Eighteen pupils at Pewsey Primary School have been out planting grassland plants along the edge of a local field as part of a programme called Stepping Stones” to create new wild habitats.
It aims to create a series of linked areas to support new habitats for plants and wildlife with the help of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is providing the seeds and equipment to enable pupils to grow chalk grassland species.
One local farmer, Nick Down, had already sown a strip of land alongside the field with fine-leaved grasses as part of a high level stewardship scheme. But the strip needed grassland flowers in order to attract a variety of wildlife.
So members of Pewsey Environmental Action Team worked with the children, planting the seeds of various chalk grassland species in trays that they had created last year.
These were ready for planting last Friday, in the hope that the children will return the strip in the weeks ahead to see the results, identify the flowers, and keeping watch on the birds, bees and other pollinators.
“It was great to see the youngsters getting involved,” Oliver Cripps from the North Wessex Downs told Marlborough News Online after seeing the pupils at work during a misty morning.
“I hope that growing the plugs, planting them out and then seeing the benefits for wildlife will spark an interest that will create naturalists and scientists for the future.”
