River clean up, volunteer thanks and more.
Love Your Chelmsford, June 2024
A video thumbnail showing a bridge over a river with a family of swans swimming on it. [
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Join the River Clean Up
The Chelmsford district is home to *five rivers*. Two of them, the Chelmer and the Can, are iconic landmarks of our city centre - and it’s important to keep them clean!
On *Saturday 8 June* join Love Your Chelmsford, paddleboarders, divers, local families and businesses in one big *community effort to clean and enhance our city centre’s waterways*.
We’ll meet at Meadows Surface car park (Can Bridge Way, CM2 0WP) at 9am and provide you with a picker, PPE, bags and a free parking pass - but with good links to cycle and foot paths, why not get your morning exercise in along the way?
*Read more on City Life* [
]
A cartoon Otter standing in front of a real photo of a river bend next to a path and trees.
Explore Chelmer Valley LNR with Harry the Otter
If you want to explore some of Chelmsford's rivers, why not try the *Chelmer Valley LNR app*?
The family-friendly app engages all ages using *quizzes*, interesting facts about the *history*, *flora and fauna* of the reserve and helps residents feel more confident when they’re walking or cycling through the area.
Chelmer Valley Local Nature Reserve, which the River Chelmer runs through and is known locally as 'the Bunny Walks', is home to a range of land types such as river margins, marshes and scrub, which provide habitats for all kinds of wildlife from frogs to kingfishers. Plus, you can learn how our parks team and volunteers maintain the area such as pond maintenance.
Find the app via QR codes at *various touchpoints* in the reserve - or *explore it online [
]*.
A sticker for 'Green Tourism Gold' over women cycling and walking through the greenery of Hylands Estate.
Hylands awarded Green Tourism Gold
Congratulations to Hylands Estate [
] for being awarded Gold status in the *Green Tourism [
]* and Green Meetings accreditation programme!
Gold status recognises the hard work of the house and parks teams for ensuring meetings and events are as *sustainable as possible* and maintain the park's *outstanding biodiversity* for generations to come.
Green Tourism accreditation recognises businesses across the UK and overseas that are actively working to become more sustainable. It *helps visitors and tourists* to easily identify businesses and attractions that are adopting environmentally responsible and ethical practices.
(Image credit: Aaron Crowe)
*Read more on City Life* [
]
Adults and children pond dipping from a wooden structure over a pond surrounded by trees.
Marconi Ponds Open Day
Marconi Ponds Local Nature Reserve held its *annual open day* on Saturday 18 May
for the local community. *Over 200 people* came along to the event and took part in the free activities, which included: crafts for children, bird box building, pond dipping, creature treasure trail, face painting and a chance to explore the area.
There were lots of creatures to find at the pond dipping: tadpoles, water beetles, dragonfly larvae, and more. 26 bird boxes - including some especially for robins - were made with the help of the youngsters, and taken home to create new homes in their back gardens.
This LNR - *Chelmsford City Council's smallest one* - is managed by the Friends of Marconi Ponds [
] with our parks team. The site is an area of wooded land and ponds in central Chelmsford, and is perfect for all kinds of wildlife including foxes, deer, small mammals and a variety of bird species.
Local people are *invited to volunteer* in the reserve, with tasks ranging from practical conservation, helping with community events on the site, to helping promote and manage the project as part of the ‘Friends’ group. If you would like to get involved, please contact *marconiponds@gmail.com.*
A collage of volunteers litter picking, planting trees, and building a hibernaculum.
Thank you to our volunteers!
It's *Volunteers Week* (3-9 June): a time for celebrating the generous people who have volunteered their time and effort to make a positive impact, and for inspiring more.
So we'd like to start the week by saying *a big thank you* to all our volunteers! Whether you're a regular litter picker or attended one parks conservation session - you've made Chelmsford a better place, for the people, the environment, and the nature around us.
This weekend is also *The Big Help Out*, a campaign encouraging the nation to lend a hand to a range of good causes, - and we have a couple of events you can join:
* Heather restoration at Galleywood Common LNR, Thursday 6 June. Register your interest. [
]
* River Clean Up, Saturday 8 June. Register your interest. [
]
A volunteer for Chelmsford Parks wearing a branded green shirt and working in tall greenery. [
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Volunteer with us
If you haven’t already signed up to volunteer with us, *join us now [
] to get involved with your local community*, meet new people, make new friends, develop your skills and help improve your local environment.
The work of volunteers helps make our parks and green spaces even better, both for the humans that visit them and for the nature that lives within them.
A ladybird on a leaf among grass, flowers and dandelions seeds. [
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Nature Watch
Do you have regular wildlife visitors to your garden or outdoor spaces? We’d love to hear about them and see your pictures or videos. If you’d be happy for us to share them, you might even see them pop up as part of Chelmsford City Council’s *#WildlifeWednesday* posts.
(Pictured: Ladybird on a leaf in Newlands Spring Play Area)
*Report your nature watch news* [
]
Space to Thrive footer - dandelions and flowers
Stretch your green fingers further
Let's go #30DaysWild! Illustrations of a fox and a bird framed by wildflowers.
As summer sets in, June is the perfect month to get outdoors and explore the wild around you. So The Wildlife Trusts [
] are encouraging all of us to do *one activity in nature each day* in June.
You can *sign up for the challenge* [
] as an individual or home, a school, a workplace, or a care home and receive a* free pack* (by email or post) including an activity booklet, a wall chart to track your wild activities, and more. Each week has a separate theme and each day an idea, or you can pursue your own.
Today's idea is 'Take a selfie with a tree' - perhaps in your local park? [
]
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This email was sent to david.dawson@trustedcarcheck.co.uk using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: Chelmsford City Council · Chelmsford Civic Centre · Duke Street, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 1JE · (01245) 606440 GovDelivery logo [
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