Posted: Thursday 1st January 2015 by Community
The turning over of a new year is traditionally a time where we reflect on the past twelve months and resolve to make changes that will benefit our lives. Where you may be tempted to (again!) opt for losing weight, joining the gym or saving money, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust asks you to instead make a commitment to wildlife and your environment (and do all these things anyway in your free green gym!) by choosing one of the following New Year’s resolutions!
Choose your green new years resolution!
- Be more an organised advocate for wildlife
- Become a hedgehog hero
- Make an effort to reuse or recycle your unwanted items
- Make your garden a wildlife haven
- Give some of your time and gain some hands-on experience
- Reduce the energy you use
- Teach your children about the wonder of nature
- Put my best foot forward and walk for wildlife
Which green resolution are you going to pledge? Take our poll and let us know!
1. Be an organised advocate for wildlife
Every year, many of us promise ourselves that we'll make sure we're fully prepared for birthdays, Easter and all those other big celebrations. It's easy to forget though, so why not take this opportunity to stock up on some great gifts in our January Sale!
Yes we know that we said 25% off in our download, but we've decided to be extra extra generous and offer you 50% off gift membership, and 30% off adopt a species.
That's less than £1.50 a month for a standard membership (£15 a year!), and £2 a month for the whole family (£24 a year) and the lucky recipients of this great gift will recieve three wildlife packed Wildlife magazines, a guide to our 60 nature reserves and access to over 100 fabulous events!
Go on, give the gift of a wild Gloucestershire this year!
Pledge to be an organisaed advocate for wildlife.
Tweet or facebook your pledge to a member of the wildlife trust and open up a world of wildlife
2. Become a hedgehog hero
Become an advocate for hedgehogs in your area and with your friends and family. Make your garden more hedgehog friendly - perhaps install a hedgehog house, and make a hole in you fence and make a concious effort to look out for and record all the sighting of hedgehogs (both dead and alive) that you can and encourage your friends and family to do the same.
And remember - it's not just where they are that's important, but where they aren't!
Find out more about hedgehogs in Gloucestershire here
Tweet or facebook your pledge to become a hedgehog hero
3. Make an effort to reuse or recycle your unwanted items
After Christmas you undoubtedly will have some unwanted gifts, however small, that can either be donated to a charity shop or listed on freecycle.org As the saying goes, one man’s rubbish is another man’s gold and as long as you’re willing to offer it for free, you could make contact with someone who has been looking for just that.
Christmas cards and wrapping paper can be recycled at your local recycling point or in your green boxes for roadside collection. If you aren’t already taking advantage of this wonderful service, maybe 2016 is the year to start!
If you’re having a New Year clear out of your wardrobe, don’t bin those old fashioned clothes! Is there a young child that would be delighted with some new additions to their dressing up box? A charity shop will be able to sell any items in good condition and if they have seen better days they can be cut up and used as rags around the home.
Find out more about recycling in Gloucestershire
Tweet or facebook your pledge to reduce, reuse and recycle more
4. Make your garden a wildlife haven
There are many ways that you can make your garden wildlife-friendly with the simplest way being to provide them with the food, water and shelter that they need. Stock birdfeeders with black sunflower seeds, mixed wild bird seed and unsalted peanuts and remember to protect the birds you do attract by positioning your feeder away from any walls or other surfaces that cats might be able to jump on to it from.
Birds can easily die of thirst so another good idea is to install a bird bath. They will use this for drinking and bathing so make sure that it has a sloped ‘beach’ area where the water won’t be too deep. Water should be checked daily to top up and clear away any ice.
Different types of birds will need different types of nest boxes—see wildlife gardening section of our website for more information— and remember to position them in a shady place away from predators.
Find our out more about wildlife gardening
Tweet or facebook your pledge to make your garden a wildlife haven
5. Give some of your time and gain some hands-on experience
Whether you can spare a few regular hours or you just want to get involved on an ad hoc basis, volunteering your time with Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust will be a worthwhile experience.
We need help out on our nature reserves to carry out our conservation management plans from clearing scrub and keeping paths clear to carrying out wildlife surveys that will help the Trust assess the state of species and habitats in order to plan future work.
If you would prefer to work indoors we often need help with packing our magazines and other literature, or other office/computer based work - if you have any particular niche skills such as design, photography or anything else you'd like to volunteer we're always happy to a little extra help!
Find out more on the volunteering section of our website
Tweet or facebook your pledge to give more time to nature
6. Reduce the energy you use
Whether you choose to switch all of your household light bulbs to energy saving ones or LED's, make sure you don’t leave lights on in unattended rooms or turn your central heating down one notch and wear a jumper, reducing the energy you use will save you money and that’s got to be an incentive!
Here's some useful tips for saving energy or how about switching to a green energy supplier!
Tweet or facebook your pledge to reduce your energy consumption
7. Teach your children about the wonder of nature
Wildlife Watch is the junior membership of The Wildlife Trusts and local groups meet once a month to discover more about wildlife and conservation through talks, activities and events.
Members receive a great wildlife action pack including a membership card and badge, a guide to being a Wildlife Watcher, our national magazine full of articles, photos, competitions and projects, a giant poster with seasonal wildlife information and also Gloucestershire’s local newsletter 3 times a year.
Through joining a Wildlife Watch group your child can become a nature detective, take part in environmental action, get stuck into local activities, help make a future for wildlife and have fun and make friends too!
Buy Wildlife Watch Membership or get 50% off of membership for the whole family with the promo code 'Gift'!
Tweet or facebook your pledge to teach children about the wonder of nature
8. Put your best foot forward and get outside this year
There are so many great places to walk, relax and find inspiration right on our doorsteps. but we recognise that it's not always easy to find them so let us help you. Take a look on our reserves page and find a nature reserve near you to explore, or look at our top 6 winter walks.
Up for a challenge, why not grab your earlybird ticket for 2016's Walk 4 Wildlife - it promises to be a memorable day, especially as it's taking place on one of NEW flagship nature reserves - Crickley Hill! The first 75 tickets are being sold at a special earlybird rate, so why not sign up to come with us and explore this brand new and exciting reserve - what are you waiting for - get your ticket now!
Tweet or facebook your pledge to put your best foot forward
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