Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust

THE Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust is calling on nature lovers to join the Big Wild Walk in October and raise money to help protect Britain’s wild places.

Funds raised will contribute towards the Wildlife Trusts’ goal of protecting and connecting 30 per cent of the UK’s land and sea for nature by 2030.

The trusts are undertaking a raft of projects to reverse alarming declines in wildlife and tackle the climate crisis, from restoring peatlands, chalk grasslands and sand dunes to bringing back beavers and protecting red squirrels.

In this area, BBOWT bought a 31-hectare site in the parish of Ludgershall, near Bicester, and is currently restoring rare floodplain meadow habitat which will capture carbon and boost biodiversity.

Big Wild Walkers can create their own challenge, or use the number 30 as inspiration to:

• Walk 30 minutes every day during the Big Wild Walk week (October 24 to 30).

• Walk 30km in three days.

• Walk 30km in one day.

Children can try the Hedgehog Challenge to walk 3km, the distance a hedgehog can cover in a night.

Liz Shearer, community engagement director at BBOWT, says: “Autumn is the perfect time to get out and go for a Big Wild Walk and we have more than 80 beautiful nature reserves in our three counties to explore.

“Sadly, as the record-breaking heatwave this summer reminded us, we are facing a nature and climate crisis and our nature reserves are at risk like all our wildlife.

“But joining the Big Wild Walk is a great way to raise funds for the Wildlife Trusts and help us to create more nature everywhere.”

Funds raised from the Big Wild Walk will go directly towards nature recovery projects such as beaver and water vole reintroductions, restoring wildflower meadows and planting seagrass.

To sign up to the Big Wild Walk, visit bbowt.org.uk/
take-big-wild-walk-nature-climate

Pete Hughes