Earlier this year a group of student volunteers from York St. John University, supported by York BTCV youth team, learnt that their GreenPrints bid to regenerate an area of greenfield land along the cycle route in York was successful!
GreenPrints is a partnership of five of the country’s leading not-for-profit organisations, offering funding and practical support for greenspace improvement projects carried out by young people aged 16-25.
The York St. John GreenPrints Flagship Project has now celebrated the completion of the new community garden for local residents to enjoy, which gave the volunteers new practical skills such as turf-laying, fencing, creating a footpath, as well as experience recruiting volunteers, marketing and event managing. Within the garden the group planted wildflowers, orchard trees, and created a seating area. The group have also benefited from a first aid course and willow weaving training.
The students from St John’s University were joined by volunteers from Huntington Sixth Form, Joseph Rowntree Secondary School and members of the local community, this has so far totalled 245 practical work days (and we haven’t added up all the behind the scenes hours yet!).
A big well done and thank you to everyone involved!
Getting crafty for Christmas
The Huntington Sixth Form celebrated their last Youth ACE project of 2009 with a Christmas decoration session with 35 pensioners from the local community.
The group now more familiar with a spade than with Christmas decorations put down their tools to help the pensioners make christingles, wreaths, Christmas stars and table decorations using locally collected natural materials.
Whilst enjoying their tea and biscuits, the pensioners also heard all about what had been happening at the allotment, and with the other green projects the group had got involved with this term.
For more information on the Youth ACE Volunteering Project please contact us york@btcv.org.uk.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Joseph Rowntree pick for the day
The group had a fantastic day and worked really hard pulling litter from all sorts of places on this WW2 disused airfield. They then weighed their rubbish at the local tip and found they had collected over 100kg of rubbish. Well done everyone. http://www.thebigtidyup.org
03 Platoon mission
Fifty young soldiers from Harrogate Army Foundation College, 03 Platoon, kitted themselves in overalls, goggles and rubber gloves for their mission to remove graffiti from over 100 meters of pipe along part of York’s’ cycle path. The clear up took two days and now it looks very different, well done 03 Platoon!
Like everywhere else in the UK, York has its fair share of graffiti problems, but thanks to Harrogate AFC they at least have young people prepared to do something about it.
Local residents joined in with the event and they are hoping that the rest of the community gets the message that graffiti is 'simply not on'.
The project was supported by Greenprints, an England-wide volunteering programme which offers funding and practical support for greenspace improvement projects carried out by young people aged 16-25.
BTCV and GreenPrints boosts green-space in Rawcliffe
A group of young volunteers joined the regular BTCV conservation volunteers yesterday to carry out woodland management work at Rawcliffe Bar Country Park. The six students from the University of York got involved with a BTCV GreenPrints event which regenerated a piece of woodland near the Park and Ride. The £1000 GreenPrints funding boost enabled the group to get involved with thinning out goat willow trees to allow other species to gather more light. The coppiced willow will regrow and create a dense understorey suitable for small mammals and invertebrate. The volunteers received training in tree felling techniques and used new tools that had been purchased through the grant.
GreenPrints is a partnership of five of the country’s leading not-for-profit organisations that is providing funding and support projects, dedicated to helping young people improve green spaces in our communities.
SITA Trust, v the youth volunteering charity, BTCV, The Wildlife Trusts and the BBC’s Breathing Places campaign, have joined forces to run one of the most integrated, supportive and intuitive funding programmes in the country. The £2 million GreenPrints programme is funded by SITA Trust and v, through the Match Fund programme.
Ruth Cantrell, the BTCV Senior Project Officer said, “It was great to see enthusiastic volunteers from BTCV’s regular group and also from the university. The students appreciated the extra training that they were given as most of them are new to practical conservation. Thinning out the willow will, in the long term, increase the biodiversity of that part of Rawcliffe Bar Country Park. BTCV run practical conservation events throughout the year and volunteers young and old are always welcome.”
St John's Uni Flagship project goes digital!
A group of student volunteers from York St. John University, supported by York BTCV youth team, have received nearly £9,000 in funding from GreenPrints to regenerate an area of greenfield land for the local community.
GreenPrints is a partnership of five of the country’s leading not-for-profit organisations, offering funding and practical support for greenspace improvement projects carried out by young people aged 16-25.
The York St. John GreenPrints Flagship Project is enabling students to acquire new skills such as turf-laying, fencing, creating a footpath, recruiting volunteers, budgeting, marketing and event managing. Within the garden the group will be planting wildflowers, orchard trees, and creating a seating area. The project culminates in a celebration event at the end of November, by which time there will be a new community garden for local residents to enjoy.
Check out there project here on youtube....
Tansy task
Congratulations to 15 Platoon from the Harrogate AFC!
The fifty young soldiers coppiced over a hundred meters of willow, pulled thousands of himalayan balsalm plants and raked an area along the river bank to make way for the Tansy Fern and Tansy Beetle in Fulford.
The River Ouse in York provides the only home in the UK for the Tansy Beetle. The Tansy is an attractive bright green leaf beetle, with a coppery sheen. It received its name because the favoured habitat is on riverbanks on Tansy (tanacetum vulgare) plants.
A Parish Council spokesperson said "I am absolutely thrilled to bits about what they got done. It all looks fantastic. I shall always remember that picture of those young soldiers marching along in their bright red tops, camouflage ruck-sacks on their backs and rakes, saws, etc. in their hands. It was a sight to behold!"
The project was supported by Greenprints, an England-wide volunteering programme which offers funding and practical support for greenspace improvement projects carried out by young people aged 16-25.
Planting up the village
A big 'Well Done' to the students of Joseph Rowntree School and Huntington School who have spent a day planting native wildflower plugs in New Earswick creating a fantastic place for both the wildlife and the community in the village. Flowers such as chickory, sweet violet, marsh marigold and greater woodruff will brighten up the area all year round.
The project was supported by Greenprints, an England-wide volunteering programme which offers funding and practical support for greenspace improvement projects carried out by young people aged 16-25.
Spuds are up!
The Huntington Sixth Form are back in action with their Youth ACE project! They have harvested their second batch of spuds and are now ready for the winter vegetables. Busily planning lots of things they want to create to help the local wildlife, clearing out the pond, sourcing logs for benches and organising a first aid course! For more information on the Youth ACE Volunteering Project see here.
Rawcliffe Rescue
A team of dedicated volunteers took on a care home garden in York and transformed it into a flowering beauty. The team volunteered for four days and got stuck into planting a range of flowers and grasses, creating a footpath, a compost bin, a rockery and clearing over 6 tonnes of weeds! Well done to everyone, especially to those of you who got your Duke of Edinburgh sections signed off.
The volunteers were taking part in the Youth ACE Volunteering project in York.
The Youth ACE project is free and works with new and existing groups of young people aged between 13 and 18 to create and develop their own projects connected to the environment. Their projects may be hands on such as transforming an unused area into a sensory garden, cleaning up graffiti and installing a graffiti board or it could be thought provoking such as creating a leaflet to encourage local people to recycle; the possibilities are endless. See more at www.btcv.org/yorkyouth
Orchard Regeneration project
Well done to all of the young people who worked really hard improving the community orchard in Fulford as part of a SITA Greenprints project.
They cleared the undergrowth surrounding the fruit trees and removed some hazel saplings. Habitats piles were created to encourage insects and small mammals into the area too. The fence was sanded and painted in a preservative and any nails protruding were removed. At the end we celebrated with a BBQ in the sunshine.
Youth ACE Volunteers Celebration
27 St Peter’s pupils and staff sprang into action for a conservation project on Leeman Road Millennium Green, recently organised by local charity BTCV.
After a week of magnificent weather and lots of hard work by the pupils the project concluded with the Mayor, Councillor John Galvin and the Sheriff of York, Mrs Jill Burnett coming to see what had been achieved during the week.
The St Peter’s pupils were also joined by visiting exchange pupils from a school in Maryland in the United States.
‘As well as helping the local community, we always use this week to develop some skills for life,’ said Jane Dawson, Head of Community Action at St Peter’s, ‘so as well as learning what it takes to keep public spaces looking good pupils also undertook a First Aid course’.
‘We couldn’t have done this without this number of helping hands,’ added BTCV Youth and Community Project Officer, Naomi Large. ‘This is the third year of our Youth ACE Volunteering project which is aimed at engaging young people aged 13-18 in volunteering for their local community through environmental projects. The pupils have challenged themselves and tried a wide variety of activities from making habitat piles and painting a dipping platform to repairing a mosaic and having a giant litter pick; they even had time to fit in a First Aid Course and John Muir Award too. They have created a fantastic space for the local people to use and we hope to be able to work with the school again in the future’.
Leeman Road Big Tidy Up
The Leeman Road Big Tidy Up was a great success with 28 young people collecting 32 bags of rubbish off the site! It was a very hot day but everyone really worked hard and cleared the site of litter. One young person said "I never come down to this site but I think I'll bring a picnic in the summer."
Well done to everyone.
http://www.thebigtidyup.org
Students have a splashing time!
Students from St John's University took part in a two day residential camp at Hackfall Woods funded by Greenprints.
There is something about the wild splendour of Hackfall Woods that simply inspires creativity. Nineteenth century writers hailed it as one of the most beautiful woodlands in the country while romantic landscape artist Turner painted in the woods. Set in a 350ft gorge on the edge of Grewelthorpe, the site was bought in 1731 by John Aislabie, famous for his landscaping work at nearby Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal.
The students cleared fallen trees and overgrown areas along the footpath, creating habitat piles. The students splashed around in the stream and a lot of debris was removed, including fallen trees, old stones, dead wood, a Victorian bridge and some paths of the stream needed to be unblocked totally to allow the water to again flow in the direction it was intended to all those years ago.
Over 800 meters of stream and footpath were cleared over the two days. After the work was completed the stream was again visible from the footpaths and view points. We camped over the weekend in Nidderdale AONB and the group deserved their reward, a chilli con carne, live music (!!) and a campfire in a full size roundhouse listening to tawny owls.
Greenprints is an England-wide volunteering programme which offers funding and practical support for greenspace improvement projects carried out by young people aged 16-25.
York Volunteering Week
Students from all over York took part in York Volunteering Week with York BTCV. We had groups painting a fence at a community orchard, a school growing butterfly friendly species to plant in hanging baskets and students for St John's University took part in a residential camp involving stream and footpath clearance on a SSSI site. Well done everyone you made it a fantastic week.
Be Nice to Nettles Week
The Nidderdale AONB Young Rangers decided to celebrate Be Nice to Nettles Week after starting our butterfly project - and we all know butterflies love nettles.
We found that you can make string out of nettles and also bed sheets, soup and tea. In the end we made soup and string. The soup Richard make was so delicious it was given 10 out of 10!!!!!
Nettle Fact: The sting of our native nettle is nothing compared to some of its tropical cousins! One species in Timor causes a burning sensation and symptoms like lockjaw which can last for days or weeks.
The effects of another species from Java last for months and have frequently caused the death of some of its unfortunate victims.
Nettle Fact: The stinging structure of the nettle is very similar to the hypodermic needle although it predates that man-made invention by millions of years! Each sting is actually a hollow hair stiffened by silica with a swollen base that contains the venom. The tip of this hair is very brittle and when brushed against, no matter how lightly, it breaks off exposing a sharp point that penetrates the skin and delivers its stinging payload.
Clifton Backies Big Tidy Up
A group of students from York have had enough of rubbish and just to prove how much they loathe litter, a group of Year 10 students from Archbishop Holgate School visited Clifton Backies on 11th May and picked up junk, with the help of environmental volunteering charity BTCV. By their actions they aimed to show the rest of the community how big a problem litter is, and to encourage them to start disposing of it properly.
Lime Tree Butterfly Survey
The Nidderdale AONB Young Rangers are Springing into Action!
The group of 7- 16 year olds started their Lime Tree Farm butterfly survey by painting accurate pictures of butterflies ready for our Fluttery Farm Trail. They then went into their survey field and recorded four different types of butterfly, Molly even found a pupae.
The group run by the Youth and Community team in York are looking forward to many fluttery activities and are even taking part in the 'Be Nice to Nettle Week' on the 23rd May to highlight the importance of nettles to butterflies.
York is getting ready for spring
BTCV joined forces with Huntington Sixth Form in York to clean up a disused railway line in time for spring. The students who are taking part in the Youth ACE Volunteering project cleared the area in New Earswick ready for the big bloom.
On Thursday a group of young people from York also removed graffiti from the ‘blue pipes’ along the Wiggington Road section of the cycle path and planted some wildlife friendly plants to make the area more appealing.
Well done everyone!!!
Leeman Looks Lovely
Volunteers in York cleared a stretch of footpath overgrown with grass and re-surfaced to make it easier for pushchairs to go up and down the slope. Young people aged between 16-25 from the local area came and helped the Leeman Road Millenium Green volunteers. The project was supported by Greenprints, an England-wide volunteering programme which offers funding and practical support for greenspace improvement projects carried out by young people aged 16-25.
Going Underground!
The Nidderdale AONB Young Rangers went underground to discover the world of lead mining at Gillfiled Mine, Greenhow Hill. They discovered how Greenhow Hill was created during the Ice Age, why Greenhow Hill got it's name, how they got lead out of the ground and the techniques used for mining lead in the 18th Century. The Young Rangers had so much fun and want to say a really big thank you to Paul from the Gillfield Mine Friends of Group for allowing us this amazing experience.
Over the past few sessions the Young Rangers have been looking into the history of mining in Greenhow with support from the Greenhow Trust. For pictures of the Young Rangers carving stone and visiting the mine go to our Flickr page.
Fluttery Fantastic
Huntington Sixth Form students in York created a fantastic butterfly garden ready for the birds and bees of spring. The project was kindly supported by Greenprints and provided lots of plants such as Echinacea, Rubekia and Echinops!
An amazing garden in Acomb
Eight young people volunteered through the Youth ACE Volunteering project to transform an unused patio into a fabulous new garden. They painted benches, laid a path, planted hundreds of bulbs, swept paths, built two arbours, created a flower bed and volunteered for lots of other jobs in the garden. The garden will now be used by the residents of the respite centre to have tea and look at all of the different flowers. To top it off the young people all passed a First Aid Course on their last day of the half term.
Well done to everyone!!
Want to see our article in York Press then check here .
Bronze Youth Achievement Award
A group of 16-19 year olds in York are setting a number of Challenges to gain their Bronze Youth Achievement Award. The Crossroads group are challenging themselves by learning about new tools, developing new skills, doing a first aid course, working as a team and being very creative with paint brushes. As groups, they have decided to construct an allotment bed, paint a seascape in a disused corridor, plant an orchard of fruit trees, build a compost bin and have designed a giant ashtray. The groups are to contribute 60 hours of their time creating their ideas ready for an open day in Spring. Watch this space!
Eco-dating
Our third Eco-dating event was held in York on the 7th February 2009, just in time for Valentines Day. We had a crisp, winter's day and planted over 400 trees at New Earswick Nature Reserve in York.
Over 140 people enquired about the event and the lucky few had a fantastic day, with 7 dates arranged, love was in the air in York.
Participants had a short introduction on how to use the tools and equipment for the environmental project and then were divided up into pairs. They then had ten minutes with each other giving them enough time to chat to their date whilst helping the environment. After ten minutes a bell rang and they moved on to meet another date.
Country Living Magazine has chosen BTCV as their Charity of the Year 2009 and is supporting us in many different ways, including our Eco-Dating event alongside their 'Farmer wants a Wife' campaign.
If you would like to take part in our next Eco-Dating event click here to be added to
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