Jim Storey writes:
Fleet Pond Society and the Lottery-funded OPAL project is co-organising a local event at the Pond to celebrate International Biodiversity Day in this UN International Year of Biodiversity. Quite a coup for us. Hopefully we’ll be able to get lot’s of local groups there too. Please contact Colin Gray via email or phone 01252 616183 if you’d like to come along. We intend this to be an exciting ‘hands on event’. It will give everyone a chance to explain what they do and inspire more people to enjoy and care about their local environment. We’d expect to attract several hundred people and families to the event.
Any local groups are welcome to do something at this event. We’re looking for hands on stuff but if they just want to come along and explain what you do and sell a few wares then that would be good too. And most of all – bring their chums as there will be lots for everyone to do. We’d be grateful if people could display and/or pass our poster around too. If they can think of any other groups who might want to come along, please ask them on our behalf.
The event will run 11.00 to 16.00 at Fleet Pond Nature Reserve (see the website or this blog for details on the Reserve) and which is next to Fleet’s mainline station and 5mins from Junction 4a of the M3. The reserve centres around Hampshire’s largest freshwater lake which has important reedbeds, marshes as well as lowland dry heathland. It’s quite a coup to get the £12m Lottery-funded project OPAL down to Hampshire – usually their annual event is in the Royal Parks!
We’ve asked the Environment Agency if they could do some fishing-related biodiversity stuff and Natural England to do something related to the Thames Basin Heaths. The OPAL Air and Water Centres will be there. We will have a professional photographer with us from 1.30 to 2.30. So you may end up on OPAL’s website or annual report!