship nature reserve at Attenborough. The team invited Cllr Foale to meet them and see the conservation work they do on the reserve and hear about their other environmental youth involvement across the county.
Inspired by the youth team and their commitment to the environment and local wildlife Councillor Foale kindly presented the team with a donation of £200 from the Beeston South and Attenborough divisional fund.
The donation from Councillor Foale came about as a result of a meeting to discuss the Trust’s wide ranging education programme. Cllr Foale was particularly interested in the work of the Keeping it Wild young persons’ group and when she heard that they were currently raising funds to extend their work across the county, she offered to make a contribution.
The Keeping it Wild group is led by young people aged between 13 and 25 years old and facilitated by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust staff. It provides an opportunity for local young people to engage with the work of the Wildlife Trust and play an active role in caring for our nature reserves, raising funds or raising awareness of issues or simply helping to tell other young people about what Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust does.
On Saturday, the youth Team volunteers were cutting back the willow to enable a wide range of birds to nest in the reed beds at Attenborough as the willow can take over and destroy their habitat if left unchecked.
“I was blown away by Laura and the young people working at Attenborough Nature Reserve today.” said Cllr Kate Foale “such a lovely, hardworking and friendly lot. They made me really welcome and were so knowledgeable and passionate about the work.” Cllr Foale went on to say, “It was a fabulous afternoon at Attenborough Nature Reserve today, car park was packed.”
Laura Bacon, Community Development Officer at Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Keeping It Wild Team Leader said, ”Meeting Councillor Foale and receiving her kind donation has been a massive motivation for the group as they have been working furiously thinking of as many great fundraising ideas for the group as possible. It has given them real ownership of the project and the funds provide a big boost to the group acting as an incentive to keep on fundraising.”
For more information about the Keeping It Wild youth team, have a look at their web page and their current diary of activities to get involved with.
