St Cuthbert’s Goes Wild

In spring 2014 Darlington Bee Cause, an alliance of local groups headed by Darlington Friends of the Earth and backed by Darlington Borough Council secured a grant from the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. This project is one of 80 project across the country to increase knowledge and understanding of why wild flower are important. Since the 1950ʼs 97 % of Britainʼs wild flower meadows have been lost due to changes in agricultural practices. Projects like this will help bees, butterflies and pollinators that thrive on the nectar and pollen of wild flowers to be part of our heritage and landscape.

St Cuthbertʼs Churchyard is the largest green space in our town centre. In the years to come it will become an important habitat for a variety of different species. We hope that you will enjoy watching the insects that will come here to forage for nectar and pollen.

After the wild flowers of summer and early autumn have finished the plants will be cut back and the foliage removed. This is the way traditional wild flower meadows have always been managed. Over time, the St Cuthbert's wild flower meadow will provide a richer and more diverse habitat for bees,  butterflies and other insects as the meadow regenerates using the seeds dropped in the previous autumn.

Darlington Friends of the Earth Co-ordinator is Award Finalist

Members of Darlington Friends of the Earth are celebrating their group’s co-ordinator, Kendra Ullyart, making the short list at the Best of Darlington Awards for her environmental campaigning.

Kendra Ullyart, right, with group Treasurer Cat McConnachie

Kendra was recognised for her achievements in making Darlington a greener and more pleasant place to live. Recent successes from Darlington Friends of the Earth have included events to highlight the plight of the bumble bee, film screenings, supporting a local farm to become more energy efficient and creating a Darlington Orchard. The group have big plans for 2014. They are to receive a Big Lottery grant to transform the grounds of St Cuthburt’s church.

Kendra said,”It is wonderful to be recognised for all the hard work that our group has put in this year. We will continue to campaign on topics as diverse as Fracking to wild flowers, road safety renewable energy. If you want to make a difference locally or globally come and join our award winning team.“

Make a difference day at the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College

Members of Darlington Friends of the Earth we invited to talk to students at the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College about how they could make a positive change to their local community while listening to which environmental issues concerned them most.

Meeting the students at the QE

Kendra Ullyart said, "We were delighted by the number of students who shared our concern for the environment. They demonstrated a good understanding of many issues. We heard how they opposed fracking, were concerned about loss of habitat for bees and felt that public transport and road safety were not taken seriously enough."

Matthew Snedker speaking about our latest campaign 'Meat Free May' said, "This campaign interested lots of those who we spoke to. They understood the link between intensive meat production and the damage to our environment. Many of them were up for a challenge!" [You can down load a challenge sheet for yourself from this blog]

Signing up for Young Friends of the Earth

We already have 3 students in our group and with the number who signed up at this event we are confident that we will soon have our very own Young Friends of the Earth group in action.

Please bear with us while this blog undergoes some reconstruction.

Darlington Friends of the Earth campaigns to protect the local, national and international environment.

Join this group to find out about events, activities and campaigns.

We meet in Friends Meeting House in Skinnergate, on the second Monday of each month at 7.30pm.

We always welcome new members to come along to see what we are doing.

Visit our facebook page to see what we are talking about and join in the conversation.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/107647951325/?ref=ts&fref=ts