News

The second Shaping Spaces programme starts on Wednesday 13th April.

It is a 12 week course for 16-25 year olds and runs on Wednesday and Thursdays, 10am-3.30pm.

During the course participants will learn practical horticultural and conservation skills as well as having an opportunity to work on personal goals such as confidence building, working with others and CV writing. 

The sessions will be a mix of indoor at Culture Fusion and outdoor at community and wildlife settings in Bradford.

We are planting near Roper Lane, Queensbury this Friday.

We will be on a hillside so make sure you have supportive footwear. 

The new task programme will be ready soon  - keep an eye on the volunteer programme page as dates are confirmed. 

September sees the 30th anniversary of BEES delivering environmental education activities in Bradford.

We will kick off our celebration with cake at BEES Urban Nature Reserve on Tuesday 15th September 2.30-4.30pm. 

We will also aknowledge the landmark achievement at the Orchard on Friday 18th September. We have our conservation task there that day so drop in at any time between 11am and 3pm, though best bet for cake would be lunch time. 

A date for your diary - Sunday 18th October 12 noon til 4pm at the orchard.

Keep up to date with information about the event on the Apple Day page. 

The next task programme is not quite ready but should be with you soon. Please look at the Conservation Volunteer page for the tasks we have been able to schedule. 

The task on Friday 27th March will be at Parkside Centre.

We will be building more raised beds, filling them with soil and planting some vegetables.

The TeamWe had a very successful residential weekend 27th February to the 1st of March.

We were made welcome at Arnside Independent Hostel, but most importantly we were able to make a real difference to the woodland management at Hutton Roof Crags, working with Cumbria Wildife Trust. 

Read the report here, and see pictures in the gallery. There are also some pictures on the Facebook page. Thanks to Patrick for sharing his. 

The residential was subsidised by a kind donation and grant funding from Four Winds Trust. This grant is enabling us to run Wildlife Wanders sessions; getting people out of the City and into the countryside. 

Don't forget we are setting off at 9.30am on Friday.

We are travelling beyond Marsden to assist Forest of Bradford with a White Rose Forest planting scheme at Butterly Reservoir.

BEES have completed a six week Forest Skills programme with Silver Pathways from Dixons Allerton Academy at Stony Ridge Plantation. The project aims to bring young people closer to outdoor spaces in their local area by using practical skills in a woodland setting. In the six weeks the young people have learnt how to light a fire, wood carving skills, tracking animal skills, making bird boxes and den making.

Here are some of the comments from the young people at the end of the project:-

'I have learnt the three elements of fire and that there is a tree called the Silver Birch Tree which you can drink its sap and use the skin to make a fire with it. I also learnt how to build a birdhouse' 'I wish I could stay longer here in the woodland or come again sometime'. Qasim

What have you enjoyed the most? 'Tracking the deer in the snow, I got to see one too.' Ateeq.

Stony Ridge Plantation is owned by Hallmark Cards and is used as a base for outdoor education for the benefit of people around the Bradford District.

The entire programme was funded by The Evan Cornish Foundation:- http://www.evancornishfoundation.org.uk/

Click here to view pictures in our gallery of the 6 week programme with Dixons Allerton Academy.

On Friday 6th Feb BEES had an exploratory work day at Bolton St James. The church, on Bolton Road, has received funding from Bradford East Area Committee’s Area Action Plan Communities funding for the Bolton and Undercliffe Ward.

BEES are supporting an active group within the church to design an area that local residents and organisations can use for food growing. We are helping make a start on some of the heavier work to reprofile the ground and install growing beds. 

A report from Friday, and some pictures will appear later in the week.