Public
North Ayrshire Green Health Partnership Resources
The following resources have been designed to provide ideas for people on what’s happening in North Ayrshire, and how to engage with nature-based activity to improve their health and wellbeing. There are also many resources developed and available on-line for people to use to support green health based activity. We have detailed a few sources below:
Green Health Calendar: Nature Based Activities for Health and Wellbeing
The Green Health Calendar includes a variety of accessible ideas for individuals, families or groups to explore their local greenspaces and enjoy all year round. No matter your capabilities people should find a list of activities throughout the year to help them get outside and exploring the fantastic greenspaces and wildlife of North Ayrshire.
Green Health in Ayrshire
Short Films
These films highlight the benefits of green health activities and give examples of what is available in North Ayrshire and how to access these opportunities.
Arran COAST
Barrmill Park and Gardens
Breaking Ground at Eglinton Community Gardens
Dalry Community Garden
KA Leisure Health Walk at Eglinton Country Park
Trinity Active Travel 'Stroll With It' Walking Group
Turning Point at Eglinton Community Gardens
There are also many resources developed and available online for people to use to support green health based activity. We have detailed a few sources below:
Nature Indoors
For many people the option to go outdoors and engage in nature based activity is not always feasible. However, there are ways that people can still benefit from nature based activities, indoors. This might include:
- Taking photographs of the natural environment from a window or drawing/painting what you see. You could share these with others via social media or create your own collection of photos/artwork throughout the seasons.
- Keep a record of the wildlife and plants you see from your window.
- Collect natural items from outdoors or ask others to do this for you, then create a collage using items such as leaves, pebbles. acorns, sticks, feathers.
- Paint small stones or pebbles with simple messages or pictures you could place them around your community for others to see.
- Make a birdfeeder to place outdoors that will attract wildlife to the local area.
- You can grow seeds indoors to then plant in your garden e.g. sunflowers or herbs to add to salads and soups.
- Listen to natural sounds like waterfalls, birds tweeting such as the dawn chorus, or listen to nature based podcasts or view webcams to observe wildlife life across the country e.g. dolphin, puffin and red squirrel. See links below:
Nature ID
Often we see trees, plants and wildlife every day in our local community but we don’t always know what they are, did you know there are over 405 different species of birds alone? If you want to know more about what is living and growing in nature around you have a look at the links below to help you identify them.
Birds Wildlife Trees Wildflowers
Learning Activity Packs
A key partner in the North Ayrshire Green Health Partnership are The Conservation Volunteers, who have a number of activity packs available to support nature based learning activities. Click the following links to find out more.
Little Book of Nature Activities Bringing the Outdoors In! Three Different Activities Accessible Activities
Citizen Science
Citizen science is when volunteers support the wider data collection in relation to environmental studies. When people start to take an interest in the natural environment and wildlife around them they are sometimes interested in supporting studies that help record and monitor activity. Data collection is usually to support larger scientific studies where the public contribute to collecting local information that informs much larger studies. Some example links are given below:
Conservation
Conservation is about the preservation, protection, or restoration of the natural environment and wildlife. In the current climate crisis conservation of both our natural resources and our environment are critical in maintaining the world we live in, maintaining biodiversity in our local areas is crucial. Many activities we can do both as individuals and as part of an organised group can contribute to conservation activity. Examples include participating in citizen science activities, planting native trees, growing wildflowers to attract bees, litter picking or volunteering with local conservation groups for example Scottish Wildlife Trust.
If you are interested in local conservation activities have a look at what’s happening in your local area in the Directory or Events Calendar sections of the website.
