Wildlife award launched to celebrate green-fingered gardeners in West Yorkshire

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has unveiled a Wildlife Gardening Award to encourage gardeners to care for the creatures on their doorstep.

The award rewards action that everyone can take in their outdoor areas to create spaces for wildlife, and has been designed so that people can take part no matter how much space they have.

As well as private gardens, applicants can also submit their allotment, community garden, school grounds or business premises.

Applicants are asked to submit detail on a number of different categories, including shelter, food, water, sustainability and connectedness to neighbours or nearby green spaces.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Chief Executive Rachael Bice said: “Large or small, ledge or yard, Yorkshire’s gardens and outdoor spaces can offer so much for bees, bats and birds. They provide a vital network for nature, natural havens linking up urban green spaces to the wider countryside beyond.

“1 in 7 species - including our once common hedgehogs, pipistrelle bats and bumblebees - are at risk of extinction in the UK, so the way we look after our 24 million gardens really matters.”

Successful wildlife gardeners will receive a certificate to celebrate their hard work, or for a small donation participants will receive a plaque that can be displayed in their garden.

Resources are available to inspire gardeners across Yorkshire with ideas including creating a small container pond and creating a bee hotel.

To apply for a wildlife gardening award, visit the website here.