Over the past few months, Team Wilder have been privileged to support Our Wild Local Space (OWLS), a grassroots community group in Maldon, who are working to transform an unloved patch of land behind some houses in Washington Close.  

The OWLS are dynamic bunch, bringing together long-standing, active environmentalists with local Maldon families. Jo and Kate, leading lights in the group, are keen to see the space evolve into a nature-friendly hub. Where previously just a thicket of brambles stood, a log circle, a meeting and focal point for the community, now stands. A mown path snakes through the remaining scrub allowing visitors to take a short meditative stroll, and see butterflies, flower beetles and solitary bees nectaring on the flowers of bramble in early summer, and ivy in late summer, as birds including robin and greenfinch sing above.

The site had been an informal local park until the 1990s, when management largely ceased and it succeeded into bramble scrub, but retained its mature trees, and partially drained pond. The work to restore it began in 2023, and Essex Wildlife Trust’s community team, Team Wilder, were on hand to support and advise the group when needed, providing links to ecological consultancies and helping with safety briefings before conservation work took place.  

Over the summer, the group even took part in The Essex Bioblitz, which helped us gather records of wildlife in the area. Records included scarce chase dragonfly, ant-hill hoverfly, swollen-thighed flower beetles and more. The Trust advised the group on pollinator-friendly plants and what features of the old wasteland could be retained, including deadwood habitats, ivy and bramble.