Bogs, trees, and bees, a month of networking in nature for Sustainable South Hams

The Sustainable South Hams team has had a great few weeks meeting groups and organisations working to restore and protect nature in and around South Hams.

Bogs

On 14th May we joined South West Peatland Partnership at Tor Royal for a fascinating guided tour around one of their restored bog sites. It was amazing to learn about the incredible work being done to restore the peatland on this part of the moor and the endless benefits of a healthy peatland ecosystem. Peatland is great because it reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves water quality, mitigates flood risk, and boosts biodiversity amongst many other things! A healthy, restored peatland has huge implications for all communities downstream of Dartmoor, so it is in all of our interests to ensure the peatland is restored. If you get the chance to visit we really do recommend it, the team are super friendly and knowledgeable and we had a great time learning about the plants and mosses there.

Trees

On 19th May we visited the Moor Trees nursery at Dartington for a networking morning and a presentation about the work they do there. It was great to find meet other local groups and businesses interested in restoring nature and to learn more about the processes Moor Trees use to grow their trees. We were welcomed by CEO Helen Aldis and given a very comprehensive tour by Operations Manager Dave Lewis who showed us their incredibly thorough system for collecting, recording, and storing seeds before they are grown in the nursery. Moor Trees regularly hold these networking mornings and we highly recommend going along to find out more about them!

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Bees

Last but not least, on 28th May we held a very successful nature walk in partnership with the Life on the Edge project by South Devon National Landscapes. We met at Chivelstone Village Hall where Project Manager Rob Skinner gave us a fantastic presentation on the work that Life on the Edge are doing to promote nature and how community groups can access funding and resources to implement nature conservation initiatives in their own towns. We then went on a beautiful 2 mile walk around the coast of East Prawle where we spotted lots of long horn bees, drinker moth caterpillars and restored fields of naive wildflowers. It was absolutely wonderful to spend time in nature getting to know everyone and we hope to hold more of these sessions in the future!