We are delighted that the Southwood Foundation’s Nature Action Hub is supporting the creation of a Pollinator Highway in West Sussex. Stretching for a couple of miles over farmland, churchyard, highway verges, a village green and private gardens in the parish of Warnham in West Sussex, the pollinator highway is a nature corridor created to give wildlife a safe haven and connected habitat.

This inspiring project is a whole community initiative being taken by Wild About Warnham, led by David Bridges. David, who is passionate about butterflies, hopes the corridor will link Horsham District Council’s Warnham Nature Reserve with the informal Butterfly Fields site across the parish. Local residents, the primary school, landowners, the church and even the local pub are already enthusiastically involved.

Wild About Warnham were referred to the Nature Action Hub by the Sussex Wildlife Trust, as they were looking for mapping expertise. David said, “What we need is a digital base map showing all the potential sites and strips of land along the route of the highway so we can share this with landowners, funders and other interested parties. At the moment I only have a very crude map which I have drawn on a very large OS base map! A digitised map will also help us measure areas so we can calculate any costs of land management, wildflower seed purchases, number of hedging plants we might need, and help us track progress”.

Mapping expert Charlie Noble and colleagues from the Temple group have volunteered to help Wild About Warnham through the Nature Action Hub. Charlie and team are keen to help take this exciting project to the next level. Charlie said, “As a consultant in an environmentally driven company I am thrilled that I am able to volunteer my technical expertise to assist David in the important conservation work he is doing. I look forward to seeing how this project progresses and hope many more experts will be inspired to volunteer through the Nature Action Hub as it is such a valuable initiative.”

David feels the intervention will make a big difference. “I am so pleased the Nature Action Hub is able to help the Wild About Warnham pollinator highway project. Thank you so much.”

We look forward to seeing the results!