A night out looking for bats and bugs, a 30-mile wildlife watching relay walk and learning about our glorious mosslands – it's was all part of The Carbon Landscape Partnership's "A Week in the Wild".
A five-day programme of events and activities, began on Monday, March 19, to inspire and engage people with the fabulous wildlife and wild spaces right on their doorstep.
To kick the week off the Carbon Landscape team organised a series of short talks delivered by local experts discussing topics such as sphagnum farming; carpets of multi-coloured moss that create peat bogs and the Woolston Eyes rotating wetlands, an innovative new approach to wetland management and creation within a working dredging site.
This event, as are all our events, are open to anyone but will be of particular interest to volunteers, friends of groups and people interested in green spaces within Wigan, Warrington and Salford. The Mayor and Mayoress of Wigan, Councillor Bill Clarke and his wife, Joan, was also there on the day to present certificates to some of our landscape champions.
On Wednesday 21st March, Greater Manchester we held our first Green Summit. The summit brought together numerous groups, including the Carbon Landscape Partnership, to help Greater Manchester meet its ambitions to become one of the leading green cities in Europe.
There was also a nature walk around Woolston Eyes Nature Reserve led by Ash Radford, from RSPB. This was a great opportunity for people to discover Woolston Eyes and see all the wonderful nature and wildlife that calls this place home.
On the last day of a Week in the Wild, visitors walked the entire Carbon Landscape, over 30 miles, in a relay. The walk is divided into three sections; Warrington, Salford and Wigan, each around 10 miles long before passing on to the next group of walkers. The trail took in the beautiful views of the carbon landscape and we saw some amazing local wildlife along the way.
Our Week in the Wild ended with a magical Evening in the Wild event on Wigan Flashes. This nocturnal nature experience included a goblin hunt, night safari, forage by torchlight, moth experience and bat survey – using hand-held bat detectors.
