• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

TCV Blogs

The Conservation Volunteers' network of blogs

TCV Blogs blog

  • Home
  • The Conservation Volunteers website

btcv

CHILDHOOD AND NATURE: our children’s changing relationship with the natural world and how to kickstart a life-long appreciation

26 February 2021 by ralphwalker

The Conservation Volunteers Vice President, Sir David Attenborough once said, “No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced”. He was referring to the natural world and the fundamental importance of people engaging with nature to first make a connection, to then understand it, to then want to protect it.

This rings true at all levels, from a toddler searching for a woodlouse on a log in his/her local patch of green space, to an adventurous zoologist researching Lemon Ants cultivating their so-called “devil’s gardens” in the Amazon Basin. Once we experience something and make a connection, we develop a fascination, we begin to care.

This has been an objective of The Conservation Volunteers for many years. Since 1959, our mission has centred around connecting people of all ages with their local green spaces, for the long-term benefit of wildlife, community health and, increasingly, our unsettled climate.

“This rings true at all levels, from a toddler searching for a woodlouse on a log in his/her local patch of green space…”

But children in the UK are spending less and less time in nature, opting for more time playing indoors and using computer screens and televisions to learn, perhaps about the natural world, or perhaps more likely, what’s en vogue on TikTok.

Whilst we recognise the challenges that the UK lockdown and homeschooling presents – with many TCVers in the same situation – we can’t ignore the startling statistics that we can help to change:

  • Children spend less time playing in natural places, such as woodlands, countryside and heaths than they did in previous generations. Less than 10% play in such places compared to 40% of adults when they were young. Source: Natural England

  • On average, Britain’s children watch more than 17 hours of television a week: that’s almost two-and-a-half hours per day, every single day of the year.

    British children are also spending more than 20 hours a week online, mostly on social networking sites. Source: National Trust
  •  As children grow older, their ‘electronic addictions’ increase. Britain’s 11–15-year-olds spend about half their waking lives in front of a screen: 7.5 hours a day, an increase of 40% over a decade. Source: National Trust

And on the flip side…

  • Children who spend more time outside (and more time noticing nature / wildlife) are more likely to report that ‘being in nature makes me very happy’ (91% and 94% respectively, compared to 79% of those who had spent less time). Source: Natural England

Its stats like these that motivate us in our work to connect people with nature, whilst improving our local green spaces for all the community to enjoy.

“…cherished hours spent investigating local wildlife, collecting conkers, making dens and, most importantly having fun.”

It’s also why we have created these resources (including bug hunting, den building, scavenger hunts, gardening activities and more), to help parents encourage their children to kickstart and nurture a relationship with nature, one which can then hopefully flourish into a little more unguided fashion of cherished hours spent investigating local wildlife, collecting conkers, making dens and, most importantly having fun.

… and this all leaves parents with a little more time. Time to perhaps log on to work for those who are homeschooling or perhaps to simply have a moment’s peace and a cup of tea.


Take a look here for our activity resources and crank up your children’s passion for the natural world.

And for those who have (re)discovered your local green spaces during the UK lockdown, think about ways to add these activities to your weekend routine and instil this passion in your children for years to come.

https://www.tcv.org.uk/getinvolved/activity-resources/

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or head on over to our website for more.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: btcv, children, Conservation, conserve, environment, food, gardening, Green Gym, greengym, healthy, hedge, hedges, help, humans, involved, kids, nature, planet, planting, plants, play, practical, saving, shelter, tcv, tools, tree, trees, volunteer, volunteering, wildlife

I Dig Trees guest blog: 1,000 new trees form species-rich hedgerow set to boost biodiversity

2 February 2021 by ralphwalker

Last year our fantastic network of I Dig Trees community groups smashed the target to plant over 1 million trees. This year we are going even bigger with 1,444,400 trees now distributed since the programme began.

As the tree planting season continues, Jessica Rowbury of CoFarm in Cambridge tells us how the trees ordered are helping to bring habitats, food and shelter for the local wildlife…

The CoFarm market garden in Cambridge

More than one thousand saplings have been planted at the CoFarm Cambridge site on Barnwell Road with help from volunteers and sponsors. The saplings will grow to form a hedgerow around the perimeter of the fenced market garden within the seven-acre Cambridge city plot.

The species-rich hedgerow will act to boost biodiversity within the farm, as well as provide a natural windbreak and prevent soil erosion. 

Different varieties of trees, including blackthorn, hawthorn, hornbeam, beech and crab apple, were planted around the 360-metre fence perimeter by CoFarm volunteers.

The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) donated 950 trees, as part of its ‘I Dig Trees’ programme in partnership with OVO Energy, in addition to supporting canes and spiral guards that protect the saplings from rabbits and deer.

A further 450 trees have been donated to CoFarm Cambridge by The Woodland Trust, through its PlanTree initiative.

Some of these have been planted within the hedgerow, and more are set be planted around the farm in the coming weeks.

Hedges: havens for nature

Hedges are vital habitats that provide food and shelter for wildlife and create corridors to help wildlife move around. 

The more diverse in composition a hedgerow is the more insects and species it is likely to support thanks to an increased variety of flowering and fruiting times. CoFarm’s new hedge will be classified as ‘species-rich’, according to the UK’s Habit Action Plan, defined as containing an average of five or more native woody species per 30m length. 

The recently planted saplings, which are currently around half a metre in height, will take around three years to reach the desired height of the hedge (around 1.5 metres).

‘Hedges are massively important for wildlife, giving shelter, nest sites and food. They also serve as beneficial predator and pollinator banks which are so important within small organic farm systems.’

Dominic Walsh, horticultural co-lead at CoFarm Cambridge

Beyond the benefits they bring to wildlife, hedges act as windbreaks, to protect the hundreds of varieties of flowers and vegetable plants inside the market garden and help prevent soil erosion. 

Nature-friendly farming

During the planting of the saplings in December, volunteers dipped the young tree roots in a solution containing mycorrhiza, a beneficial type of fungus that grows in association with plant roots. Mycorrhizas take sugars and carbon from the saplings in exchange for water and nutrients they gather from the soil. In this way, the fungi act as extensions to the root system, increasing the saplings’ absorptive area.

The nutrient exchange includes organic compounds such as phosphorous, nitrogen and potassium, but also micronutrients previously locked up in the soil.

Volunteers dipping the tree roots in a mycorrhizal solution.

This is just one of the many nature-friendly techniques employed by CoFarm Cambridge since the site does not use chemical fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides.

The method negates the need for chemical fertilisers, thanks to the increased absorption power of the roots resulting from the symbiotic relationship formed with the fungi. Mycorrhiza fungus also protects the trees against root diseases.  

Found out more about CoFarm Cambridge

Many more trees are set to be planted at CoFarm Cambridge this year. To hear more about this project, including the upcoming planting of a community orchard, follow CoFarm on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.


We’d like to say a huge thank to Jessica and the team at CoFarm for sharing this guest blog post for I Dig Trees, originally appearing here.

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or head on over to our website for more.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: btcv, Conservation, conserve, environment, food, gardening, Green Gym, greengym, healthy, hedge, hedges, help, humans, involved, nature, planet, planting, plants, practical, saving, shelter, tools, tree, trees, volunteer, volunteering, wildlife

Primary Sidebar

Our main website

  • Head over to www.tcv.org.uk

Our blogs network

  • Read all our latest posts at blogs.tcv.org.uk

All our blogs

  • TCV Bedfordshire
  • Community Learning in Partnership
  • Health & Wellbeing
  • Health for Life
  • Natural Communities
  • Natural Networks
  • Natural Talent
  • Skelton Grange Environment Centre
  • TCV London
  • TCV Scotland
  • TCV Tree Nursery Volunteers
  • Tree Life Centre

© Copyright 2021 The Conservation Volunteers

Registered in England as a limited company (976410)
and as a charity in England (261009) and Scotland (SCO39302)

Registered Office: Sedum House, Mallard Way, Doncaster DN4 8DB

Website by Made in Trenbania

  • TCV
  • Find TCV
  • Contact TCV
  • Careers
  • Handbooks
  • Privacy
  • Terms