Go wild for nature!

MELKSHAM residents are being encouraged again to take part in the Blue Heart Campaign, to help support local wildlife.

The campaign is asking gardeners, local councils, and anybody who owns and manages a green space to allow it to ‘go wild’ and manage it for wildlife. This includes people with balconies and window sills.

A blue heart symbol, made out of recycled materials, is staked in the ground over the area being rewilded, communicating that rewilding is in process (and that it is not just the owner or council being lazy!)

Local wildlife enthusiasts, Ian and Gill Cardy, say, “The Blue Heart Campaign asks people to encourage wildlife in their gardens. Gardens are very important for wildlife especially for insects, which are in serious decline.

“Here are some of the things that you can do in your garden to help:

1. Make a garden pond, if you don’t have one.  It need not be very big. 

2. Leave some areas to grow wild, and plant some insect friendly wild flowers.

3. Put up bird boxes, Bat boxes, and insect “hotels”

4.  And most important, stop using pesticides and insecticides

“Having done these things, or some of them, you can then display a blue heart in your garden or in your front window, to let people know that you are taking part in the campaign.

“Write to Melksham News about the wildlife you see in your garden,  and if possible report anything you see to Irecord on the internet: www.brc.ac.uk/irecord/ 

“There is also a Facebook page for your photographs – search for ‘Rewilding Melksham Community’.

“And a personal request – please let us know (via Melksham News) if you have bats roosting in your roof.”

For more information about the Blue Heart Campaign, visit the website: https://bluecampaignhub.com/about-us

Photo by Gill Cardy