University of York project nominated for National Lottery Awards 2011 Best Environment Project
Posted on 16 June 2011
Staff at the Environment Department and Stockholm Environment Institute at York have worked with over 13,000 people since the Yorkshire and Humber OPAL project began in 2008. Many of the participants have not been involved in nature before.
Activities run by the OPAL team have included helping communities create maps of their local green space, developing new participatory mapping techniques, surveying urban wildlife and running the six OPAL Surveys. The OPAL surveys focus on Soil, Air, Water, Hedgerows, Climate, with the latest, Bugs Count, looking at how terrestrial invertebrates respond to increasing urbanisation.
The OPAL Surveys are citizen science projects, where data collected by members of the public is combined to help scientists answer specific research questions
Sarah West, OPAL Community Scientist
Sarah West, OPAL Community Scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute said “The OPAL Surveys are citizen science projects, where data collected by members of the public is combined to help scientists answer specific research questions. For example, in Bugs Count, we are asking people to assess what microhabitats are present in their back gardens or local greenspaces, spot six key species and see how many groups of invertebrates they see. With this experiment being repeated all across the country, we can begin to build up a picture of how invertebrate populations vary with differing levels of urbanisation.”
If you’d like to take part in the Bugs Count survey contact Sarah West on opalproject@york.ac.uk or 01904 324577 for your free survey pack.
To vote for OPAL to win the National Lottery Awards 2011 Best Environment Project, go to www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards/best-environment-project/114/ or call 0844 8369694 by 20 June. Winning the award will help publicise the project to a wider audience and encourage more people to take part in citizen science projects, as well as being good publicity for the University!Notes to editors:
- Open Air Laboratories (OPAL), led by Imperial College London, (www.imperial.ac.uk), is a nationwide partnership initiative that inspires communities to discover, enjoy and protect their local environments. It aims to create a new generation of nature-lovers by stimulating interest through local and national projects which are accessible, fun and relevant to anyone who wants to take part. For more information, please visit www.OPALexplorenature.org.
- The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been providing grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006. Full details of the work of the Big Lottery Fund, its programmes and awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk.
- The Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme was launched in November 2005 to help communities enjoy and improve their local environments. The programme funds a range of activities from local food schemes and farmers markets, to education projects teaching people about the environment. Imperial College London was awarded a £11,760,783 Changing Spaces grant for OPAL in August 2007.
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