Past Projects : Bristol Natural History Consortium

West of England City Nature Challenge 2023

City Nature Challenge (CNC) is a global mission to record as much wildlife as possible on the iNaturalist app, during a 4-day period at the end of April. During 2023, the event ran from Friday 28 April – Monday 1 May. It was the 6th year that the Natural History Consortium (NHC) has organised CNC for the West of England region.

Wildlife Friendly Gardening Workshops for Allotment Holders

In February 2023, a series of Wildlife Friendly Gardening Workshops were co-run by the Natural History Consortium and South Gloucestershire Council for local allotment holders. These training events were funded by the West of England Combined Pollinator Fund with the aim to: help allotment holders grow without chemical pesticides with suggestions of alternatives, share how to make space for nature including ideal plants for pollinators and tips on how to provide different habitats and homes for wildlife.

Overstory

Overstory was a public art installation by Ivan Morison and Heather Peak, suspended above Bristol's Broadmead high street. The installation was produced using microscopic imagery of trees, inviting the public to look consciously at the trees around them and consider their importance and the ways in which they are folded into our lives. The artwork was on display 19th - 30th August 2022, with engagement activities taking place alongside in the shopping areas below for the first seven days of the project.

Family Nature Party

A free community event, Family Nature Party, took place on Sunday 12th June in Bristol Beacon, as part of Festival of Nature 2022. The event attended by 2000 visitors, including 880 children and 1120 adults. The event included activity stalls, stage performances including storytelling, music, and talks, and craft, drama, and music workshops. The content was designed to celebrate the natural world, give families the opportunity to learn about nature, and inspire them to take action for nature.

Bristol’s Pesticide Amnesty

Held in two locations in Bristol (Redcatch Gardens and Blaise Plant Nursery), Bristol's Pesticide Amnesty took place 23rd-24th October 2021. The Pesticide Amnesty took place within the context of Bristol's One City Ecological Emergency, specifically the pesticide strand, which sets out the aspiration in the Strategy to reduce pesticide usage within the city by 50% by 2030. 85 people took part in the amnesty with 110 pesticide items handed in to be safely disposed of by Bristol Waste.

Making Connections

Our Autumn 2021 'Making Connections' project was delivered in partnership with the Black Seeds Network. Together we ran two Photovoices Workshops, which brought together ten different voices to explore their different paths to working with nature either in their professional, volunteering or academic lives. Inspired and informed by these discussions, the group shared their stories through photography as a visual medium, learning photography techniques and creating a displayed photo exhibition.

In My Nature

For many of us time outdoors was a lifeline through the Covid pandemic as we discovered the green spaces on our doorsteps, sharing these experiences online via social media. The 'In My Nature' project set out to gather and analyse user generated content on Twitter and Instagram, focusing on images depicting people ‘connecting with nature’, addressing a number of research questions. The project also set out to pilot new formats for social media photo analysis using a volunteer led approach to data processing.

Intersections European BioBlitz

In September 2021, The Natural History Consortium ran the world's very first continent-wide European BioBlitz. This was a 48-hour citizen science project, encouraging researchers and the public to work together in a race against the clock to record as much wildlife as possible. The European BioBlitz was part of INTERSECTIONS - an international collaboration for European Researchers Night.

Show and Tell

In June 2021, we worked with both undergraduate and postgraduate UWE students to co-create a 'Show and Tell' Nature hybrid event as part of the Festival of Nature. With the aid of workshops and support from the project leaders, students worked in small collaborative groups to develop engaging Show and Tell activities, encouraging viewers to take action for nature. Eight high quality films of the activities were produced and broadcast during the online festival programme, which encouraged audiences to learn about the natural world and take part at home.