About
The Girton Local Nature Recovery Plan is a 10-year plan for identifying and improving priority sites, habitats, and species’ statuses in our village. A working group of the Parish Council is developing the plan which will be community led and will form part of Girton’s Neighbourhood Plan.
It aims to:
- encourage community awareness and inspire action to help nature flourish;
- enhance and extend wildlife habitats;
- to increase the diversity and abundance of wild fauna and flora.
Contact
The Local Nature Recovery Plan for Girton
The LNRP for Girton consists of two documents: ‘Context, Aims and Objectives’ which provides background and overview for the Plan and the ‘Plan’ document which states what will be done over the 10 year period. The Plan will be updated and republished annually.
The Plan for the coming year has been updated. You can find it below together with a review of the past year.
News and events
Girton Wildlife Festival
Saturday October 26th 2-4pm
The Pavilion, Cambridge Road
Join us at Girton’s first Wildlife Festival on Saturday 26th October. 2-4pm. Find out more about wildlife with organisations from across the region.
The Local Nature Recovery Plan Group is presenting our Plan for next year as well as highlighting what we’re doing to help nature in our village.
Lots of stalls to explore. Families welcome.
Birds in Girton
Between the years of 2004 and 2014, Girton resident Ken Sheard wrote a ‘Birdwatch’ column for the Girton Parish News, reflecting on birds seen in Girton.
Janet Sheard kindly donated copies of those articles to the Local Nature Recovery Plan Group and we thought it would be a fascinating and instructive exercise to compare some of the records from that period with the avifauna we have now. The attached is a longer version of the ‘Wild Girton’ article that appears in the August edition of the Girton Parish News
Girton Hedgehog Survey 2024
We would like to focus on finding out where hedgehogs or hedgehog friendly spaces are in the village. If you have hedgehogs visiting your outdoor space, please let us know; either by messaging us with details or, better yet, logging on the Hedgehog Society Big Hedgehog map https://t.co/G4cqeBTDCs
Hibbert-Ware Memorial Garden – Update
Following our successful Garden re-opening by Dr Juliet Vickery, CEO of the British Trust for Ornithology, on May 5th, the volunteers are continuing to improve the space for all.
We still need people in the village to grow and supply plants, and to help with digging and planting. If interested, please email Alison Giles at arecamuk@yahoo.co.uk to find out more.
The Garden Plan
We have refreshed the Garden, so it remains true to its original dedication while showcasing wildlife gardening during the climate emergency. It:
- Hosts a greater variety of plants that will lead to increased diversity of wildlife
- Makes the garden more accessible so it can be enjoyed by more residents of Girton
- Acts as an exemplar for wildlife friendly approaches to gardening
- Creates more awareness about Alice Hibbert-Ware and her amazing work
A plan for the Garden:
A. Bed in front of the sign with low growing flowers
B. Two nectar borders providing blooms for pollinators in spring and summer
C. Bog garden with yellow flag irises, cotton grass, purple loosestrife and other plants
D. Thatched shelter (when funds allow)
E. Native plant garden borders
F. Shrub border
G. Hugelkultur bed with foxgloves and a path leading around it next to the layed hedge
H. Compost heaps
I. Meadow with paths
J. Garden arches with native honeysuckle and clematis “Old Man’s Beard”
K. Mosaic dedicated to Alice Hibbert-Ware featuring among other things herself and a little owl. (when finds allow)
L. Reintroduction of native trees
Fundraising Appeal
We have a ‘Just Giving’ page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/nature-in-girton Any amount you can spare will help. Funds raised will go towards trees and plants, tools, bird and bat boxes, and plant hire.
Who was Alice Hibbert-Ware?
Alice Hibbert-Ware was an inspirational naturalist and teacher who lived in our village for the last 13 years of her life between 1931 and 1944. Such was the esteem that Alice was held in that the Parish Council together with Girton College and others set about raising funds for a garden in her memory which opened in 1948.
Particularly notable for her research and report on the Little Owl and described as one of the “unsung heroines of modern ecology”
She was one of the first women elected to the Linnean Society
Alice was also a member of Essex Field Club, the British Mycological Society, London Natural History Society, and was on the Council of the School Nature Study Union
She moved to Girton in 1931 to care for her brother (the vicar of the village at that time)
She worked at the village School, led nature walks, was a member of the Parish Council and was a key figure in the life of the village.