Wildlife awareness campaign for village website (1 Viewer)

[gyrfalcon]

Can anyone help with ideas..
Some people are launching a village website for where I live, and I have got involved in the "environmental" / "wildlife" section.
I've given a brief overview of what is good about the local area's wildlife, and a basic overview of what to look for in the year.

I now need to add some advice on how people can avoid damaging the countryside and wildlife.

Have thought of headings:

How you can help wildlife:
e.g. Food, water and housing for wildlife

Looking after the countryside:

e.g. Keep to paths (Keep dogs under control), Litter, etc

Can anyone think of ideas on what to include in brief bullet points, or has anyone got any similar examples for a webpage?
Can think of the Wildlife trust motto "take only photos, leave only footprints" etc and the "countryside code" for starters.

Any ideas would be much appreciated. Village is pretty much "town" sized (population ~6000) so potentially quite a large audience to educate. Plenty of good birdlife in surrounding area including Breeding Woodlarks, Lapwing, Stonechats.

Thanks,
Peter

 

[ermine]

No shortage of material there

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/wildlife-friendly_garden.asp

http://www.english-nature.org.uk/pubs/publication/PDF/Wildlifegardening2.pdf

http://www.surreywildlifetrust.co.u...tityID={97BE9FD6-52EF-43D0-B8D6-E25921BFDC8B}

As for looking after it the main things are keep your dogs on leads where there are breeding birds about and don't put your cat out at night specially during the breeding season.

Not dropping litter and if you can't be bothered to actually pack out your mutt's crap then at least don't stick its crap in a plastic bag and put in in the hedge are probably not worth saying. People who haven't grapsed that are not likely to be convincable by any legal means and your message simply ends up too grouchy The message is probably best kept as positive as possible, favour the dos rather than the don'ts.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Thanks Ermine,
I have been thinking along the same lines of not being too grouchy.. majority of people in the area are good folk who want friendly positive advice. God point about the cats, that had completely slipped my memory, after all the dog bashing on here recently.

 

[ayasuda]

Here's a visitors information site for our national parks. (Pets has good info.)
http://www.nps.gov/cabr/planyourvisit/things2know.htm

Here's a website that talks about the feeding dependancy problems with waterfowl. http://training.fws.gov/library/Pubs9/caution_waterfowl.pdf

Here's one for cats and wildlife:
http://www.abcbirds.org/cats/factsheets/predation.pdf

It would be nice to have information letting people know who to contact if they should see distressed wildlife while they are strolling in the nature preserve.

We have a national wildlife rehabilitation organization that has great contact information for different states, and information if you have found an animal in distress: http://www.nwrawildlife.org/home.asp

We also have a directory for California: http://www.ccwr.org/resources/carehab.htm

Solutions for humans with wildlife conflict issues: http://www.wildlife-museum.org/wildlife/solutions.php

California rehabbers are going to address the tree trimming issue, as it results in orphaned baby squirrels and birds. Ignorance of the regulations regarding trimming trees with nesting animals is a common but poor excuse. No more, hopefully. http://www.ccwr.org/resources/

Hope this helps.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Thanks Ayasuda: like the bit about distressedwildlife.. what to do if you see a young bird in the garden type questions.. (Answer: leave it alone in most cases)

 

[ayasuda]

Sorry about the information overload. I'm giving you inside information from a wildlife rescues point of view. These are common topics that the public asks a rescue organization. I don't know if this is a problem in other countries, but fishing line/ fishhook entanglement by birds is another topic out there. Info campaigns to pick it up, cut in pieces, and take it home is the mantra.

 

[swiss7]

May I suggest also some reference(s) or guide to indentifying the common wildlife in the area? People pay so much more attention when they know what they are looking at.. especially considering that most of the species they know are often thought of as pests!

 

[Tyke]

Yes I agree with Swiss7.

I like this Website on my local area -which might be a good model if you can find someone to do it.It's very chatty & not too dry or academic.

http://ramblingsofanaturalist.blogspot.com/

( Patrick Roper featured on Springwatch this week with his 1mtr. sq. nature reserve)

Any sightings + locations + ID aids/photos would be a good way of getting people out to see what's around in the area.

I look at this website every day-it covers the Rye Harbour area.

http://rxwildlife.org.uk/

The photos & chat add so much I think-The scale is maybe a bit beyond resources for a village website-but there may be some ideas you could use.


Colin

 

[gyrfalcon]

Hello,
I'm told there will be a "bulletin board", so I should be able to post a basic thread on Wildlife sightings, or even have our own section if it is popular. That could be really useful in finding out what is about.. there is bound to be several Nutcrackers (Starling), Cranes (Heron), and Snowy Owls (Barn Owls)! reported by the inexperienced, but it might yield something decent.

 

[nick scarle]

How about a guide for identifying wild flowers and native plants.
Too often they are dismissed as "just weeds" but there is a wealth of interesting plants out there and the more people take an interest the more they notice other things in the countryside. Also flowers etc don't fly away so are easier to study and get beginners interested.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Hello Everyone,
just an update to this thread that the village website is about to go live, and there is a wildlife section which was put together with your helpful suggestions..

http://www.northbaddesleyvillage.co.uk/7enviro-localwild.html

The other good ideas, like i.d. tips, etc. I'll try and produce on an ongoing basis once the forum is up and running.

Thanks for input everyone,

Peter