As a Council we are committed to enhancing green spaces through the Wilder Horsham District programme. Over the past four years, the Wilder Horsham District initiative has been making great strides to create a Nature Recovery Network across the District. Key to this work is the development of wildlife corridors to allow species to move freely from place to place. These corridors can be long grass, scrub, woodland, water courses and ditches.
As part of this work, the Wildways Project was developed which is an umbrella term that will embrace all the opportunities to make our district richer in nature. This Project is now in its second year. As well as working closely with large landowners and community partners through our partnership with Sussex Wildlife Trust, this approach extends to Council owned and managed land.
The Wildways Project involves allowing grass to grow longer in selected parks and open spaces to support wildflowers and pollinators. By cutting selected areas of the grass less frequently, the soil becomes less fertile, and this enables the wildflowers to out-compete the grass, grow and set seed. After a number of years, the wildflowers become well established and look more abundant.
The dry start to 2025 has presented both challenges as well as opportunities for local biodiversity efforts. Over the summer be sure to look out for swathes of wildflowers such as germander speedwell, hawkbit, and yarrow which can cope with drought conditions and produces abundant nectar which is particularly important for supporting early pollinators when other nectar sources might be scarce.
Whether enduring drought or wet conditions, the resilience of some species is remarkable and shows that given the chance to flourish, our hedgerows and amenity greenspaces can also be a haven for wildlife too.