At the beginning of the year, Avon Wildlife Trust was lucky enough to be feature on BBC Countryfile, with a brilliant piece all about our urban nature haven in Bristol, Grow Wilder. It was such an amazing way to start our year and shine a light on the amazing impact having wildlife-friendly spaces has on local communities.

As nature monitoring season began in spring, we welcomed the return of our North Somerset Rewilding Champions, who worked to survey the plants and pollinators who were beginning to thrive thanks to North Somerset Council’s rewilding work. By leaving municipal grassland areas to grow wild and plant more trees, these sites saw a swell in biodiversity that’s really promising for the future. Throughout the year we were fortunate enough to work with some incredible volunteers from across the neighbourhoods where this rewilding was taking place. Our team trained them up so they can continue to monitor their local green spaces for years to come, and we’re so proud of everything they’ve done for nature already.

This year was a big one for our work to connect people with wildlife. As well as holding over 70 events to engage the community with the natural world from 2021 – 2022, we launched projects which will fundamentally change the way we’re able to make a difference for nature across the region.

The first was Nextdoor Nature, where our Community Organiser Tay Aziz is working with community groups in BS1 and BS5 to help nature on their doorstep. Nextdoor Nature is bringing communities together to help wildlife flourish where they live and work, thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Tay will be working with community groups to find out how they want to improve their local green spaces, then provide them with the advice and support needed to achieve those goals. We’re so excited to see how this project blooms into life over the next couple of years and gives more people access to nature where they live.

We also launched Team Wilder, our new approach to inspiring, encouraging and resourcing people in Avon to take action for nature. By developing a pool of online resources, we’ve brought together the experiences of people who are already doing their bit for nature and sharing them with the Team Wilder community, allowing everyone to learn from what has or hasn’t worked for them, and figure out how to get started if they’re just beginning their journey to taking more action for nature. It’s been so exciting to see people connecting over their love of nature and desire to make a difference, and there’s so much more to come in 2023! We’ve got a dedicated Team Wilder Community Ecologist joining us and we’ll be setting up a network of Wildlife Champions to become the bedrock of this movement, so watch this space.

As well as connecting people with nature, we've had some wonderful wildlife wins this year!

Our conservation grazing efforts are going from strength to strength, managing our land for the benefit of wildlife. This year has seen us use NoFence technology, so we can keep track of the Dexter Cattle which roam Dolebury Warren and make sure they only graze the areas which need their expertise, all without the need for physical fencing.

Our My Wild City team has been able to take local residents out to see glow worms at Stockwood Open Space, gotten to know their local feathered friends more and set up a group of vole-enteers hat Lawrence Weston Moor to help monitor the water vole population at the site! It's been so exciting to discover what wildlife lives on our doorsteps here in Bristol.

We were also delighted to see some furry guests making the most of the tube nests we set up at Goblin Combe this year. The Bristol Avon Catchment Market team set up the nests in April and amazingly in October they found that a couple of dormice had made them their home for the winter! Creating habitats and enriching environments for wildlife is such an important part of our work, and it's so rewarding when we get to see the impact it makes first hand.

To end, I’d just like to say a massive thank you to everyone whose made a difference for wildlife this year. Whether you took part in 30 Days Wild and connected with nature every day in June, completed the 30ks Wilder fundraising challenge to cover 30kms in the 30 days of September, got involved in our Defend Nature campaign by contacting your MP to raise your concerns about the Government’s failure to address nature’s needs, or gave a gift to wildlife by donating to our Winter Wildlife Appeal.