Birdgirl’s 30 Days Wild – for diverse communities

Posted on June 1, 2016June 7, 2022 by Mya-Rose Craig

Birdgirl’s 30 Days Wild – for diverse communities

These are a few of my photographs from my 30 Days Wild last year.

30 Days Wild 2015 – Enjoying the plants in my garden but could be a park

30 Days Wild 2015 – Enjoying local woods but could be in a park

30 Days Wild 2015 – Enjoying the pond-life in my garden but could be a park

30 Days Wild 2015 – Smelling the flowers in my garden but could be in a park

30 Days Wild 2015 – Noticing a bumblebee in my garden but could be in a park

30 Days Wild 2015 – Enjoying a nature reserve but could be a place in the city

Today is the first day of 30 Days Wild 2016, an initiative of The Wildlife Trusts who state “This June, can you do something wild everyday for a month?”

What they are saying is that nature is everywhere, so by looking for it through your normal day, you should start to notice it and enjoy it.

This month is 30 Days Wild 2016, an initiative of The Wildlife Trusts who say “This June, can you do something wild each day for a month?”

They say that they don’t want you to give anything up for June, just give yourself time in the wild with your family, to reconnect with nature. 26,000 people have already signed up, but it would be great if you signed up to taking part at http://bit.ly/1WZnYKW.

This Friday, 3rd June 2016, is also the date of my conference, Race Equality in Nature. This is about getting Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) people out into nature http://bit.ly/1TnYiE1

The idea for the conference came after I organised a nature camp last year, Camp Avalon, when five BAME teenagers came along. The all found it hard to engage with nature in the ways that others did and we had to find a way that made a connection. Chris Griffin who was leading a birding walk talked to the boys about Peregrine Falcons and how when they dropped to catch their prey, they travelled faster than a Formula 1 car, then comparing both speeds. The boys were mesmerised – by nature.

I could see that everyone could feel connected to nature, however unlikely by their appearance and background.

So why are there so few BAME people out in nature? Our reserves, whether they are in the countryside or in the city, have few BAME people visiting. A recent Government Report shows that BAME children are far less likely to be taken to a even park or playground. There seem to be a huge number of factors effecting BAME people and their ability to go outdoors in the UK (even compared to home countries where maybe people are working outdoors). We hope that the conference will highlight some of these and what can be done to help.

So, for my 30 Days Wild, I have decided to connect with nature each day in a different way, that could feel relevant to BAME communities and practical if you live in an inner city area. Things that they can identify with and so might find it easier to try. I have been asking for suggestions from a range of communities, so that I can hopefully be inclusive. It would be brilliant to hear from you with your ideas.< Some of my ideas are:

Visiting an open space in a large family group, play rounders and make lots of noise
Sit in a park or garden for 10 minutes practicing mindfulness/meditation/using prayer beads
For Muslims taking part in Ramadan throughout June, break your fast in a group in a garden or open greenspace (check where’s open in the evening), followed by doing your prayers outside
Reading your religious book outside (use a bench as a prop if you need one)

Student Islamic Society on a trip out

A child with autism

Ideas on The Wildlife Trust website include “feel nature through the soles of your feet”. That sounds pretty universal and so I thought I’d start with that, though of course, most BAME people in the inner city might have to go to a park to feel the grass in their toes.

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig – 30 days wild day 1

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig – 30 days wild day 1

The Wildlife Trust – Guest blog for “Every Child Wild” Campaign

Posted on November 30, 2015June 7, 2022 by Mya-Rose Craig

The Wildlife Trust – Guest blog for “Every Child Wild” Campaign

Camp Avalon 2016
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

At the beginning of November, The Wildlife
Trust launched their ‘Every Child Wild’ Campaign.

This is a campaign designed to demonstrate their work with children. Every year, the trusts interact with 350,000 children with school visits, Forest Schools, Beach Schools, Nature Tots,
Wildlife Watch groups, junior membership and family events. They think that this is probably a gross underestimate, and we suspect that the figure could be as high as half a million.

Camp Avalon
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Through the Every Child Wild campaign, The
Wildlife Trusts wanted to show:

1) Why it is so important for children to connect with nature
2) The work that TWT do to achieve this
3) Why TWT need support from the general public to carry it out

November was to be a ‘soft launch’, with a much wider national campaign delivered by TWT in 2016, involving the policy change from governments or a comprehensive schools programme.

As part of its national
communications strategy, TWT ran a series of guest blogs answering the question
“What do you think
would be the most important, and effective, change that could be made to ensure
that future generations love wildlife?”

My guest blog was about teenagers and ethnic minority teenagers being engaged in nature:
“The most important change has got to be the targeting of secondary school-age children; successfully engaging this age group with nature, conservation and the environment is the single most crucial step, in order to ensure future generations love wildlife.”
My guest blog can be found at http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/blog/everychildwild/2015/12/01/mya-rose-craig-every-child-wild

Camp Avalon
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

The Wildlife Trust – Every Child Wild Podcast

Posted on November 13, 2015June 7, 2022 by Mya-Rose Craig

The Wildlife Trust – Every Child Wild Podcast

Sorell Lyall, Nathan Burch, Alex White, Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Billy Stockwell
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

In September, I, along with other young people interested in the nature of varying secondary school ages was invited by Lucy McRoberts of The Wildlife Trusts (TWT) to take part in a discussion on key questions related to getting kids into nature. It was excellent that TWT was giving us young people a voice in something relating to us.

Some of the questions we were invited to discuss were:

1) What do you think TWT should be doing to connect the next generation with wildlife?
2) What do you think Government should be doing to connect the next generation with wildlife?
3) What are the barriers to young people connecting with wildlife?

The discussion was to be recorded and published as a podcast by Charlie Moores of Talking Naturally speaking. What we said would help shape the future direction of TWT policies on young people and also inspire other young people.

In October, myself, Nathan Bach (age 10), Alex White (age 12), Sorrell Lyall age 16, and Billy Stockwell (age 16) met in Brandon NR in Warwickshire. The session was chaired by Charlie Moores with Emma Websdale and Adam Cormack from TWT available for help. The link is bit.ly/1kzXxeD

Charlie Moores, Billy Stockwell, Sorell Lyall, Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Emma Websdale, Adam Cormack
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Charlie Moores, Billy Stockwell, Sorell Lyall, Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

The discussion was really empowering and lasted 4 hours. It was a brilliant thing for TWT to have done and Charlie Moores was fantastic directing the meeting.

Originally, we were to be in two groups, over 14 and under 14 but because there were 5 of us we ended up being in one group. It was great to give my opinion but the session was the first time I had spoken in a group like this, and with such a mixed age group. It was a really big learning curve for all of us.

If TWT were to repeat the session next year, would give the following feedback:

· Break the group into two by age. As we had a large age range, this had an impact on each of our confidence within the group;

· It would be good to keep the warm-up short, as lots of interesting points were discussed before the recording started.

· It would be good to give different people the opportunity to contribute in future years, but I don’t think that those taking part this year should be barred, as they might have been involved in a relevant project and so have something specific to contribute (e.g. Camp Avalon).

· Whilst Charlie was great, it would be good to alternate and maybe try someone who has experience of dealing with teenagers, like David Walsh who used to be a teacher and now acts as a mentor to teenage birders.

· Part of group dynamics is learning how to create a space to have your say without talking over people and also making sure that you are giving other people a chance to speak. These are things adults find hard, let alone us to manage as young people in our first group discussion. I think that next time we should have a flag we can hold up when we have something to say so that we don’t have to interrupt anyone to speak.

· Now that the discussion has taken place once, next time I would make it more peer-led, with fewer adult views in the podcast.

· I think that each young person should raise a few areas that they want to discuss before the event so that these are included. Although I mentioned diversity as an issue, the conversation went elsewhere and I didn’t get a chance to talk about it. It turned out that Charlie did not know about my arranging Camp Avalon until afterwards and so could not ask me about it.

These are small suggestions, which hopefully will be taken positively by everyone. Thank you again to Lucy McRoberts for organizing this event, which left me feeling really empowered.

Adam Cormack, Sorell Lyall, Billy Stockwell, Charlie Moores,
Nathan Burch, Alex White, Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Emma Websdale
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

7 Days Not Very Wild – Day 7 – 7 July 2015

Posted on July 7, 2015June 7, 2022 by Mya-Rose Craig

7 Days Not Very Wild – Day 7 – 7 July 2015

7 Days not very Wild – Trying to do something wild each day

My idea is that sometimes even if we look for that great wild thing in nature, it can be hard to find because of all sorts of reasons mainly to do with humans destroying the world.

Having celebrated the nature we can find for 30 days, I wanted to highlight the nature I couldn’t find for 7 days, sort of as a warning that things aren’t just hunky-dory.

Day 7 – Rewilding the Mendips

The Mendip Hills are just a little way up the hill from us on the escarpment. We call them the Mendips. They are designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) including the area where we live in the Chew Valley.

I am due to start as Young Ranger in the autumn.

In the meantime, I can’t but question what is being preserved in some of the areas.

Mendips AONB
Photograph taken by Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

George Monbiot has talked a lot about rewilding. Turning areas back to how they were. Not 50 years ago in the case of the Mendips but what it was like 500 years ago when much of it was probably covered in woods, which are now mainly left on the escarpment like Compton Woods next to us.

Feral by Geoge Monbiot
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

George Monbiot shows in his book Feral how by restoring and rewilding our damaged ecosystems on land and at sea, we can bring wonder back into our lives. He sets out a new positive environmental vision in which nature is allowed to find its own way.
His manifesto on rewilding is set out in:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/27/my-manifesto-rewilding-world
What he concludes is:

“Through rewilding – the mass restoration of ecosystems – I see an opportunity to reverse the destruction of the natural world. Researching my book Feral, I came across rewilding programmes in several parts of Europe, including some (such as Trees for Life in Scotland and the Wales Wild Land Foundation) in the UK, which are beginning to show how swiftly nature responds when we stop trying to control it. Rewilding, in my view, should involve reintroducing missing animals and plants, taking down the fences, blocking the drainage ditches, and culling a few particularly invasive exotic species but otherwise standing back. It’s about abandoning the biblical doctrine of dominion which has governed our relationship with the natural world.
The only thing preventing a faster rewilding in the EU is public money. Farming is sustained on infertile land (by and large, the uplands) through taxpayers’ munificence. Without our help, almost all hill farming would cease immediately. I’m not calling for that, but I do think it’s time the farm subsidy system stopped forcing farmers to destroy wildlife. At the moment, to claim their single farm payments, farmers must prevent “the encroachment of unwanted vegetation on agricultural land”. They don’t have to produce anything: they merely have to keep the land in “agricultural condition”, which means bare.
I propose two changes to the subsidy regime. The first is to cap the amount of land for which farmers can claim money at 100 hectares (250 acres). It’s outrageous that the biggest farmers harvest millions every year from much poorer taxpayers, by dint of possessing so much land. A cap would give small farmers an advantage over large ones. The second is to remove the agricultural condition rule.
The effect of these changes would be to ensure that hill farmers with a powerful attachment to the land and its culture, language and traditions would still farm (and continue to reduce their income by keeping loss-making sheep and cattle). Absentee ranchers who are in it only for the subsidies would find that they were better off taking the money and allowing the land to rewild.”

I think this applies perfectly to the Mendips. The AONB ensures that the area is kept as it is now, barren. We need to stop grazing sheep and let a large proportion of the area rewild, with woods and moorland.
These are just a few photographs showing how little nature is on much of the Mendips.

Mendips AONB
Photograph taken by Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

7 Days Not Very Wild – Day 1 – 1 July 2015

Posted on July 1, 2015June 7, 2022 by Mya-Rose Craig

7 Days Not Very Wild – Day 1 – 1 July 2015

7 Days not very Wild –

Trying to do something wild each day – but not easy when nature has been trashed
My idea is that sometimes even if we look for that great wild thing in nature, it can be hard to find because of all sorts of reasons mainly to do with humans destroying the world.

Having celebrated the nature we can find for 30 days, I wanted to highlight for 7 days the nature I couldn’t find, sort of as a warning that things aren’t just hunky-dory.

Day 1 – A dead Carrion Crow

Today I saw a dead Carrion Crow at the bottom of the field on the way home. I wondered how it had died. Had someone killed it? It looked perfect apart from damaged feathers on one side. Needless to say, I got a big stick and poked it to see what happened. The inside seemed to have been eaten by the maggots all over it. Then I looked up and noticed the electricity wire above it. Had it flown into the wires and died?

Dead Carrion Crown, Compton Martin, Bristol
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Crag

Tag: The Wildlife Trusts