Loving our Environment and making better places for this and future generations and for all life – we are all connected / Caru ein hamgylchedd a gwneud lleoedd gwell ar gyfer y genhedlaeth hon a chenedlaethau'r dyfodol ac ar gyfer pob bywyd- Rydym i gyd yn gysylltiedig
Category Archives: Natural Environment
This sub-group is aimed at encouraging Biodiversity and wildlife conservation.
Newport Area Environment Group has some fantastic wildlife monitoring equipment to lend out. You can borrow a moth trap or wildlife camera (or bat detector – coming soon) to discover what species are in your neighbourhood.
You will need to fill in the booking form linked below, and we will be in touch to arrange for collection.
We are holding a public event at 6pm on Thursday 9th May to co-create our next project – and we’d love to see you there!
This event aims to gather your views, ideas, and priorities, igniting action from vision on themes including water management, biodiversity habitats, community energy and plastic free Newport.
Using Newport’s Green Infrastructure Plan and Newport Town Council’s environmental agenda as a starting point, the interactive and dynamic format of the evening will allow us to ask our community to help form our next project.
It will be a fun and interactive evening, an opportunity to think about what could make a real difference in Newport and surrounding areas, and to make new connections. A bar and snacks will be available.
NAEG has a long history of taking impactful measures, starting with community collection of plastic and cans for recycling, before kerbside services were provided by Pembrokeshire County Council.
Our most recent project was Newport For Nature, a project that planted 1500 trees, gathered data on biodiversity, and held a series of workshops and talks to encourage biodiversity in our gardens.
Now, we are looking for more people who would like to get involved to help identify and implement a next project. With the backing of key documents like the Green Infrastructure Plan and access to funding sources, combined with the increasing accountability of companies like Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, NAEG only requires the proactive involvement of our community to make meaningful changes.
The ‘Local Nature and Energy Solutions in Newport and the surrounding area’ event is on Thursday 9th May at 6pm at Newport Memorial Hall. We hope to see many of you there!
3 of the NAEG officers met with Hamish Liddle who is collecting information on 12 Pembrokeshire towns, including Newport, for the PCC/PCNPA Green Infrastructure project funded by UK Govt. Community Renewal Fund. You can read the notes from this meeting here: https://naeg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/NAEG-meeting-with-Hamish-Little.pdf
Please let our secretary Sandra know if you have any comments, corrections or additions, particularly suggestions for deliverable projects. Sandra can be emailed at sandrabayes1@btinternet.com You can also add comments to this post.
Get involved in mapping biodiversity across Newport, meet new people and learn about what species can be found in the town, in partnership with the West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre, we are organising a Newport BioBlitz. What is a BioBlitz? It is a day-long event at which, with the help of ecologists and conservation experts, we will be identifying and recording as many species of plants, animals, insects, and other organisms as possible. Get in touch with Richard for more details!
8.00am prompt. Moth Trap, Tony Lewis, local moth recorder.
Meet at The Newport and Nevern Community Garden, where Market St meets Castle Lane, Newport, SA42 0PJ. Depart 8.05am for moth trap location, 3 min walk from the meeting place. The trap will be set on Friday night – come and see what we have caught, before the moths are safely released.
9.15 Event Intro
Coffee & Pastry with Richard Sylvester (Newport for Nature); followed by how to record what you see (and why!), with Carys Williams (West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre).Memorial Hall, West St, Newport SA42 0TF.
10.00-12.30 Bird walk with Paddy Jenks (Aderyn Ecology).Start at Memorial Hall for a walk from the Parrog along the estuary walk to the ‘Iron Bridge’.
14.00-16.30 Plants and pollinator walk with Dr Abi Lowe and Dr Laura Jones (The National Botanic Gardens of Wales). Start at Memorial Hall for a walk along the back lanes and paths up by the Church and Castle.
20.45-22.00/22.30 Evening bat walk with Den Vaughan (Landsker Ecology). Please book – maximum 20 participants. Email Richard (richard@naeg.org.uk) to book your place.
We held the launch of our Newport For Nature project last month and now have the first newsletter to help keep people up to date. Please click on this link: https://mailchi.mp/3d9a8a798820/october-update
There will also be a general NAEG meeting in early November – watch this website
Save the date! Newport launches an exciting new 18-month project this month to enhance biodiversity, create wildlife-friendly spaces, and improve our knowledge of local wildlife, funded by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund and led by Newport Area Environment Group.
The project’s vision is to create a network of wildlife-friendly spaces and corridors across Newport and its environs, connecting town and countryside, supported, maintained and enjoyed by residents and visitors alike, providing climate change resilience but also colour and birdsong, calm, joy and wellbeing for all. You can sign up to the newsletter to keep up to date with project activities here: http://eepurl.com/hFCZ75.
All are welcome to the project’s launch at Newport Memorial Hall on Sunday 12th September at 2pm where wildlife gardening practitioners and others will be on hand to offer advice and information on how to get involved.
Newport Area Environment Group is excited to be recruiting for a new post. The Biodiversity and Decarbonisation Officer will lead our recently funded project to promote wildlife gardening, tree planting and community biodiversity monitoring in and around Newport.
We are are seeking a self-motivated, organised and creative candidate to manage the project over the 18 month period. This is an exciting role with the potential to improve biodiversity within the area and work closely to bring the community together around the aims of the project.
For more details, please download the recruitment pack below which contains more information about the role, a job description and person specification and details of the recruitment process.
We are pleased to say, our project to support habitat creation to improve biodiversity in and around Newport has been successful!
Launching in June 2021, the project will address the urgent need to act on climate change, focussing on 3 inter-related elements:
Community awareness and action – the community will be engaged in activities, workshops and personal actions to enhance biodiversity, mitigate climate change and raise awareness of critical environmental issues. The project aims to change behaviours, increase social capital and foster community pride through volunteering and long-term nurturing and monitoring of biodiversity. The project will engage local groups, the school, homeowners and landowners.
Carbon sequestration – there is an urgent need to reduce CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Trees sequester carbon as they grow, and will be planted to act as both a carbon sink and a carbon store, locking CO2 up above ground, in roots and in soils.
Biodiversity and climate change resilience – a biodiverse area is intrinsically more resilient to the effects of climate change. Systems which are more diverse, larger, in better condition and better connected are more able to adapt to or recover from change.
The Group is actively engaged with all aspects of recycling promotion in and around Newport.
In 2008 the Pembrokeshire County Council “Orange bag” scheme for curb-side collection of recyclable materials was rolled out. The bags are collected at the same time as the regular black-bag collection. NAEG is in no doubt that the political influence of small community based initiatives, such as ours, was instrumental in getting the orange bags into the north of Pembrokeshire, and naturally we wish it all success. NAEG will be carefully monitoring its operation, and assessing any difficulties and opportunities for improvement.
NAEG has now “adopted” the Newport recycling bank for the County Council and we are responsible for its care and supervision, so if you notice problems, please contact Reg Atkinson (see below). NAEG also recycles waste from Newport’s Festivals. This has drawn our attention to the lack of community composting facilities for food-wastes, which is far from ideal.
The Group is currently addressing issues such as the recycling of lower grade plastics and the ubiquitous ‘Tetra’ packs and we are trying to find ways to help older people without cars to use the recycling bank. In this way we continue to seek solutions for Newport in future.
Meanwhile, we ask you all to always remember that, whilst it’s good to recycle, its better by far to reduce first, and re-use second, repair if needed and recycle only to avoid true waste going to landfill.
