Ilmington 20:20 Wildlife Group

Groups

Ilmington 20:20 Wildlife Group

Ilmington is a village in the south west of Warwickshire, in the foothills of the Cotswolds, and is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Ilmington 20:20 Wildlife Group set out to sow some wild flowers and in partnership with the Parish Council and with the support of Warwickshire Wildlife Trust developed wildflower areas at various locations in the village such as Upper Green, Playing Fields and Dum’s Piece.

Out of a talk on bees and a village bee survey, came the development of wildlife-friendly plans for the churchyard which was done in collaboration with Ilmington Parochial Church Council.

Arguably, the biggest outcome from the wildflower project is that it gave the Wildlife Group the confidence and ambition to take on more projects and do more for wildlife in the village. In addition to the talk on bees, Ilmington 2020 Wildlife Group has: organised and delivered successful talks on hedgehogs and swifts, and has recently raised local awareness about the importance of dark skies and the need to reduce light pollution.

Over the last year, the Wildlife Group has worked in close partnership with Ilmington Parish Council to undertake significant work on the pond in the playing fields and the surrounding wooded area, with the aim of creating a wildlife friendly nature reserve. To this end the partnership has: reduced the tree canopy to improve light levels; removed unsafe or dead trees while leaving some as standing ‘totems’ to benefit wildlife; cleared scrub and planted wildflowers; conducted pond water testing, which showed healthy nitrate levels; commissioned an ecological survey; monitored pond life and finding signs of activity, including tadpoles. moorhens and mallards.

During the dry spell in the summer the group got a working group together to remove accumulated rubbish from the pond e.g. tyres, traffic cones and a set of traffic lights!