What can I do as an individual?
- Plant a native species hedgerow in your garden
- Create a wildlife area in your local community
- Volunteer to help a local conservation charity carry out practical conservation work
What can you do as part of a community group or school?
Green areas in our towns and villages are as valuable to us as they are to the wildlife that lives there. They give us places to relax, enjoy nature, escape the pressure of urban living and improve the look and feel of our local surroundings. Ensuring our native wildlife and their habitats thrive throughout towns and countryside means we can continue to enjoy it and that the delicate balance between many habitats and species that depend on each other is maintained.
There are many ways you can do this as part of a community project:
Composting
Gardening is the main threat to our remaining peat bogs. Composting garden waste is one way you can get a plentiful supply of rich and fertile compost, ideal for boosting your summer flowerbeds, hanging baskets and roses, without harming peat bogs. Compost is very easy to make: just gather uncooked kitchen waste, clippings and cuttings from the garden into a heap, newspaper and cardboard can also be used. If you are a resident of Antrim Borough Council you can buy a composting bin for your home at a cost of £9.99.
If you are not able to compost at your home Antrim Borough Council are in the process of implementing a ‘brown bin’ system where you can put any waste that is suitable for composting.
Giant Bird Table
If you own or manage a suitable area of grass, you can contribute to conservation by planting a seed plot in the spring to be left un-harvested over the following winter. This will act as a replacement for the seed not presently available in the wider countryside and will help support the local bird population. The RSPB has carried out trials to find which plants will produce the best seed in our climate. Oats, flax, barley and wildflowers have been most successful and can be grown together as a mix. Seeds are sown into prepared ground and will look attractive as they grow during the summer months. The plots ripen in the late summer and will attract flocks of birds throughout the winter, ensuring their survival.
If you have responsibility for a suitable area of improved grassland and would like it to make a contribution to conservation, we would like to hear from you. A leaflet “Giant Bird Tables” is available which gives all the necessary information, for further information contact the RSPB on 9049 1547.
 Birds
Some common birds, e.g. the house sparrow, have declined by nearly 50% in the UK over the last 30 years. Declines have been greater in more densely populated areas. There are lots of ways that community projects can help garden birds, from putting up feeding stations and nest boxes to planting areas of shrubs and trees for them to nest and forage for food. The RSPB website, listed under further information and links, will give you more ideas.
Trees and shrubs
Trees and shrubs can provide excellent homes and a food source for all types of wildlife. You may decide to include them in a community project in a variety of ways; community orchard, hazel/willow coppice, community woodland, specimen trees or hedging. It is best to use native trees as they will provide the best adapted to local conditions and support a wider range of plants and animals than introduced species.
Ponds
Ponds can be an asset to a community project. They can provide an educational resource, a relaxing focus for a project site and it also provides a home for frogs, newts and many insects. You may even have damselfly and dragonfly move into your pond, the adults are beautiful to watch hawking around for insects in the summer months.
 Bats
There are eight species of bat in Northern Ireland all of which feed on insects. The smallest bat is called a pipestrelle bat and can eat 3,000 small insects in a night. You can easily see bats at night hawking for food. Bats like to hunt in sheltered areas between woods, groups or lines of trees and over water. They have been affected by loss of habitat due to changes in farming practise and development. Community projects can do a lot to help by providing bat boxes and places they can hunt for food. To find out more about bats go to the Northern Ireland Bat Group website http://www.bats-ni.org.uk/index.html. NIEA have a booklet ‘Bats and Development’ which aims to provide advice for developers, planning officers and others that may come across bat issues relating to planning visit
http://www.ni-environment.gov.uk/bats__development_booklet.pdf
Woodpiles
You can easily create a woodpile by taking untreated logs or pieces of wood and stacking them in a quiet corner. Habitat piles like this will benefit beetles, hedgehogs and fungi.
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