Our Glasgow Wild Spaces Project Officer, Claire Martin outlines her key achievements so far since the project’s inception in March this year.
The project is being run in partnership with Glasgow City Council, and Claire has been working with their Greenspace and Biodiversity Teams to start mapping out and planning the Wild Space creation in parks across the City.
Every new Wild Space will look different and be unique according to the needs of park users and the types of habitat features already in place including soil type.
Another key feature of the project is its work in schools across the city, two school Wild Spaces were created in June, with lots of enthusiastic participation from the pupils who planted wildflowers in both glorious sunshine and pouring rain! Pupils involved in the project also took part in educational workshops to learn about butterflies and moths and connect to their local nature spaces.
Claire has also spent time helping to upskill and empower local communities. She has run several butterfly ID and recording workshops, both in-person and online, for project volunteers and community groups across Glasgow. These workshops aim to build the skills and confidence to identify and record Glasgow’s butterfly species, and our volunteers will now be putting this into practice by undertaking monitoring visits to our Wild Spaces project sites.
She has also been attending and running a variety of events, including giving a talk to the Glasgow Climate Action Hub, running activities for Milton Community Garden’s summer programme, and attending a summer community event at Children’s Wood.
One of Claire’s favourite sessions was a workshop with LGBT Youth Scotland’s TYG group for trans and non-binary young people. An interactive presentation about butterflies and moths, their lifecycles, diversity, habitats and threats sparked lots of conservation from the incredibly enthusiastic group, and a follow-up visit to a local park is planned, when the young people will hopefully have a chance to see some moths and butterflies in person!
