Past projects

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust undertook restoration project at the nature reserves that are part of Cotswold Water Park, a wildlife haven near Cirencester. This work was carried out in partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Naturesave Trust and with support from Hanson and a generous major donor.

The project aimed to enhance the biodiversity and engagement features at Whelford Pools nature reserve Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Roundhouse Lake SSSI through habitat restoration works, while also making improvements to the car park and wheelchair access to the first bird hide at Whelford Pools and the local interpretation.

Working with Western Power Distribution, Cory Environmental Trust in Britain and the South Gloucestershire Council's Chase Area Forum, we delivered the Lower Woods Rides and More project. Lower Woods was transformed into a multi-use space, enabling us to engage with the surrounding community at scale.

Our approach was to develop and implement a holistic and sustainable project which is improving people’s understanding and appreciation of wildlife and green spaces whilst giving them the skills and knowledge to undertake activities to help improve and conserve wild places and wildlife.

The project restored and opened up areas of Lower Woods for the benefit of people and wildlife by restoring ancient rides and coppices, replaced dormouse boxes, installed cameras for monitoring dormice and deer, and provided green woodworking and outdoor education facilities and courses for unemployed adults and young people.

Four projects made up the Foresters Forest project: Forest Explorers, Community study group, Conservation grazing and Deans Marvellous Meadows.

Forest Explorers

Forest Explorers was jointly run by GWT and the RSPB in the Forest of Dean. Its aim was to provide fun, educational activities for families once a month covering a wide range of heritage subjects linked to the Foresters Forest programme.

Session subjects ranged from migratory fish to free mining, dippers, bats and butterflies, ancient runes and languages, forest boundary stones, iron smelting and reptiles. The sessions taught children and adults about the importance of the species, habitats, and heritage of the Forest, and help to engender a sense of wonder and respect for the natural world and the forest around them.

Community (Wildlife) study group

The Community or Wildlife Study Group is made up of volunteers from all the different biodiversity projects which form the Foresters Forest. Local people were offered opportunities to learn more about the Forests wildlife and to gain the survey and monitoring skills required to assist in the longer term monitoring of habitats and species. As well as gaining a wider understanding and appreciation of the wildlife found in the forest, volunteers also enjoyed meeting other like minded people, and getting out to parts of the forest they hadn't visited before.

The long term goal was to form a self-sustaining group of local volunteers with a range of skills and knowledge to assist in the ongoing survey and monitoring of the health of the forests species and habitats. This data helped to inform forest management and planning as well as to identify trends and changes.

Deans Marvellous Meadows

Partnered with the volunteer-led Dean Meadows Group, the project sets out to inspire and advise on the, often small, remnant wildflower meadows found around the periphery of the Forest of Dean. It included walks and talks in open meadows events, enabling meadows owners and enthusiasts to visit each others meadows and share experiences and ideas, encouraging a sense of community and support.

Conservation grazing

Find out more about conservation grazing

In the Forest of Dean, GWT work closely with Forestry England, the main landowner, on a number of projects including the Forest Waters Project. This project is focused on ways in which the forest’s four main watercourses, the Cannop, Cinderford, Blackpool and Greathough Brooks, can be enhanced for biodiversity, water quality, public amenity and other ecosystem services and to reduce flood risk.

GWT were involved in the creation of Catchment Management Plans (CMPs) for each of the four main watercourses which are in the process of being finalised and published. Delivering the interventions set out within the CMP’s has now passed to Forestry England, with GWT, the Environment Agency and Gloucestershire County Council acting as critical friends on the project steering group to ensure opportunities for multiple benefits are realised and that the work forms part of a wider catchment strategy.

The work is integrally linked with Forestry Commission’s ‘Our Shared Forest’ vision which is a new, long-term strategy to achieve a vibrant and sustainable forest where natural processes work to maintain healthy ecosystems for people and wildlife.

The white-clawed crayfish is the UK’s only native freshwater crayfish that was once common and widespread in English and Welsh rivers and streams. However, since the 1970s the population has severely declined due to human activities.

The translocation project looking into creating ark sites to help safeguard the long-term survival of white-clawed crayfish across their UK range.

Discover more about the project

Working with the Environment Agency and a team of hard-working volunteers, five rain gardens have been installed across Gloucester. You can find them at the Friendship Café and City Farm in Barton, and at Kingsholm Stadium, home to Gloucester Rugby Club. 

Interpretation and leaflets accompany the rain gardens to provide information on how people can create their own rain garden or use rain water in a more sustainable way.

Join Holly Turner, GWT Engagement Project Officer, and Ollie Thorley, Gloucester Rugby winger, at Kingsholm Stadium as they have a look at the rain gardens at the stadium in this short film.

Find out more about rain gardens

Launched in June 2021 and concluding in March 2022, the project was funded by Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioners and in partnership with Young Gloucestershire.

It demonstrated the preventative mental health benefits of nature for children and working in Gloucester, Cheltenham and the Forest of Dean. Wild nature activities were delivered for children aged 5 - 14 years that had been struggling with low level mental health issues, such as anxiety or depression.

Activities included bush craft, wild art and foraging. They built the children's confidence, social skills and team working, and mental wellbeing was monitored throughout the 5 weeks.

Throughout 2020 and 2021 we worked with local community volunteers on this small urban green space, on the corner of Stroud Road and Tuffley Avenue in Gloucester. The garden was planted with roses as a memorial garden, and has an accessible footpath running around the outside of it. It is a popular site for locals to exercise, and working with residents GWT has been working to make the garden a more wildlife friendly space that can be enjoyed by people and nature. 

Fruit trees have been planted, insect and bird homes installed, flower beds seeded with wildflowers and native bulbs. Also existing vegetation kept under control. Local volunteers will continue to maintain this space, with support from Gloucester City Council.

Small sites such as this can still be incredibly important for our wildlife to thrive. They can form important corridors through urban spaces, helping wildlife to move throughout our towns and cities to more wildlife rich habitats. Gloucester City is fortunate to have two nature reserves within it's boundary (Alney Island and Robinswood Hill). Places like Tuffley Rose garden can help connect these nature reserves, allowing insects, and birds to safely move across the city. 

Nature on Prescription was a course being offered to people who have suffered a cardiac event. It was about improving fitness, supporting local wildlife, and reaping the health benefits of spending time in nature. Sessions are in beautiful places in Gloucester and the Forest of Dean and give people the chance to connect with others who’ve had a similar experience, learn about wildlife around them, and improve their fitness by walking and taking part in conservation activities.  In turn, this helps to protect habitats and support wildlife to thrive.

This project complimented the existing Cardiac Rehabilitation Programme by providing an alternative for people who prefer to be outside. It is in the pilot phase at the moment and is the first time the NHS have funded a nature-based intervention for physical health in England. It is based on a strong collaborative process with the NHS and Gloucester Local Nature Partnership. 

It was funded by Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, and we continue our relationship with the CCG looking at other collaboration projects.

Hedgehogs are one of the UK’s fastest declining mammal species, now classed as vulnerable to extinction, and urban areas have been shown to support particularly important populations. Over two years the Hedgehog Highway project brought three communities together in Gloucester and Cheltenham to improve hedgehog habitat connectivity.

The project engaged residents in neighbourhood-scale action to increase linkages for hedgehogs between gardens and green spaces, and tested the effectiveness of widely-used hedgehog holes in increasing hedgehog movement. This included making small holes in fences to allow hedgehogs to pass through and making gardens more hedgehog friendly.

Residents were asked to survey their gardens for hedgehogs before the improvements were made, then re-survey their gardens after to see if hedgehogs were now more present. 

After installing the hedgehog holes in fences, in 2019, the following year there was a 39% increase in positive hedgehog sightings and a 21% increase in the number of garden hedgehog access points within the study gardens.

Hedgehog Highway was kindly funded by the People's Trust for Endangered Species, and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

Read the full report 

Working with local residents, Podsmead Big Local and Gloucester City Council since 2016, an underused green space was transformed into a haven for people and wildlife, whilst also upskilling residents to maintain the space themselves.

We are continuing to support local residents helping with the management of their local green spaces, to make them better places for wildlife and people.

You can read more about this work in this 2019 blog post.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust is extremely grateful for the support from Gloucestershire County Council’s Active Together Fund for this project, which ran between April 2016 and March 2017.

The project created a nature-themed play trail around Greystones Farm and Nature Reserve, encouraging families to become more physically active by exploring the site to discover the different play structures. The trail was based around six natural features: a carved owl starting post, a carved log climbing frame, a balancing snake, balancing posts, a den building area and stepping stones in the river. It is supported by the provision of 40 children’s explorer kits, provided through the project which contain bug viewers, dipping nets, magnifying glasses and high-quality ID sheets, and which will be available for loan from the centre. The project successfully delivered a programme of after school, holiday and weekend wild play sessions to introduce local children and their families to the play trail and demonstrated the kind of free, fun activities they can undertake at Greystones during their own time.

Over the course of the year, 1085 children and their families used the trail through organised events. Five families were monitored over the year to determine whether knowledge of and access to the trail had affected their levels of activity. The results of this, albeit with a small sample size, suggest that the trail is encouraging greater levels of activity and connectedness to nature. 40 Explorer Packs were put together to complement the play trail, and these were found to be successful ways of helping families to engage more deeply with the site.

Rhe Going the Extra Mile (GEM) project aimed to engage with and support individuals in Gloucestershire who are currently dealing with circumstances that are potentially causing barriers to work and move these people closer towards education, training, volunteering or work, including self-employment. This programme was a unique partnership of community based organisations, managed by Gloucestershire Gateway Trust on behalf of Gloucestershire County Council.

The GEM Project was jointly funded by the Big Lottery Fund and the European Social Fund.

Our Wild for Nature project aimed to help women with multiple and complex needs, whose disadvantage means that accessing nature is difficult. This new approach uses the restorative benefits of helping wildlife to support people create a better future for themselves and their families through creative contact with wild places. We ran a series of fully funded 6 day courses to connect people to their local countryside. The courses will improve their wellbeing and relationships and help them to access other support and courses, including volunteering opportunities with us and other local organisations.

This work was kindly funded by The Pilgrim Trust, the Langdale Trust, the W F Southall Trust and the Stock Exchange Veterans Charity Association.

Brighter Futures ran Wildlife and Habitat Management course's lasting six-week's in Gloucester, Cheltenham, Tewkesbury, Bourton-on-the-Water, Cirencester and the Forest of Dean. The programme was designed for long-term unemployed people and for those who feel marginalised due to learning difficulties, contact with the criminal justice system, social isolation or mental health issues.

Brighter Futures delivered significant improvements in wellbeing, transferable skills, motivation and employability while building lasting social networks between people who otherwise would not have met. Watch our short film about a recent course to see the impact that the programme can have. 

Brighter Futures was kindly funded by the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner Fund, Morrisons Foundation, Gloucester City Homes, Santander Foundation, the Langdale Trust, the Winstone Charitable Trust, the D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, Thames Water Community Fund, Gloucestershire High Sheriffs' Fund, The Rowlands Trust, the Rotary in Gloucester and the Statham Family Charitable Trust.

See what we got up to during our Wildlife and Habitat Management course in 2017 as part of the project. 

Watch the short video

This project brought people together in their local communities through shared activity, improving their local area, fostering pride and aid community cohesion by developing connections to each other, and by bringing nature to the doorsteps of Gloucester’s most deprived areas. We ran public awareness events, to bring the community together to learn about wildflowers and pollinators and how to increase them in their local areas through a range of options for those without gardens; We have run workshops for members of the community of all ages and abilities to work together towards shared community aims to increase access to nature through creating wildflower planter, window boxes and hanging baskets that the residents can take home to bring nature to their doorstep. We created a bee metropolis with homes for solitary bees and wildflower planting in the centre of Gloucester promoting community cohesion and helping the plight of wildflowers and their pollinators. We would like to thank the supporters of the project who included Gloucester City Council, Grow Wild and the Charles Irving Charitable Trust.

Although this project complete in 2019, and the bee sculpture / home was relocated from Kings Square in Gloucester in 2020 to make way for re-development. The bee has now found it's permanent home in the garden of St Mary DeCrypt on Southgate Street in Gloucester city centre. Staff and volunteers at St Mary DeCrypt are working hard to make the garden a wildlife haven for nature and people. The bee is a great new addition and will be a home to visiting insects. 

Since 2013 the Trust has been working in partnership with Gloucester City Council at Robinswood Hill Country Park in Gloucester to improve engagement by local communities with this green space.

Over the course of the project we ran events, education sessions and also volunteer days. Although this project has now finished we continue to run activities at the site, in partnership with the council, and our head office is also based at Robinswood Hill. Activities continue to be funded by Gloucestershire Gateway Trust.

We also launched a new engagement project at Robinswood Hill called Return to the Hill.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust's Engagement Team support communities to improve and maintain local green spaces for wildlife. We worked in Kingsway, Gloucester, during 2018 - 2020, helping local residents learn about wildlife and enhance habitat. We worked in partnership with the Kingsway Wildlife and Sustainability Group, 

This work was funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Gloucestershire County Council and Gloucester City Council and was completed in 2019.

The Kingsway Wildlife and Sustainability group still run events, volunteer days and a variety of activities to make Kingsway a better place for wildlife. 

During 2019 we used our knowledge, enthusiasm and understanding of the natural world to provide disadvantaged children and young people from Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS) with opportunities to play, explore and improve their local green spaces and the natural world they find themselves in, in their new home in a new innovative project.

We ran after-school and after-college sessions with nature-based activities to help child refugees and asylum seekers to feel a connection to their new local environment. This worked towards our aims of connecting people with wildlife and engaging everyone, no matter their background, in taking action for nature. This helped children and young people integrate into their new community as well as help them to build a connection to wildlife and the natural world.

This wonderful project was kindly funded by St James’s Place Charitable Foundation and the Holroyd Foundation. This project completed in December 2019, however we are continuing our engagement with Refugee communities through other projects. See our Case Studies section for more details on the impact this project had on the Tazini family.