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Parkland and butterflies

David McCann   Thu 15 Oct 2020

By,Ross McIIwrath, Reserve Warden, at WWT Castle Espie.

Parklands are fantastic spaces for wildlife; particularly invertebrates. They often have a mosaic of different habitats which make them brilliant for local biodiversity; wildflower meadows, mixed woodland with mature trees and small rivers or ponds. These habitats are brilliant for insects, which in turn is great for our common bird species like Robins and Blue Tits. Parklands are often planted up with beautiful flowers which can be great for pollinating insects. Butterflies are some of our most conspicuous pollinators and many are commonly seen in our parklands.

Mature woodland is a scarce habitat in Northern Ireland. Many of the trees in our parks can be hundreds of years old, which makes them a great resource for wildlife. As these woods are used by people there tends to be lots of sunny glades and open woodland edges. This is great habitat for one our commonest summer Butterflies, the Speckled Wood.

Speckled Woods are a medium sized butterfly with a brown base colour, but “speckled” with creamy blotches and black eyespots, on both their upper and underwings. They are commonly seen on woodland edges, glades and over hedgerows from May to September. Almost counter-intuitively, the caterpillars feed on grasses on the woodland floor, but the adult butterflies need sunny areas to search for food and mates. Male Speckled Woods will be very territorial. They can be seen patrolling their own patch, chasing off other males and attempting to woo females. Sunny patches are a prized commodity and are hotspots for feeding aphids. This is vital for Speckled Woods as although they can nectar on flowers, they mainly feed on honeydew produced by the aphids! Very easy to spot along woodland paths across Northern Ireland, especially in parkland.

Another woodland specialist is the less common Holly Blue Butterfly. As the name suggests, Holly Blue caterpillars feed on Holly. Holly is a slow growing species and a lot of mature Holly Trees can be seen in our parks. And as the name also suggests, they are pale powder blue colour, with small black markings.

Holly Blue flies earlier in the year than most butterflies, April – June. They tend to fly above head height. They are easy to identify as they are Northern Ireland’s only blue butterfly that behaves in this way. Historically confined to the South of County Down but are beginning to spread North and Westwards in recent years. So now an important butterfly to look out for and record in our Parks.

Other conspicuous butterflies to be seen in the Spring and late Summer our; Peacock, Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell. All these species are common in Northern Ireland. They are strong fliers and can travel long distances to find flowers to nectar on and search for mates. All three species need nettles for their caterpillars, so those nettle patches often seen in the corners of parks are paramount to keep these beauties in our parks; Peacocks are large, red with bright blue spots (like a Peacock). Red Admiral are large, black, with red/pink stripes on their shoulder (like an admiral). Small Tortoiseshell are slightly smaller than the other two, have a base of orange, but have a medley of other colours when observed up close; black, yellow and blue. All these species can be seen in open, sunny areas in our parklands, where nectar rich flowers are abundant.

Photo credit; Jonathon Clark

How can a park help you as a student or young person?

David McCann   Thu 15 Oct 2020

By Polly Vance

With the growth of our cities and urban population, it is important to understand the benefits that can come from going to local parks and green space. Although there is a variety of positive impacts which can come from using parks, some of are more beneficial to students and the younger population.

Going to parks in an urban area can provide physical and mental benefits to a person. This can come from using the space actively or passively, exercising or just sitting on a bench and taking in nature. Since the lockdown, we have been able to appreciate nature more, especially when we can’t have access to it. If a student or young person is able to access parks between classes, it has been shown in a variety of studies that it can improve cognitive ability and information retention. This can overall help their studies and homework, helping them through school.

It is well known that going to the park can make a significant your stress levels. Nature gives a calming affect to a person, helping with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Students can experience high stress levels while at university, so going to the park regularly can help control this. Also, if a young person or student uses parks between there classes it improves their attention capacity for class afterwards.

Additionally, when you visit parks regularly, there is evidence that this boosts mood.

This means if you go to a park when you are upset or worried, it could help improve your mood and make you happier.

Lastly, students and young people are considered to have a poorer quality of life, according to several studies often not eating well or doing enough exercise. This is likely down to them living away from home for the first time . It has been shown that through regular access to parks and green space a person is more likely to make better life decisions regarding their health. This should mean that if a young person or student regularly goes to a park, they would feel like making better health decisions through eating better and exercising because they’re more motivated.

Overall, if you feel low or stressed, want to improve your mental health doing something as simple as going to the park can help. Parks and green space are considered to be the lungs of a city but they can be more than just environmentally beneficial. Parks help everyone to both feel better mentally and facilitate people being physically active.

By Jilly Dougan, Food for Thought Project Officer

The benefits of getting out into green spaces and closer to nature have been well researched and documented. It’s a huge benefit for physical and mental wellbeing, giving us a sense of belonging and connectedness. Belonging to a community garden or allotment association can elevate that ‘feel-good’ factor to a whole other level.

There is something elemental in growing food; to be able to produce something through your own efforts and the wonder of nature is empowering, bringing out the hunter/gatherer/farmer in all of us. It gives the grower a feeling of taking back some sort of control when other aspects of life can be chaotic and stressful. In her book ‘The Well Gardened Mind’, Sue Stuart-Smith tells us “When we go out to gather fruits, flowers and other garden produce our anticipation of reward stimulates an energising dopamine release much as it propelled our Palaeolithic ancestors out of their caves”!

Food is an area where people can choose to make changes which will result in not just physical and mental health benefits but sustainability and environmental benefits too.

Michael Kelly from the organisation GIY believes that when people grow food, the result is a phenomenon known as ‘food empathy’….

“A deeper understanding of food, where it comes from, how it is produced, and the time and effort required. An understanding of seasonality and the lifecycle of 'growth-decay-growth' which is so central to life on this planet.”

It can also waken our palate to a whole new world of flavour which is virtually unobtainable when we shop automatically with large retailers. These industry giants, by their nature, have to purchase for volume, long shelf life and supply chain efficiency. The flavour of something that’s just picked and grown organically is incomparable.

Food growing areas are not just about the produce that is grown though. Undoubtedly the excitement of harvesting something you have sown and nurtured over time is real. Being able to share that just-picked produce with family or friends and neighbours to make a delicious and nutritious meal is very satisfying. Environmentally these green productive spaces provide for biodiversity, are important wildlife habitats, absorb excessive water run-off quickly mitigating local flooding and act as carbon sinks especially where native tree planting and wildlife garden areas are encouraged.

Allotments and community gardens are spaces which also allow people to socialise in a non-confined environment. Sometimes they can be the focus for community events, cooking classes, educating local children about nature and wildlife and so much more. Gardeners belong to a community that more often than not is diverse in terms of age, sex, religion, race and socio-economic background. For people who feel isolated they can be an incredibly important link to the outside world.

So allotments, community gardens and productive green spaces, in urban or rural settings are so much more than they might appear at first glance. If I was the person in charge they would be pre-requisite for planning applications.

John's Story

David McCann   Wed 14 Oct 2020

We would like you to take a few minutes to read this story, it is a story that deserves to be read and told over and over again as it will emboldened your belief in the power of parks and green spaces and community gardening. This is the story of John, the 2019 Green Flag Award Volunteer of the year.

John has spent the past 2 years bringing beauty to the village of Toome. In the cold, dark days of Winter he says only the thought of the exuberance of Spring and the lush colours of Summer kept him going. It was from here that his imagination ran wild until he settled on how he and the other volunteers could bring colour to their own community. Hanging baskets! A simple idea but one that can make the place brighter. As the temperatures raised the workload increased and the team of volunteers, tirelessly hand planted over 60 hanging baskets with care. Within moments of selling them to the community their popularity boomed.

John doesn’t just have a knack for decorating beautiful baskets he is also a remarkable salesman he wasn’t just selling hanging baskets however; to each and every customer he sold the beauty and the benefits of the community allotment garden.

John has personally reaped the physical and mental rewards that getting involved in a community garden can bring and he has made it his calling to involve as many as possible.

John’s story has been one of struggle and determination; and its impact has been personal and public.

John came to the community garden at a time of personal difficulty. Through volunteering in the garden he regained physical and mental strength and in doing so has had a massive positive impact on his own wife and child. His wife couldn’t believe the positive impact the garden had, as she truly had believed her husband had suffered irrevocably. After a period of time, he re-entered education, at Greenmount and used the garden as a place to practice the theory he learned and also as an area to experiment with ideas for the projects he was undertaking. In June 2019 he graduated Greenmount college and credits volunteering in the community garden as the source of his strength and determination.

John’s story has been a source of inspiration to the other volunteers and patrons of the community garden and has inspired them to continue to their efforts even on the hardest, coldest and darkest of days.

John suffered a severe stroke which had a debilitating effect physically and mentally. He had to give up his work, and became more withdrawn from public life. Things were bleak. His family often recall about how down he was during this period and how they were unsure what their future would look like.

That was until he became involved in the garden. Little by little both physically and mentally he regained his strength. When he first came to the garden his motion was very slow and he required a walking stick, now they have to insist that he doesn’t lift as many baskets and flowerboxes and to slow down! His strength and mobility has improved incredibly. In addition to this his great humour has returned and he often leaves the volunteers in stitches to the point where they can’t get any work done!

He insists he hasn’t overcome his obstacles but that he overcomes them every single day and desires to help other in his situation to do so similarly.

Through the local community group TIDAL, who are a Healthy Living Alliance Centre, the local health care providers and the Stroke Association of Northern Ireland together they are in the process of creating a stroke support group to be based in the community garden. The only one in the area.

He truly has made his obstacles his opportunities and he is now determined to help others do the same with theirs.

John is a volunteer at Duneane Allotment Garden, part of the Green Flag Award Community Site at Canal Walk, Toome.

There are 5 Green Flag Award Community sites managed by community groups in Northern Ireland. These are a mix of historical sites, pocket parks, allotments and even a cemetery!

Community green spaces are found in the heart of towns, villages and communities all over the country, we know there are many more out there that could become involved in the award. If you would like more information on how you and your community space could get involved

If you would like more details on TIDAL Healthy Living Alliance Centre please contact tidal_toome@hotmail.com.

Dame Mary Peter’s "little bit of heaven"

David McCann   Tue 13 Oct 2020

By Dame Mary Peters

My favourite Green Space is the Mary Peters Track at Upper Malone Road in Belfast. It is my little bit of heaven. The natural amphitheatre embraces a synthetic running track, which is well used by schools clubs and individuals surrounded by walking paths and a BMX track with easy access to the tow path for those who want to take longer walks. There are some Oak trees which were a special gift to me and I have thoroughly enjoy watching them grow and mature.

I take great pride in taking visitors to see the track in it’s beautiful setting which is my pride and joy. If you have never visited, you haven’t lived. In these unusual times put it on your must visit list.

I thought you might enjoy this picture of some of the visitors to the Track.

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