Go wild with 30 Days ‘happiness’ pack

Go wild with 30 Days ‘happiness’ pack

Cornwall Wildlife Trust is encouraging people to do something wild every day for the month of June by taking part in the brilliant ‘30 Days Wild’, the UK’s only month-long nature challenge. Last year Cornwall saw more people than ever before sign up and go wild!

This year’s theme is all about helping wildlife in your neighbourhood and the 30 Days Wild pack has inspiring ideas for sharing the challenge locally. See great ways to help wildlife - from carving hedgehog holes in fences to putting up bird and bat boxes and doing a local litter pick.

30 Days Wild encourages people to notice nature on their doorsteps every single day and gives them a multitude of exciting and fun ways of doing it. Countrywide 250,000 people took part in the scheme in 2017.

Sign-up for the 30 Days Wild pack, which is free to the first 50,000 who apply, and get a booklet of inspirational ideas for Random Acts of Wildness, a recipe for wild strawberry and thyme ice cream, wildflower seeded paper to sow, a wall chart to record your activities and wild stickers.

To sign up go to www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/30dayswild and click on Get a Pack.

Butterfly

There are also special packs for schools with outdoor lesson plans and giant Random Acts of Wildness cards. Businesses can join in too, with tailored download packs to bring the ‘wild’ to work.

Chris Betty, Communications Officer for Cornwall Wildlife Trust says,

“It’s easy! We want you to do something wild every day throughout June: that’s 30 simple, fun and exciting Random Acts of Wildness. Scientific research has proven that connecting with nature is good for us. 30 Days Wild is all about taking a little bit of time every day to do something a little bit wild, so take the challenge and you might just find yourself feeling a little bit healthier, happier and wilder!”

Research reveals 30 Days Wild improves people’s perception of beauty in nature and makes people happier and want to care more for the environment. The Wildlife Trusts have worked with academics at the University of Derby who have monitored the challenge since it began in 2015 have discovered that spending time in nature makes us feel good. Perception of beauty in the natural world is a key ingredient to unlocking the benefits of wellbeing and happiness as experienced by those taking part in the challenge.

Dr Miles Richardson, Director of Psychology, University of Derby says,

“Over the past three years we’ve repeatedly found that taking part in 30 Days Wild improves health, happiness, connection with nature and conservation behaviour”.

“As people’s appreciation of natural beauty increases, so too does their happiness. We respond to beauty - it restores us and balances our emotions. This, in turn, encourages people to do more to help wildlife and take action for nature.”

The latest set of results from the study of 30 Days Wild also confirms that the benefits of the challenge last well after the month has ended. There are indications that the beneficial impact of taking part could last an entire year!