The Wilder Bramley group was formed in February 2022 to connect people who enjoy and appreciate nature in Bramley. The group secured the support of Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust through a joint funded programme (Wilder Basingstoke & Deane) in conjunction with Basingstoke & Deane council.

The group is the first Team Wilder community group in the borough supported through the programme, which aims to enable the community to develop schemes that benefit wildlife and people throughout their local area. We caught up with community group members to hear some of their highlights so far. 

• Developing a community Bee garden - created with plants donated and planted by members of the local community and a volunteer network was established to help maintain the garden.
• Encouraging residents to help nature in extreme weather - encouraged residents to adopt and water the newly planted trees as they were suffering from the extreme weather conditions, this was supported by a local business supplying a large water container.
• Working alongside the local Forest school teacher -  a Summer Bug Hotel competition has been put in place to engage with some of the younger residents of Bramley.
• Implementing and encouraging locals on nature walks -  that so far have included a Butterfly walk, a Bluebell walk and a Wellness walk.
• Growing their Facebook page and press coverage - their Facebook page currently has over 220 members and they have secured a regular slot in the Monthly Bramley magazine and had a guest article in the local Sherfield on Lodden magazine.

So what next for the group?

The group have been approached by the local Parish council to look at an area of land that can be enhanced, not only for nature but for residents of Bramley, the initial work on the ‘Glade Project’ has started looking at land ownership, funding streams and biodiversity.

The group is also looking at large areas of grassland in Bramley and how these can become more nature rich environments with an initial five year plan being developed.

A key aim of the group is around increasing the biodiversity of the area in which they live and a key element of this is having the ability to measure this as things develop. The group with the support of the Trust will be developing techniques to better what they already in Bramley.

Some of the longer-term projects include:

· Repair green corridors/ enhance habitats/ reducing mowing Creation of more habitats (meadows and Pond creation and cleaning waterways)

· Understand ecology of area to set meaningful future goals

· Full surveys insects/ birds / mammals

· Protect trees (e.g. TPOs)

· Work with landowners/council/ landowners to plant native hedgerows / plants

· Encourage people to build ponds and clean up the existing waterways in village