Team Wilder Newbies – The Ulleskelf Wildlife Group

Ulleskelf, where is that?...the question that most often follows my answer to the questioners first…where do you live? Well, contrary perhaps to expectation it’s a village on the Wharfe just outside of Tadcaster. The name is however of Scandinavian origin, Ulfr being a personal name, possibly of a settler, and skelf meaning a flat area. The Viking origins of the village remain evidenced in its street pattern. Historically the area would have been a fenland environment, a condition it frequently seeks to return to following heavy rain when the Wharfe tops its flood banks and fills the Ings around the village. At such times the village can almost become an island and, if you can forget the rising water, the birdlife this quickly attracts is astonishing. A small SSSI just upstream of us at Kirkby Wharfe reflects what the area would become if left to rewild.

An ecological dark-day occurred close by when the last known British beaver was killed just over the river from here in Bolton Percy in 1789 where the church wardens account records ‘twopence’, being paid to John Swail for a beaver head (https://geographical.co.uk/wildlife/the-return-of-beavers-to-britain). In more recent times the decline in the Curlew population around the village has been particularly notable whilst the appearance of Little Egrets has been an interesting development of the past few years.

Against that background and following my ab-initio training as a Team Wilder Community Champion, the initial idea of the Ulleskelf Wildlife Group (UWG) was formed. With the encouragement of Jo and YWT volunteer colleagues at training days the idea became a plan leading to a presentation to the Ulleskelf Parish Council (PC) meeting in February. The PC’s Biodiversity Policy provided the link to the Team Wilder agenda and the suggestion, in outline, was that the UWG should operate as a working group of the PC with accountability to it. In reciprocation the PC would extend its’ liability insurance to the group for activities undertaken within the groups remit. The arrangement was agreed and UWG Terms of Reference and Constitution were drafted and submitted to the PC.

Vast, sunlit green field under a partly cloudy blue sky.

Following-on, we needed to see if the plan would have the support of the community. At the suggestion of the PC a monthly meeting, badged as the ‘Saturday Social’, run by the village Sports and Social Committee in the Village Hall, was chosen as the venue for testing the waters. A UWG logo, shown below, was designed, and flyers posted to local interest sites, on the PC noticeboard, at sites throughout the parish and posted to Facebook.

In preparation for the Saturday Social event pro-forma documentation was produced to obtain records of those attending, their level of interest in the work of the group and their contact details. Alongside this a series of images representing selected fauna known to be around the village were compiled to assess sightings made by members of the community over the previous 12-month period. A short slide series providing relevant background information was also prepared to run continuously throughout the session. Alongside these preparations discussions took place with Carl and Georgina Clayton of Intake Farm, who farm the land around the village, to enlist their support for the group. They confirmed their interest and offered to run some farm walks to explain the work they have done in improving the biodiversity of their land. Contact was also made with North Yorkshire County Council regarding their Inspire community grant and an application made for funding toward initial set-up costs of the group. Jo and Georgia also came through to Ulleskelf for a site orientation at which potential project sites were visited and ideas discussed.

On the day the above materials plus a range of YWT Team Wilder materials were put out in the hall. From doors opening at 10am there was good interest with a steady flow of people to the stand, and it rapidly became obvious that the group would be viable. It was really encouraging to find that people were already engaged in individual activities in support of nature and were enthusiastic to join with like-minded others to deliver larger projects. It was also fantastic to learn about the different skill sets and knowledge that people had and could bring to the group. I certainly felt that I should have been on the other side of the table in more than one conversation! Several project ideas were generated, and these will be taken forward into a nature recovery plan for the village.