Community Activities in Olivers Battery

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES IN OLIVERS BATTERY

OLIVERS BATTERY COUNTRYSIDE GROUP

The aim of this new community group is to conserve, sustain and enhance the natural landscape and wildlife of Oliver’s Battery parish. The group has developed from local members of Hampshire Wildlife Trust who met while surveying the hedges of the parish for their wildlife habitat, as part of the Hampshire Hedgerow Survey. Their results were shared at the annual Parish AGM in 2003 and illustrated by slides of the boundary hedges. The parish boundary stone erected to mark the jubilee was the first successful joint venture between the parish and what is now OBCG.

Other public events organised by this group include the well-supported “Beat the Bounds” walks in Jubilee year and again in May 2003 and an “Apple Day held on rather chilly day in October 2002 when the public were invited to taste over a dozen varieties of apples, compare apple recipes and plant seeds from Crab apples collected in Crab Wood. These seedlings are now nearly big enough to plant out! Members have also previously run Wildlife Watch events for children in the parish.

The group has recently formed to co-operate with the Parish Council which has an overview of the development of the whole parish. The countryside group hope to contribute to the Parish design Initiative and already has ideas about a management framework for habitats in the parish. However the members of the group feel they need to walk before they can run and intend to start work on their first project – the regeneration of the conservation area (next to the recreation area). We aim to increase the diversity of the wildlife habitat there for the enjoyment of the local people.

The focus of this first year will be the practical development of this conservation area. Members hope to keep the local community informed about progress through the PC signboards, Community News and the new website but they are all volunteers with jobs and therefore limited time!

Visit our website at www.oliversbatterycountrysidegroup.org.uk/ for more information.

Clare Shorter
Chairman


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