Progress Report on the Wildlife in Newington Green Project - WING

Things have been moving behind the scenes with NGAG's wildlife project and we finally have a name for it:

Wildlife in Newington Green - WING

We can begin to see some action taking place, both on the Green and in the local streets. We have put up some more bird feeders on the Green before the cold weather set in and birds struggled to find food and the birds are beginning to use these. Later, we will also put up some bee nesting cylinders and insect hibernation boxes, to help butterflies, ladybirds etc to survive the next winters.

NGAG has been in discussion with Hackney and Islington tree officers, in order to plan the planting of more street trees on the pavements around the Green itself and in some nearby streets, in order to create some green corridors for wildlife and to improve the quality of life for local residents. We have created a Tree List of native species that we would like to have planted and we understand that trees have been reserved for us and some trial tree pits have already been made in the Islington area of the Green.

We now have a Tree Champion for the Hackney side of the Newington Green area and will soon be able to reserve places for new tree pits along Winston Road.

Once the trees are planted, we will be looking for tree carers to help with watering and monitoring the new trees during the first three years, when they are particularly vulnerable and need a lot of water.

In November '08, volunteers planted some spring bulbs around Newington Green's street trees in order to both make the area more attractive and to extend the season, so that insects are able to find food earlier in the year. In January '09 some of the bulbs are beginning to push up through the earth, despite the cold weather.

On 22 February '09, we will be giving out some nesting boxes and wildlife boxes to NGAG friends, so that these can be erected along our green corridors, to help bring them alive.

The WING project has been fortunate to receive support from the following organisations:

Breathing Places Big Lottery Grant - to purchase street trees and wildlife boxes for Newington Green and some local streets, in order to create green corridors, supplement habitats and help combat climate change. 

Forestry Commission Community Grant - to purchase more street trees and possibly some more bird and wildlife boxes.

02  It's your Community Award - to buy bird and wildlife boxes, so that we can put up more of these along the green corridors that we are aiming to create.

Jacobi Jayne - a discount on the purchase of bird boxes, feeders, bird food and cleaning equipment.

C J Wildbird Foods - have also given us a discount on wildlife boxes, information charts and binoculars.

B & Q - spring bulbs for underplanting  street trees

Travis Perkins - kindly donated a wheelbarrow and gave us a discount on equipment.

October 2008