Start your day the wild way on Tuesday 1 June with butterflies, bagels, worms, waffles, toads and toast for the UK’s biggest nature challenge – 30 Days Wild! The Wildlife Trusts invite the nation to join the Big Wild Breakfast, a new, outdoor, celebration to kickstart the UK’s most popular nature extravaganza – 30 Days Wild.
The 30 Days Wild annual challenge from The Wildlife Trusts has had more than a million participants to date – a record 650,000 people took part in 2020 alone. Every year, people sign up to do a ‘random act of wildness’ every day for 30 days in June. Popular activities include listening to birdsong, taking wildlife photographs and planting seeds. 30 Days Wild is proven to boost your health, happiness and sense of connection to nature.
New for 2021! The Wildlife Trusts – a movement of 46 nature charities across the UK – is asking everyone to kick-start their own challenge with a Big Wild Breakfast outdoors on 1st June and then keep life wild for the whole month.
The Wildlife Trusts invite everyone to see how much wildlife they can spot in just 30 minutes – it’s a breakfast bio-blitz!
Register to take part in 30 Days Wild and get a FREE:
· Big Wild Breakfast nature ‘bingo’ placemat to download
· Bundle of educational and fun resources
· Top technical tips from wildlife webcam experts
· Details on how to record your breakfast bio-blitz nature spots
· Wildlife guides, how-to guides, a fun quiz event and much more.
Sign up for 30 Days Wild and get FREE activities to try at wildlifetrusts.org/30dayswild. There’s a pack of wild ideas with options for schools, care homes and businesses to take part too. Thousands of people share their own top tips and inspiration via the 30 Days Wild Facebook and Twitter communities.
In 2020, a five-year review of 30 Days Wild participants, run in conjunction with the University of Derby, found that people reported they felt happier and healthier from taking part, with positive effects lasting for up to two months afterwards.
Leanne Manchester, The Wildlife Trusts’ digital manager, says:
“One million people have enjoyed 30 Days Wild from The Wildlife Trusts so far and it’s still growing! We’re utterly thrilled that our annual nature challenge has become so massively popular and our research with the University of Derby shows how keeping it wild for the whole month of June will make you feel happier and healthier. What could be better than making time for yourself and connecting with nature for just a few moments of your day? It’s fun, free and easy – and after such a challenging year, we’ve never needed nature more!”
Mya-Rose Craig, the ornithologist and campaigner known as Birdgirl, says:
“I’m a big fan of 30 Days Wild– I love being part of the surge of enthusiasm that emanates from everyone involved! Get creative and find 30 new ways to be inspired by the beauty of the outdoors and nature or be entertained by trying out new nature activities. It is especially important if you live in the city as nature is all around, just waiting to be found. I really want to try sketching a bird this year and I can’t wait to kick-off my wild June with the Big Wild Breakfast. I plan to take out my bowl of Shreddies, alongside my binoculars which are always by my side, and enjoy a bit of garden birding while I munch.”
Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says:
“We’ll be getting outdoors for a Big Wild Breakfast in the garden on 1 June, to kickstart our family’s own 30 Days Wild. If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that people need more nature in their lives and much more of it on their own doorstep. At The Wildlife Trusts, we know there’s a huge public appetite for more contact with nature. We want to see neighbourhood nature everywhere for people to enjoy – from wilder community spaces and urban meadows alive with wildflowers and native grasses to healthier hedgerows, hedgehog superhighways and glorious nature-friendly gardens.
“30 Days Wild is an inspirational reminder to explore nature in June, to value what we’ve got, and to demand more action to restore our natural world. We need to give people easier access to the kind of vibrant, life-affirming wildness that they deserve. That’s why The Wildlife Trusts have launched our 30 by 30 appeal – to raise £30m to help protect 30% of land and sea for nature’s recovery by 2030.
Sign up for 30 Days Wild and get FREE activities to try at wildlifetrusts.org/30dayswild.
Donate to The Wildlife Trusts 30 by 30 appeal at www.wildlifetrusts.org/30-30-30
Diary dates from The Wildlife Trusts for 2021
The Wildlife Trusts has an exciting annual programme of public events aimed at helping everyone to engage with nature. Contact the press office for more information. Coming in 2021:
· International Dawn Chorus Day, Sunday, 2 May
The international celebration of the dawn chorus and birdsong
· Wild about Gardens from the RHS and The Wildlife Trusts, March
Annual themed event with activities to support more gardening for wildlife
· 30 Days Wild, June
Annual nature challenge inviting everyone to do a ‘random act of wildness’ every day in June. 1 million participants to date!
· National Marine Week, 24 July to 8 August
Annual summer celebration of our coast and seas
· Big Wild Walk, October, 2021
Fundraising challenge for The Wildlife Trusts, as part of our appeal to raise £30m to put 30% of land and sea to work for nature’s recovery by 2030.
Why putting 30% into recovery is The Wildlife Trust’ target Our campaign takes its lead from The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This is an agreement between countries based on natural and biological resources, with 3 main goals: to protect biodiversity; to use biodiversity without destroying it; and, to share any benefits from genetic diversity equally. The CBD has proposed that at least 30% of the world’s land and seas should be protected in the next decade to prevent the destruction of the planet’s biodiversity, as part of a global framework to protect the Earth’s plant and wildlife. The 30% threshold of wildlife habitat in a landscape has been worked out by looking at a range of different species and their requirements. At less than 30% cover, habitat patches are too small and isolated, and species richness (the number of species in any one area), abundance and survival rates decline. This is what has led to the UK becoming one of the most nature depleted countries on Earth. Where habitat cover is greater than 30% habitat patches will, on average, be larger and the distance between patches will typically be less, resulting in greater connectivity. This means that if local extinctions do occur, other populations of the same species can move into the area easily.
The Wildlife Trusts
The Wildlife Trusts believe that people need nature and it needs us. We are here to make the world wilder and to make nature part of everyone’s lives. We are a grassroots movement of 46 charities with more than 850,000 members and 38,000 volunteers. No matter where you are in Britain, there is a Wildlife Trust inspiring people and saving, protecting and standing up for the natural world. With the support of our members, we care for and restore special places for nature on land and run marine conservation projects and collect vital data on the state of our seas. Every Wildlife Trust works within its local community to inspire people to create a wilder future – from advising thousands of landowners on how to manage their land to benefit wildlife, to connecting hundreds of thousands of school children with nature every year. wildlifetrusts.org
