Improving biodiversity in Marble Hill Park
Marble Hill Park with English Heritage tasked the kickstarters at Habitats&Heritage to create, manage and deliver four community-building, conservation event-days across their 6-month duration working for the charity. The work is delivered in assistance of the Marble Hill Revived project; an initiative aiming to instil new life into all aspects of the park and House. The kickstarters are aiding the project specifically by creating a wide-variety of different species habitats – transforming the already beautiful grounds of Marble Hill into a thriving home for biodiversity. Furthermore, by delivering a collection of inspiring community buildings days, the kickstarters are able to engage the public in the incredible progress taking place in Marble Hill.
We have delivered two events thus far:
“Build a Stag Beetle Loggery” (11th December 2021)
On a beautiful Saturday morning we took the attendees on a walk-and-talk, a fun and informative talk on the life and conservation of Stag Beetles while walking around the grounds. The group were shown Marble Hill Parks existing loggeries. In the time leading up to the event, a 2x1m hole was dug by myself and colleagues in preparation, meaning we could get straight into the constructing of the new habitat on the day. The participants of the event selected a couple of wooden logs of their choice before installing them with the direction and support of the kickstart team. Additionally, people were taught how they could create their own loggery at home using limited resources and were further able to marker their names, or initials, onto a piece of wood among the loggery so that their place and involvement with a great day and cause would be remembered for years to come. Stag Beetles truly need all the help they can get and the addition of this lesson on everything Stag Beetles, and the loggery, provides more options, chances and a corridor of hope for their iconic species that so badly need it. The group were also able to engage in a discussion with Rachel Morrison (English Heritage) on the work being done for the Marble Hill Revived project.
“Build a Birdhouse Workshop (15th January 2022)
We kicked off the new year with a bang and presented the public with a lesson and tools to create their very own birdhouse. A selection of two different variations were on offer, an open-fronted or a small-hole birdhouse, that gave the public the option to personalise the event with their preference of species they intended to attract. Each selection had been researched and optimised to allow for the widest range of species that could utilise the brilliant new nest boxes. Participants were also given information packages of the research on the bird boxes and species that interact with them, accumulated by the team during the events’ development.
We will be hosting two more events over the next few weeks:
Build a Stag Beetle Loggery (23rd February 2022)
A repeat of the initial event, we are thrilled to be able to engage the public with another fantastic chance to get involved in creating a Stag Beetle loggery; enabling a massive ecological boost to the surrounding area as huge range of species can take advantage of the new awesome biodiversity hotspot. You definitely don’t want to miss this day-out of fun, and with the increase in knowledge being the main asset to keeping Stag Beetles alive, we can assure you will learn a lot. Become a hero of the Stags and leave a permanent mark of your attendance and work within the very soil and life of Marble Hill. Follow this link to book your place now
“Bee hotel and Solitary bee education” (19th March 2022)
We will be creating a vital home for solitary bees and learning about the incredible world that they live in. Attendees are invited to peek into the fascinating life of the huge variety of solitary bees that could possibly reside within the very home they install on the day; a fascinating addition to the already established long list of diverse habitats at Marble Hill Park. This event is booked out. Email us to book a place on the waiting list.
The events completed thus far have been received by the public with as much joy as they were to create, we really hope you are able to join us at Marble Hill with English Heritage for the forthcoming opportunities to be involved in some of the most fun and rewarding conservation events you may get to be a part of. On behalf of all the team at Habitats & Heritage, we look forward to seeing you there.
Alfi Allman is Community Development Assistant at Habitats & Heritage. He is one of four kickstarters running the series of events at Marble Hill House.