Otley 2030 and Wildlife Friendly Otley, worked with Alwoodley 2030 and Horsforth Climate Action on a project called Nature Neighbourhoods: Participatory Action Research with Three Leeds Communities.
The project aimed to explore how creating nature corridors can support community climate resilience across three Leeds communities: Otley, Alwoodley, and Horsforth. Each neighbourhood designed and delivered a wildlife corridor.
The teams won the University of Leeds’ ‘Local Community Organisation Award’ at the Sustainability Celebration 2026 – an annual event led by the University’s Sustainability Service.
The celebration seeks to showcase, celebrate, and thank staff and local organisations the university has collaborated with for their incredible sustainability work over the last year.
As part of this award-winning project Otley 2030 and Wildlife Friendly Otley created the Weston wildlife corridor running from the large, nature-friendly grounds of Ashfield Primary School, to the Weston Community Nature Garden and Orchard, to where Wharfe Meadow Avenue meets the open countryside.
It aims to connect urban gardens and green spaces to help hedgehogs, birds, and pollinators move safely through residential areas
As part of the project a community bioblitz event took place at Weston Community Nature Garden in June which saw people work together to record as many plants and animals as possible in a set area and time.
Everyone part had the opportunity to learn how to use the iNaturalist app (a tool to help identify and record wildlife), join a guided walk on the wildlife corridor and learn about urban wildflowers, identify all the plants in their own square of the community nature garden and map what they saw and contribute to citizen science.
A spokesperson for Otley 2030 said: “The event was led by River Six, ecologist and co-chair of Wildlife Friendly Otley.
“Despite cool and windy temperatures, local children and families enjoyed finding and identifying lots of creepy crawlies in the wildflowers and meadow areas of Weston Community Nature Garden and the Community Orchard, especially various species of bee, who were out about despite the bracing weather.
“Everyone enjoyed drinks and snacks from Otley 2030’s Otley Community Larder and look forward to celebrating the project and its award win with another family friendly event in September.”
