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Nurturing Nature project based on Cranborne Chase National Landscape wins Conservation Project of the Year at Wiltshire Life Awards.

The project has been recognised for its achievements in providing volunteers with training in biodiversity monitoring and practical action.

Nurturing Nature is a Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership Scheme project based within the Cranborne Chase National Landscape, supported with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project is being delivered by Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre (WSBRC) and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

The project has been recognised for its achievements in providing volunteers with training in biodiversity monitoring and practical action, as well as improving understanding of biodiversity and promoting the importance of the Cranborne Chase National Landscape and the species that rely upon it.

Anna Cooper, Citizen Science Project Officer for the Nurturing Nature Project, who was also Highly Commended in the ‘Young Environmental Champion’ category of the New Forest Awards 2023, said:

We are really pleased that the Nurturing Nature project has been recognised by the Wiltshire Life Awards for all that it has achieved over the past year. It has been an exciting project to be part of and has exceeded our expectations in terms of the diversity of training and surveying events we have been able to offer, and the sheer number of volunteers from across the Cranborne Chase who have become involved regularly. We hope volunteers will continue to engage with the project in its last six months and help to collect valuable survey data to help us conserve and protect the Cranborne Chase National Landscape in the future.
Anna Cooper
Citizen Science Project Officer

Team members from WSBRC and the Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership Scheme have supported hundreds of volunteers to take part in the project so far, which continues over the next 6 months.

Since the start of the project volunteers have been trained in wildlife surveying across 84 different sessions. Experts in their fields have trained people via online courses, in-the-field sessions, and in-person talks, focused on a staggering range of topics, from beginner courses in bird and bee identification to moth trapping, dormouse surveys, ferns, fungi, and mammal skull identification… to name just a few.

Volunteers are supported to then take their new knowledge out into the field to conduct real surveys in their chosen subject area. The data is recorded through a website and phone app called iRecord, where sighting data is stored and shared with scientific data banks.

So far, 29 different sites across the Cranborne Chase National Landscape have been surveyed by volunteers, with landowner permission. Surveys for the following species have been completed:

  • Hedgerow Survey
  • Pollinators
  • Wildflowers and Grasses
  • Butterflies
  • Reptiles
  • Aquatic Mammals
  • Bees

Practical conservation and habitat maintenance has been carried out by Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership Practical Conservation Volunteers at a variety of key sites as a direct result of survey data collected by volunteers on the Nurturing Nature project. This includes activities such as scrub clearance, wildflower planting, berry harvesting and seed spreading, all undertaken to boost biodiversity in specific areas.

The Cranborne Chase National Landscape Partnership and its Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership Scheme team are over the moon to have been awarded the Wiltshire Life Award for the Best Conservation Project. Congratulations also go to our partners WSBRC and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust for their part in running the project for us in the last few years. The most well deserved ‘pat on the back’ however, should go to all the incredible volunteers who have undergone lots of training and put that into practice in the field to help keep track of the precious wildlife that lives here. Fantastic work! None of this would have been possible without funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and indeed lottery players across the land; a massive ‘thank you’ to all involved.
Linda Nunn
Director of Cranborne Chase National Landscape
Anna collecting the Wiltshire Life award

The project is continuing through 2024, with more training sessions and survey dates. Congratulations to everyone who has worked to make the Nurturing Nature project a success so far!

If you are interested in joining the project, why not register on the Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership’s volunteer hub and join the team,

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