Action Earth News Page

From now on, to keep you updated with what is going on with Action Earth check our News page in our website.

Click here and we will direct you to there.

Action Earth foot Prints

At the end of each year Morrison’s and Action Earth are fond of to reward those projects that have made a change in their communities, by changing the green areas, organising an activity to get to know each other, recording by photographs the process of the project or is a quirky project.

The categories for this year were:

-          The best project in The North

-          The best project in the South

-          The best project in Scotland

-          The best project in Wales

-          City Slickers: The Best Urban Project (UK Wide)

From the 950 projects that this year the campaign had involve, 143 projects applied for the awards and 41 were shortlisted, meaning that 8 to 9 amazing projects were nominees to win any of the categories.

Morrison’s and Action will be given to 3 prices in each category for the 3 first places. The winner will received £250, 2^nd Prize will receive £100 and 3^rd prize will receive £50 to encourage the organisations to develop further the projects.

And the winners are:

-          The best project in The North England

• 1^st: HAGS in Action. Organisation: Heptonstall Allotment Garden Society, in Heptonstall, West Yorkshire. Ref: E-405
• 2^nd: Black Horse Hill Gardening Club. Organisation: Black Horse Hill Junior School Garden Club, in West Kirby, Wirall Merseyside. Ref: E-481
• 3^rd: Forget Me Not Heritage Collection. Organisation: Chuter Ede Primary School, in Newark, Nottighamshire. Ref: E-158

-          The best project in The South England

• 1^st: Wild Watervoles!. Organisation: Arun Valley Watervoles in Association with Sussex Wildlife Trust at Burgess Hill, West Sussex. Ref: E-529
• 2^nd: Bee Happy. Organisation: St Winnow Church of England School, in Downend, Lostwithiel. Ref: E-537
• 3^rd: Monkey Poo Compost. Organisation: The Monkey Sanctuary, Looe, Cornwall. Ref: E-206.

-          The best project in Scotland

• 1^st: The Big Clean Up 2009. Organisation: Green Ferry Trust, in South Queensferry. Ref: S-2
• 2^nd: Gardening Because. Organisation: Angus Council Ranger, in Forfar, Tayside. Ref: S-230
• 3^rd: Going Wild at the Lairhillock. Organisation: Lairhillock Primary School Netherley, in Stonehaven, Grampian. Ref: S-199

-          The best project in Wales

• 1^st: Where to from Here: Organisation; Cynwyd Community Group, in Cynwyd. Ref: W-1. (check project here)
• 2^nd: Bat Box Bonanza. Organisation: North Wales Wildlife Trust, in Bangor, Gwyneed. Ref: W-17
• 3^rd: wild Wellys & Woodchips. Organisation: Presteigne Primary School, in Presteigne, Powys. Ref; W-138.

-          City Slickers: The Best Urban Project (UK Wide)

• 1^st: Bird Boxes and Ladybird Houses. Organisation: Herbs & Dragonflies, in Pudsey, West Yorkshire. Ref: E-180
• 2^nd: Willow Weave. Organisation: Wildside Volunteers, in Wolverhampton, West Midlands. Ref: E-212
• 3^rd: Earthbound. Organisation: Pilton Equalities Project, in Edinburgh. Ref: S-75

A description of each project will come individually in future posts.

Action Earth 2010 will start in the first week of March, more information on the website: www.actionearth.org.uk or email Naseem to: naseem@csvenvironment.org.uk

Keep it Clean Keep it Green

The Keep it Clean – Keep it Green project was held in Inverness, Scotland by the Dalneigh Residents Association  and the purpose of the project was to educate families and their children about the living things around them. It is vital for our survival to create. Maintain our environment. The project was set up to safeguard. And promote the interest of residents in the locality as matters concerning housing and the environment.

Educating fresh young minds to create their own space. The children have volunteered to help create a wildflower meadow garden and are in final stages of designing large hard wood benches when project is complete.

They are applying to the Action Earth Awards as “The Best project in the North” and they think t hay should win because, the children from the 7/12 youth club who took part in the community clean up, come from dysfunctional families on low income and state benefits.

Some of the children have been affected through their families suffering from a drug or alcohol addiction. They were so proud of what they had achieved and happy to know their small achievement would help the environment and create a clean living space for some birds wild animals.

Lochaber Deaf Care, Litter Pick Up

This year was the first year we introduced a litter pick at our annual Easter Egg Hunt, the children involved really enjoyed their involvement and are looking forward to next year’s hunt already. We had a bouncy castle, face painting and stall and rose an amazing £1254 on the day for the Gochaber Deaf Care.

 The East Egg Hunt Project is applying for “The best project in Scotland”, and they think they should win because; it encouraged local children to get involved with looking after the countryside.

The S70 project happened in Fort William, Scotland on April 13^th 2009.

Butterflies in the Rain

Over 20 volunteers battled against strong winds and rain on Sunday 8^th March at Grafton Wood near Grafton Flyford to improve conditions for some of Worcestershire’s rarest butterflies.

The Event Organiser, John Tilt, who is the Reserve Manager for Butterfly Conservation and the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust who jointly own Grafton Wood, said, “The event was a great success especially given the adverse weather. Volunteers spent all day cutting back and burning vegetation along the edges of woodland rides to create the open, sunny conditions in which butterflies and other insets can thrive. Grafton Wood is particularly important for the Brown Hairstreak butterfly, a fast declining species which only survives regionally in this small corner of Worcestershire”.

 Caroline Faulkner, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Morrisons, who provided an Action Earth grant to help support the project said “Morrisons is delighted to support the volunteers at Grafton Wood undertake improved woodland management for butterflies. We are thrilled that our sponsorship of CSV Action Earth has helped to tackle the decline in butterflies and we are sure it will make a real impact in helping to improve the local environment”.

The E4 Woodland management for Butterflies project took place at Flyford Falvell.

Club members of the Cricket club

Bishops Waltham Cricket Club in Southampton, planted native trees and shrub species at the cricket ground.

 These are to provide landscaping around the building works as for the planning permission gained

All pants are native species including Hawthorn, Hazel, Hornbeam, Golden Rose, Private, Dogwood, Willow. Some 100 were planted aver and area of some 80sqm. As with previous plants (over2000 trees and shrubs in total) all plants are native to the UK and chosen for their visual and wildlife qualities.

 The club are applying for the awards as The Best project in the South” and they think they should win, because:” Once again club members have come together to achieve the successful implementation of works planned. We brought together CSV funds, members time and machinery time donated, to bring about a small but significant improvement in the wildlife and visual amenity of the cricket ground”.

 The E72 project took place in Southampton on March 21^st 2009.

Cleanup at Victoria Park

Victoria Park’s Litter Pick and Community Clean up day Friends of Victoria Park, Stretford

 The friends of Victoria Park, Stretford want to extend their thanks to everyone who came out on Sunday, to help clear up our park. We had about 50 volunteers throughout the day who helped by litter picking, and applying wood preserver to the sculptures and benches.

Everyone was buoyed up by the brilliant weather and worked really hard. The chairwoman of the group, Shelly Quinton – Hulme, said that “it was a fantastic turn-out and again shows that the local community are willing t rally round and do some hard work for the benefit of everyone. The amount achieved and quality of the work done was a credit to all. It was great to see whole families coming out and have a good time at this community event”.

This event was made possible by a grant of £50 from Action Earth {sponsored by Morrison] which allowed the group to buy litter pickers and give out free refreshments to all helpers. More information about the grant can be found at www.actionearth.org.uk.

 The E91 project was organised by Friends of Victoria Park in Manchester on March 3^rd 2009.

Colour Our Grass, in Derby

Findern Footpaths Group is planning to lend a hand to improve their local environment. They will be planting snowdrops, and recording wildlife in Stanhope Hole Conservation Area, Findern.

This activity is part of a five month campaign called CSV Action Earth, supported by Morrison’s supermarkets, The campaign is organised by the national charity Community Service Volunteers (CSV)_ and involves over 900 voluntary organisations, businesses and community groups that will be undertaking projects that are of immediate and lasting benefit to the environment.

Group member, Mary Ross said “Helping out with an environmental project is a great way to learn new skills and at the same time do something really worthwhile. As a result of our hard work, we are looking forward to a lovely isplay of snowdrops next spring.

 Caroline Faulkner, CSR Manager, Morrison’s Says: “Morrison is delighted to support Colour Our Grass”, helping to kick start such a worthwhile community project. We are thrilled that our sponsorship of Action Earth has helped Findern Footpaths group and we are sure it will make a real impact in helping to improve their local environment”.

If you would like to register your on project or think you can come up with a good project idea, the please take part in the campaign. Call the CSV Action Earth hotline on 0121 328 7455

The E21 project took place in Derby and was organised by Findern Footpaths Group.

Action Earth

Here at Action Earth’s headquarters are very happy to let you know that we are almost reaching our targets.

The 2009 campaign has:

-         489 projects for England

-         171 projects for Scotland

-         153 projects for Wales

-         75 projects for the Scottish National Heritage SNH

Where Wales and SNH has reached their target leaving just space for England with 70 available spaces left and Scotland 30 projects/

But there is only 1 month left for you to submit your project. The deadline is the 31^st of July. So hurry up! You can register online www.actionearth.org.uk

W 7 project Guirguiding and Better Woodlands for Wales.

 Several volunteers spent Saturday and Sunday clearing more laurel from the woodlands in the grounds of the county Girlguiding headquarters, Caernarfon with the backing of Action Earth supported by Morrisons Supermarkets and CSV Environment. We were awarded the help of many volunteers have cleared almost 2 acres of laurel, planted hedgerows and trees and cleared pathways and stream. We now have lots of space between the trees for the kids – of all ages – to run in and have plans to develop nature trails and activity trails in the near future.

Jill  Stott

County Commissioner for Girlguiding Caernarfonshire.

 Caernarfeon, Gwynedd, March 15^th 2009