Kickstarting Green Careers, Enhancing the Natural Environment & Connecting People with Nature

Groundwork Greater Manchester, City of Trees and Mersey Rivers Trust were awarded £1.4M of funding from the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund in October 2021 to deliver three key aspirations across Greater Manchester as part of the Resilient River Valleys programme:

  1. Green Skills, Employment and Training – creating new, green job roles, with complimentary training programmes leading to an upskilled workforce more able to respond to the climate emergency.
  2. Nature Conservation and Restoration – focused around the installation of Nature Based Solutions (NBS) which help to tackle climate change and mitigate flash flooding by helping to slow the flow of water.
  3. Connecting People with Nature – consulting, involving and enabling communities to get involved in their local greenspaces, resulting in communities gaining a deeper understanding of nature on their doorsteps and leading to improved feelings of wellbeing.
Resilient River Valleys impact statistics

Green Skills & Training

Groundwork’s Green Skills Trainers created and delivered bespoke training courses to trainees, partners, community groups and volunteers on a variety of natural environment topics.

Courses covered topics such as climate change, green and blue infrastructure and invasive non-native species and often included a number of practical training tasks, such as wet woodland management and how to create Tiny Forests.

By the end of the project, 361 adults completed courses from the Green Skills Training programme, with 226 people gaining their Carbon Literacy certification, exceeding the original targets.

Training session

Nature Conservation & Restoration

In Wythenshawe Woodlands Groundwork’s Urban Rangers learnt and applied wood-working skills, supporting the creation and maintenance of footbridges, steps and 1.57km of footpath, helping improve public access across the woodlands.

At Moston Fairway Groundwork’s Urban Rangers worked in conjunction with The Lancashire Wildlife Trust to remove invasive species and plant native woodland wildflowers alongside the footpath edge and coppice trees and create glade areas within the wet woodland.

At Moston Brook, Groundwork Urban Rangers worked with Mersey Rivers Trust to install six leaky dams to help slow the flow of water during times of excess rainfall. The team also planted 150 shrubby plants, creating a mid-layer between the ground and the tree canopy, improving the woodlands’ structure.

Resilient River Valleys nature work

To help improve access to the Moston Brook nature reserve, as well as enhance the resilience of the space, Groundwork’s Urban Rangers installed a new, all-weather pathway alongside the brook, using flexi-pave – a material made from 2,685 recycled tyres – creating a porous surface, which holds moisture and allows rainwater to slowly permeate through into the earth below. The 933m long pathway acts as a Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SuDS), removing pollutants from rainwater before it eventually reaches the brook.

Drone Surveying Invasive Species

Thanks to the Resilient River Valleys project, Groundwork employed a Trainee Drone Pilot, who gained their GVC and A2CofC certification in 2022, allowing us to explore new ways of surveying blue and green infrastructure.

Between June and October 2022, the Trainee Drone Pilot worked alongside the Natural Course team to survey INNS plants in the Irwell catchment, identifying the spread of Himalayan Balsam, Japanese Knotweed and Giant Hogweed in areas typically difficult to survey on foot.

Manchester riverside

Connecting People with Nature

Thousands of people were engaged by the three project partners in conversations about nature-based solutions, where they can explore nature of their doorsteps, and how to take action in their local community.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Southway Housing Trust, an age friendly walking route was created across key sites in the Burnage area. Groundwork’s community team delivered 17 events which were attended by 191 residents representing different groups in the area. Art pieces such as willow structures and painted bird boxes were created with local groups, enhancing the green spaces and fostering a sense of local ownership with local people.

Read the full report

Click the image below to read the full report:

Resilient River Valleys report

Made possible thanks to funding from:

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