Throughout the month of August the Green Spaces team organised and delivered a series of 14 differently themed walks to encourage people to explore the wonderful outdoor spaces around them and to keep healthy. 5 of which were weekly butterfly survey walks. The walks we organised included:
- Geocaching Treasure Hunt, where participants followed treasure trails to find items hidden around Oak Hill Park which contained a clue item and an interesting fact
- Big Butterfly Count Walk, here participants took a slow walk around Spout House Woodland to record butterfly data which directly helped the Big Butterfly Count survey
- Canal Nature Walk, which was in partnership with the SuperSlowWay project and showcased the fantastic nature you can find walking along the canal
- Tree ID Walk, led by Prospects’ Tree Officer Gareth Muir, was a walk around Whinney Hill woodland to learn about identifying different tree species to encourage people to explore and understand nature
- Health Walk for Families where the Prospects staff took families up Peel Park and the Coppice to explore a beautiful local site which families can enjoy together
- Women’s Walk was a walk dedicated to the mental and physical health of women and took place at Woodnook Vale LNR
- Foraging Walk, led by medicinal herbalist Danielle Kay, taught participants about the amazing foods you can find in woodlands and even your own garden
- Bat Walk, led by Roger Cunliffe, took participants through Woodnook Vale LNR using bat detectors to listen and learn about different bat species
- Wind Farm Walk, later remade into the Jackhouse Nature Reserve Walk, where participants were taken on a tour of the wonderful Jackhouse.
The August Walks were a smashing success with overall, 140 people attending our walks. 18 of which reported having improved wellbeing and social interactions. The Bat Walk was the most popular walk with over 50 people attending the event! Our Big Butterfly Count Walk had the greatest impact on personal health with 6/17 people reporting improved wellbeing!
The Prospects team would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who came along to one of our walks and made it the incredible month it was! We would also like to thank our funders at Green Recovery Challenge Fund (delivered by the National Lottery Heritage Fund) for making it all possible.
