Sustainable Warminster general meeting, 7pm at Warminster Civic Centre. Members and non-members all welcome. We look forward to seeing you there.
Category: Uncategorized
Asian Hornet Alert
Asian Hornets are a major risk to honey bees, and are now at large in England. They have been sighted in Kent, Devon and Dorset.
Report any sightings of this species:
online at: www.nonnativespecies.org
with the free iPhone and Android recording app: Asian Hornet Watch
Autumn Hedgehogs
Now that autumn is well and truly here, hedgehogs will be considering their winter hibernation arrangements. It may be a few weeks yet before they settle down, so you can help them out during October and early November by putting down some hedgehog food – hedgehog biscuits, or meaty cat or dog food, either tinned or kibble. Because they don’t eat a lot once they start hibernating, they need to weigh at least 500g (and preferably more) before they settle in, otherwise they don’t have the fat reserves to see them through cold frosty nights. If you see little hedgehogs out during October or later, you can pick them up with gardening gloves and weigh them on the kitchen scales. If they are less than 500 g do phone a hedgehog rescue (listed below) for further advice.
Where to Hibernate
For their winter accommodation, hedgehogs will be looking for somewhere snug and dry. Their favourite hibernation places are in piles of twigs and leaves under hedges, and in hedgehog houses, where they will drag leaves in to keep them comfy. So, if you are clearing up your garden, do sweep leaves and twigs into a heap in a corner, or under a hedge, or near the entrance to your hedgehog house, and then leave it undisturbed for the winter. The leaves are also an over-wintering place for insect larvae, so the hedgehogs will have a built-in larder.
Bonfires
If you have a wood pile that you intend burning on bonfire night, please dismantle it the day before and check underneath – hedgehogs third favourite hibernation place is woodpiles, especially if they contain lots of twigs at the bottom, and whilst they like to be warm, a bonfire is a bit too warm for them! Unfortunately, when they get confused or frightened, they just roll up into a ball – which won’t protect them from the flames.
Hedgehog Highways
It’s not to late to make and mark hedgehog highways in and out of your garden – if the winter is mild, hedgehogs sometimes wake up out of hibernation, get a drink and a snack and then move on to another winter hidey-hole – we’re not sure why they do this but it may be to confuse predators or to find somewhere warmer and drier. So there’s still time to check with a neighbour that their garden is also hedgehog friendly, open up a gap in the fence or wall, and make sure the hole stays clear by marking it with one of our hedgehog highway signs. Do get in touch if you would like one.
If you are ever worried about the health or welfare of a hedgehog, please call the British Hedgehog Preservation Society on 01584 890801 and they will be able to give you advice, and put you in touch with a local rescue centre if necessary.
The Donate IT Project
Providing laptops, tablets and phones for home learners
Kingdown School is very keen to participate in this scheme and has been liaising with Sustainable Warminster.
From 29th March there will be a permanent drop off point at the school reception for people to donate their unwanted/unused IT equipment.
The following items can be donated: laptops, PCs, tablets, phones, routers, cameras, mains leads, power supplies, connectors and leads, AC adaptors, batteries, carry cases, etc.
All IT equipment will either be repaired and restored for donating to people in the community who need it; otherwise all components will be recycled. As there is zero waste going to landfill, this is a project which benefits the environment as well as the community.
For further information on exactly what you can donate, either visit the Blackmore IT website at www.r3cycle.co.uk or contact Simon Barfoot directly on DonateIT@r3cycle.co.uk
For Covid safety please bring all equipment in carrier bags. There will be a consent form to sign on drop off. Please arrange drop off during school opening hours only.
Working together for the Warminster community
Recycling Medicine Blister Packs
Is anyone recycling these empty medicine blister packets? We’ve discovered that they can be recycled via www.terracycle.com If anyone would like to start collecting their empty blister packs, Fiona is happy to receive them and then do a single drop off when we’ve accumulated enough.
There isn’t a drop off point in Warminster at the moment so we think it would have to go to Superdrug in Frome or Trowbridge. Once you have a bag ready, email Fiona at membership@sustainablewarminster.co.uk to arrange pick up/drop off.
Another little something that won’t go to landfill. Every little bit helps 
B-Lines
Buglife’s B-Lines will put a buzz back into Wiltshire’s towns and countryside
An ambitious plan to help our bees, butterflies, hoverflies and other pollinating insects has been launched today by Buglife. The Wiltshire B-Lines mapping, funded by Defra, aims to connect some of the county’s best remaining wildlife sites through targeted wildflower habitat creation, linking the north to south, east to west and towns to the countryside.
Buglife has worked with the local authorities and other partners to map out a network of potential wildflower habitat – called B-Lines, and is now inviting farmers, landowners and the public to get involved in creating new pollinator habitat, and practically restoring wildflower-rich grasslands.
Bees and other pollinators are disappearing from our countryside because of a lack of wildflower-rich habitats. Three million hectares, 97%, of the UK’s wildflower-rich grasslands have been lost since the 1930s. Creating pollinator habitat along B-Lines will help wildlife move across our countryside, saving threatened species and making sure that there are plenty of pollinators out there to help us grow crops and pollinate wildflowers.
Wiltshire is just one of the counties recently mapped leading to the completion of the England B-lines network, enabling Buglife’s vision of a river of wildflowers across the UK to be realised. The next step will be getting wildflower restoration and creation happening across the country.
Hayley Herridge from Buglife said “This is an exciting opportunity for people to help our struggling insect pollinators. If we establish a network of wildflowers across our landscape, we can support the recovery of our pollinator populations enabling them respond to threats such as climate change.”
“If you have land which you are interested in restoring to wildflower-rich grassland, or if you would like to get involved in other ways, please get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.”
Ellie Jones, Reserves Manager at Wiltshire Wildlife Trust said “Insect abundance has declined dramatically in recent years and 41% of insect species currently face extinction. B-Lines is an ambitious and innovative opportunity to turn around the fortunes of some of our most important pollinators and supports the work we are doing through The Wildlife Trusts’ Action for Insects campaign.”
Lieutenant General R E Nugee CB CVO CBE, Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy Lead for the Ministry of Defence said “We are delighted to support the development of this landscape-scale project. As a proud resident of Wiltshire, it is excellent that B-Lines will help us to focus our efforts in enhancing our land holdings and community green spaces for pollinating insects in Wiltshire and beyond, benefiting both people and wildlife”
Fashion and Sustainability
Interested in fashion and the environment? If yes, this free talk is for you!
Join us on March 10th as we welcome Liz from By the Fire to discuss her many years of experience working in the world of fashion and sustainability.
Liz has a very impressive background in this field. She has been teaching about fashion and sustainability in higher education for over a decade, as well as working for over 15 years with Labour Behind the Label and the Clean Clothes Campaign supporting garment manufacture workers to defend their rights.
In this talk, we’ll explore the ethics behind the textiles industry, how we as individuals can reduce our clothing footprint and what the future looks like for the industry.
This FREE talk will be hosted via Zoom. To reserve your place email secretary@sustainablewarminster.co.uk for details.
For more information about By the Fire check out their website https://www.by-the-fire.co.uk/
Damask Way – petition
Bats in Warminster
There is a new page on the website, with information about the bat species that live in and around Warminster. Click here to go to the page.
Christmas Quiz
Hello all
Please join us for a Zoom Christmas Quiz
on
Tuesday 22nd December at 19:00
The questions will all be about natural history & sustainability.
Please bring five questions if you would like to, but don’t worry if not as Clare has plenty of multiple choice questions for us.
Please wear Christmas hats and have a glass of your favourite tipple at hand.
We all wish we could be together but this is the next best thing!
Please let Clare or secretary@sustainablewarminster.co.uk know if you are attending or not.
It is the usual ID but let us know if you do not have it.
Happy Christmas to you all from the Committee
