Protect Your Patch as a Backyard Nature Guardian

If there’s one thing we love to do in the workshop, it’s listen to the radio. That’s how we came across this fun advert with kids saying that they want to be Backyard Nature Guardians - and you know that’s right up our street! 

Backyard Nature is a project working towards raising awareness, helping people connect to the world and save the nature on our doorsteps. One of the coolest things about Backyard Nature is that you get to pick your patch - and they don’t mind if it’s as big as a football pitch, or just a little plant pot on your bedroom window. Big or small, indoors or out, Backyard Nature knows that when it comes to saving our planet, every little helps. 

Their plan is simple - if you get people, particularly children, to care about the environment, they’re more likely to help save it. And the best way to get people to care about the environment? As that radio advert said, it’s to get out there and ‘get mud on our shoes’. The website is full of missions, resources and activities to get families enjoying nature. From nature trails to running online nature sessions, there’s something for everyone to get involved with. 

Backyard Nature set fun missions for their Backyard Nature Guardians to complete, so everyone’s working towards the same thing at the same time, which really makes you feel like you’re part of nature’s army. Currently, they’re working with Clarion Futures and #iwill4nature to get resources and funding to community groups, allowing them to get children in their communities out into nature. Previous missions have included saving bees, feeding birds and building bug hotels, with fantastic results for our natural world. 

Signing up to be a Backyard Nature Guardian is free, and when you do - which we obviously did, instantly - your patch of nature is added to the map. But it won’t be alone, it will join 14,350 other patches of nature that have already snagged a guardian. So go over to backyardnature.com to join the team! Now, if only we could get matching Nature Guardian jackets…

If you want to learn more about being a Backyard Nature Guardian, head over to backyardnature.org