An urban oasis

Hear from Karen O'Callaghan and Karen Humphries to discover how the Fort Royal Park Environmental Rangers are getting the local community involved in helping wildlife...

'A perfect storm' tends to be applied to conditions coming together to form a severe weather phenomenon. Fort Royal Park Environmental Rangers came about by perfect conditions colliding to produce a positive impact in less than a year!

Handmade banner (from textiles) advertising the 'Fort Royal Park Rangers' - trees have also been stitched onto the golden background — Fort Royal Park Rangers banner

A group of students from Nunnery Wood High School (NWHS) Eco Group, their teacher and Duke of Edinburgh leader wanted to do some work on the park as part of a local community project and needed someone to lead the group. The full-time gardener had recently retired and left a massive void...so a group was formed - Fort Royal Park Environmental Rangers.

We advertised with posters but it was mostly by talking to others in the park that we soon found like-minded people who care about the park and the environment. The response has been so encouraging – people like to help and be involved!

A group of seven people sitting on chairs in a yard on a sunny day - they're smiling and look like they're enjoying the cuppas that they're drinking — Fort Royal Park Environmental Rangers

We were fortunate to have the use of the park hut with facilities and an unused mess of a yard. With the help of Worcester Bosch and local resident volunteers we soon transformed the yard into a usable space for the community to host events. This proved to be a massive undertaking as years of soil, compost and garden waste had to be moved into an organised area.

The Worcester Environmental Group (WEG) has supported us throughout, with individual members attending our group and additional independent WEG group activities in the park, such as tree mulching and after care, bulb planting ready for the 2025 spring, hay collecting off the crocus bank and general gardening.

Three wheelbarrows loaded with kit on a path through an urban park — Fort Royal Park

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust has also played an important role. From the first point of contact, Julie and Connor visited and gave us clear direction on how they could support us – we had an enjoyable meeting walking around the park discussing the planting and wildlife. It is assuring to know they are on hand to offer advice. Quite by chance the Trust had already been working with the council on a biodiversity enhancement project, Natural Networks, and Fort Royal was included for improvements. We were excited to read their planting suggestions and plans for bee posts and bird boxes. With the successful bid, The WEG and Rangers have worked to plant native daffodils, bluebells and snowdrops and 24 children from the local primary school attended to join in planting daffodils. WEG will also be planting 10 native fruit trees this coming February.

Heart of Worcester College offered us a group of 14 students with special educational needs who now visit every Monday during term time. They help with ongoing maintenance, litter picking, mulching and maintaining the beds. It's been a joy to see their personal growth and appreciation for the park and wildlife.

An urban park with trees, benches alongside a path and hollyhocks in flower in the foreground — Fort Royal Park

We were asked if the Rangers could participate in measuring the trees and recording the information on the Treezilla app, which aims to map Britain's trees and which calculates the monetary eco benefit of the trees in terms of avoided run-off of soil, carbon dioxide stored and improved air quality etc. It was a fun activity that highlighted to us the variety and value of our trees. NWHS Eco Group, along with a representative from the tree team, worked on this and mapped most of the trees in the park, the first one to be mapped in Worcester City. Hopefully this will be rolled out to school sites and private gardens.

We have taken part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch for the past two years, using 2024 as a baseline to see what birds the park attracts . We are hoping that by making changes with bird boxes and feeders, and with the new native planting, that we will have an improved count next year. This activity attracted a different type of volunteer with a specific interest in the birdlife.

Much of our focus in the first year has been on getting the group established, building up a pool of equipment, creating a Facebook page and making connections with other groups and teams within the council. Looking forward to this year we hope to build on the connections we've made – working with other green spaces to share information, equipment and solve problems in common.

Our focus has been (and will remain) to appreciate our asset in the middle of the city and to encourage others to feel the same about the park. We have a unique city park in that it has the most beautiful panoramic views towards the Cathedral, the Malvern Hills, the Witley Gap and the Suckley Hills. It is surrounded by urban development on all sides with the busy main London Road to the southwest. Despite this, it is an oasis of calm to many local residents and visitors and a welcoming space to all.