Friends of the Barnet Countryside Centre
We are the Association of the Friends of Barnet Countryside Centre at the Denis Bland Nature Reserve, Byng Road, Barnet, EN5 4NP. We are a registered charity and our charity number is 1033774. Environmental education is not a statutory service and there is no local authority funding. However, it is important that environmental education and its expanding remit into issues of sustainability are available for our young people and the local community. The Friends of Barnet Countryside Centre provides events for the local community and activities for schools in order to educate and inspire a lasting interest in and appreciation of the natural world. In addition, we run regular working parties and volunteer afternoons. Finally, we also run a Wildabout Nature Club for primary school children. At the moment, the Barnet Countryside Centre and the nature reserve are only open for these activities.
The nature reserve is a 7.5 acre Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation and is open to the public for events. In October 2011 our half-term event attracted 150 visitors. We have run many successful community events, having over 2,000 visitors to the nature reserve in the last year. Please note that we have cancelled the Big Lunch event we had planned for Sunday 3rd June because of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations at that time. However - see below - there will be a picnic after our usual working party that morning. Our next event is the 24 Hour Bioblitz from 7 pm on Friday 13th July to 7 pm on Saturday 14th July, led by Annabel Foskett, our environmental educator. Please keep this date pencilled in your diaries. We have asked for volunteers to help on the day but there will be many public activities going on during the Saturday afternoon that you will be able to join in with. For more details, click on Events, but before you do that, click on our Bioblitz website!
Since 2006 the Friends of Barnet Countryside Centre have been facilitating school visits, with an average of over 700 pupils a year and over 1000 pupils in the last academic year. Click on School Visits for more information or if you would like to bring your class.
We run regular working parties to manage and enhance the ecological and educational value of the nature reserve. The next working party is on Sunday 3rd June 2012, from 10 to 12.30 with a break for refreshments at about 11.15. Since we have cancelled the Big Lunch event we decided to hold a picnic after this working party. In addition, there are volunteer afternoons every Monday afternoon, from 1.30 to 4, with a break for a cuppa. These offer the chance to do work inside or outside.
Click on Volunteering for more details and to read a report of our last meeting.
The next Wildabout Nature Club meeting is on Saturday, 16th June - Minibeast Monsters. A bit of a minibeast hunt on the reserve followed by clay activities.
Click on Wildabout Nature Club for more details and to read a report of our last meeting.
Frogs Spawning in Bottle Pond, 4th March 2012
The pictures below were taken during the recent February 2012 freeze.
For some more photos of the nature reserve, click on Habitats
We do not allow unaccompanied children on the site but of course we are delighted to see children as long as they are supervised by adults. Because it is a nature reserve please do not bring a dog onto the site unless it is a guide dog for the blind.
If you want to know how to get here, click on how to get here.
Please click on Acknowledgements for details of our sponsors and the help given to us by other organisations and people.
Please click on Contact Us for information on how to get in touch with us.
Since May 2008 the Friends has worked in collaboration with London Wildlife Trust.
To see the LWT Barnet and Enfield Group's 2011 events programme click on LWT Local Events.
We are a member of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers and a member of CommUNITY Barnet.
Please step forward and join our association! Annual Family Membership is £10.
The Noah's Ark Hospice and the Nature Reserve
The Noah's Ark planning application was submitted in October 2011 and subsequent objections, approvals and comments from interested parties were received by the London Borough of Barnet (LBB).
The LBB Planning Meeting was held on 03 February 2012 and the decision was taken to pass the application subject to certain conditions.
With the support of the LBB, we are now entering into a period of negotiation with Noah’s Ark concerning the terms of the sublease between them and London Wildlife Trust in collaboration with FoBCC.
