Nature Features

On Sunday 22nd June, around fifty volunteers including parents, children, teachers and BBC staff united as a SWAT team at St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Bodmin. 

With the help of BTCV, they cleared a large area of brambles and weeds, planted wildflower seeds, dug out grass from around the pond and replaced it with a woodchip path and created a habitat area with log and stone piles.

Click on the link below for a photo gallery of all the action.

The pond before the transformation

Cornwall Wildlife Trust ran a workshop for children to make nestboxes and insect homes, some of which will be added to the habitat corner, along with other shelter for creatures such as ladybirds, butterflies and frogs.

The National Trust's Lanhydrock estate donated the logs, as well as a dead tree-trunk which has been sunk into the ground to provide a focal point and another habitat for insects.

The pond after the SWAT treatment

BBC Radio Cornwall's Sunday morning programme with Donna Birrell came live from the event, with advice from Gardenline expert Tracy Wilson about how to attract wildlife into the garden.

Getting on in leaps and bounds

The SWAT group worked so well together that they were able to do more than was originally planned.

Rescuing a frog

They managed to clear another patch of brambles and weeds, where a bird hide will eventually appear.  They put up information signs showing the children what kinds of creatures they might see.  They even started to construct raised vegetable beds for the children to grow their own food.

Future developments

The SWAT day is just the beginning of the transformation for the St Mary's school conservation area:

• There are plans for a seating area big enough for a whole class to take their learning outside.
• There is a small orchard but the school would like to expand on these by adding other fruit plants and trees.
• A bird hide overlooking the pond will enable the children to observe the wildlife at close hand.

Check out the BBC's nationwide SWAT website at the link below: