Wildlife

Compost creates a healthy abundant community of creatures in the soil. This not only enhances the vitality in the soil but also helps support a lively thriving community of creatures above ground such as beetles and plants and even boosts the mineral content in our food. Healthy soil also benefits air-borne life as well, for example, the moths, the butterflies, the bees and the birds.

The Chestergate Allotments site is an important wildlife site and wildlife corridor. It hosts varieties of worms, centipedes, and other soil creatures in abundance, beetles, amphibians such as newts, toads, frogs, slow worms and grass snakes  (on the allotments) and some rare species such as the Leopard Slug. Moths, and butterflies and many varieties of farmland birds such as yellow hammer, black cap, goldfinches, chaffinch, are attracted by the dense hedgerows we encourage by not flailing, and the rich edible hedgerow we planted around the  Community Orchard.  Three years of wildlife surveys show a range of moths, four varieties of orchid, and other flora. Allotment holders plant for pollinating insects such as moths, butterflies and bees. These in turn attract four identified species of bat. 

BCCS members, the Allotment Holders, and the friends of the Community Orchard all engage with our annual BioBLITZ.

BCCS organises workshops to explore and understand life in the soil. These are held on demand especially for young people. BCCS regularly hosts visits from local schools, local Scouts groups and other community groups,  looking at microscopic soil life and the wider ecological hierarchy it supports on the Allotments and Community Orchard. One BCCS director belongs to the Master Composter network and travels the county helping similar workshops elsewhere.