Trail site 7

Young Roots at Red Kite’s Barrowcroft Sheltered Housing River Site in October 2016

Click on the video below to see what went on at this fun session.

Our third Young Roots Conservation Village, at Red Kite’s Barrowcroft Sheltered Housing Site was probably the busiest! We worked with the resident gardening team to design the improvements and we had great fun with people from so many generations and backgrounds working together to:

• Bring light back to the river by felling, pollarding and trimming back a number of trees
• Using the woodchip to cover the flower beds around the site
• Make a green wall
• Revitalise the small wildlife area planting hundreds of bluebells
• Create a wildlflower meadow, planting woodland bulbs and wildflower seed aiming for colour and nectar for pollinators from Spring to Autumn
• Make films including oral history interviews with residents and a how to feed ducks information video with the Highway Production team’s support
• Create large scale wildlife art work with Dan Wilson’s guidance
• Make, paint and put up 14 bird and bat boxes made, painted and put up

We were all fed well by Sadia’s Wycombe Youth Action campfire cooking team.

Teamwork!

The project was a huge team effort and received 78 young people and 41 adult volunteer days worth of support. Lots of residents also visited us to find out what was going on and to have a chat.

It was great to have a group of Bucks Young Carers join us on the first day, the WISE scout group on both days and some of the many professional volunteers from Red Kite Housing, Tesco, Bucks Search and Rescue and Chilterns Conservation Board.

Young and older people learnt new skills, worked as a team and had fun together. 

Our thanks also goes to Tesco for donating the food for the camp fire cooking and to Wickes for the donation of £200 worth of materials.

As well as the main funders, we are also thankful to Marsh and Micklefield Big Local and Rivers and Wetlands Community Days who also supported these Trail Site days.

One of the aims of the project was to get younger and older people working  and having fun together. Keep an eye out on the events page on our website for further activities.