Wild About Erewash logoA greener borough, it’s in our nature

The council is encouraging people to get involved with its Wild About Erewash campaign.

The key benefits of rewilding in Erewash are:

  • Improving health and wellbeing: Rewilding open spaces boosts people’s wellbeing by encouraging them to use their green spaces more and get closer to nature.
  • Improving biodiversity: Rewilding aims to promote biodiversity, restore ecosystem health and create more resilient functioning ecosystems in the face of environmental challenges and climate change. The council has secured funding to offset biodiversity loss at Manor Floods Local Nature Reserve in Ilkeston and adjacent land.

  • Reducing our carbon footprint: There are several environmental benefits that come with rewilding including a reduction in fuel and the use of chemical weed killers

Erewash’s open spaces

The habitats and wildlife found across Erewash – where the council is responsible for 100-plus parks and open spaces – reflect the borough’s geology and landscape plus its rich history as an industrial heartland.

The Erewash Valley contains 650 acres (260 hectares) that the borough council is responsible for – ranging from much-loved urban parks to nature reserves.

The area prides itself on having so much precious greenery on its doorstep. But our vital connections with Mother Nature are under threat from climate change. The council aims not only to mitigate this jeopardy but to reverse the impact of human interference on our natural surroundings.

Where to find the rewilding sites

Residents will soon be able to look out for information boards at eight rewilding sites. These are:

  • Petersham open space, Long Eaton
  • Bare Lane, Ockbrook
  • Dallimore Road, Kirk Hallam
  • Wyndale Drive, Kirk Hallam
  • Barling Lagoon, Ilkeston
  • Beauvale Drive, Cotmanhay
  • Granby Park, Cotmanhay
  • Larklands, Ilkeston.

Play areas on all sites will be mown around to allow a five-to-six-foot strip of separation from the long grass.

In havens such as Ilkeston’s Victoria Park and Long Eaton’s West Park, visitors will notice a new more natural look as the emphasis moves away from formal bedding displays.

The following areas will be maintained as they were previously:

  • Sports pitches
  • All cemeteries and churchyards
  • Noskwith Play Area in Ilkeston.
  • Areas surrounding Chalons Way in Ilkeston.
  • Sawley Community Centre.
  • Belvoir Close, Breaston.
  • Long Eaton Library.
  • Waverley Street, Long Eaton.
  • Town centre car parks.
  • The grounds of the borough’s leisure centres.
  • Erewash Museum grounds, Ilkeston.
  • Ilkeston Town Hall and Long Eaton Town Hall.

Pewit Coronation Meadows LNR

The council is investing in a brand-new 25-acre natural haven on the edge of Ilkeston and adjacent land. Some of the funding for the Pewit Coronation Meadows Local Nature Reserve comes from a government levelling-up money called the Shared Prosperity Fund. The rest comes from Section 106 money allocated to offset biodiversity loss at the New Stanton Park development and improve the biodiversity of Manor Floods Local Nature Reserve and adjacent area.

Environmental benefits

  • Diversifying grasslands: A good variety of different floral species means that there are roots at a range of depths in the soil. This means that the plants will take up nutrients from the soil at a range of depths, rather than in a conventional monoculture where everything can have shallow roots that take all the nutrients from the same depth, leaving the top soil horizons nutrient-depleted.
    Plant species with deeper roots create channels/pores running deep into the soil profile. This helps to improve the soil porosity, enabling it to drain and store water from the surface more easily and thus contributing to flood resilience. The deeper-rooting plants also take up water from deeper in the soil horizon, helping to lower the water table and thus allowing for more water storage in the soil in times of high rainfall.
    A diverse sward with a variety of root structures helps to increase inputs of organic carbon into the subsoil via release from the roots. This helps to increase carbon storage in the soil and also encourages the soil to form ‘clods’ or aggregates, which help to store the carbon in a stable way within the soil.

  • The mission to be more environmentally friendly will not only see less formal planting– but will mean a reduction in the use of weed killer. Chemicals such as glyphosate will be avoided on verges, which will be mown less often.

  • The council’s carbon emissions will be cut.

  • Flood risks could be helped to be reduced – thanks to rewilded areas absorbing more rainfall. The council is committed to planting more trees and plans to do this through securing external funding. Roots suck up excess water – while trees and meadows absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen.
Find out more on the climate change page.

FAQS 

To keep residents informed we have put together a list of frequently asked questions about what it all means.