30 Days Wild is back!
New research reveals nature’s beauty increases happiness
The Wildlife Trusts’ challenge for everyone to spend 30 Days Wild in June means people are likely to feel happier and want to care for the natural beauty around them, research reveals.
Last year 250,000 people took part in 30 Days Wild, The Wildlife Trusts’ annual nature challenge which encourages people to do Random Acts of Wildness, something wild every day, for the month of June.
Lucy McRobert, Campaigns Manager for The Wildlife Trusts, said: “30 Days Wild is a lovely way to get closer to nature and marvel at the everyday wildlife that lives all around you.
“Sit quietly and enjoy watching dragonflies dance over a pond or take a moment to sow a window-box of wildflowers to help bees. Get together with your neighbours to create hedgehog highways or sow front-garden meadows along the length of your street. No matter how small the action, it all counts!”
Research by academics at the University of Derby discovered that spending time in nature makes us feel good. 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. People’s perception of beauty in the natural world is a key ingredient to unlocking the benefits of wellbeing and happiness experienced by participants in the 30 Days Wild challenge.
30 Days Wild pack
People can get involved in 30 Days Wild by signing up for a free booklet of inspirational ideas for Random Acts of Kindness throughout June. There’s a recipe for wild strawberry and thyme ice cream, wildflower seeded paper to sow, a wall chart to record your activities and wild stickers.
- Sign-up to take part in 30 Days Wild. Share your Random Acts of Wildness using #30DaysWild
- Free packs will be sent to the first 50,000 people who sign up – you can also get a digital pack
- Phone app – Digital delivery of daily ideas and Random Acts of Wildness
There are special packs for schools with outdoor lesson plans and giant Random Acts of Wildness cards. Business can join in too, with tailored download packs to bring the ‘wild’ to work.
30 Days Wild 2018 neighbourhood theme
This year’s theme is all about helping wildlife in your neighbourhood and our pack has inspiring ideas for sharing the challenge locally. See great ways to green-up your street – from carving hedgehog holes in fences to putting up bird and bat boxes and doing a local litter pick.
Monitoring the benefits of 30 Days Wild
The University of Derby has been monitoring the effects of 30 Days Wild for since 2015. Dr Miles Richardson, Director of Psychology, University of Derby explains: “Over the past three years we’ve repeatedly found that taking part in 30 Days Wild improves health, happiness, nature connection and conservation behaviours. Now we’ve discovered that engagement with the beauty of nature is part of that story.
“Tuning-in to the everyday beauty of nature becomes part of a journey which connects us more deeply to the natural world. As people’s appreciation of natural beauty increases, so 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.
The University of Derby has monitored participants of 30 Days Wild since 2015. 30 Days Wild: Development and Evaluation of a Large-Scale Nature Engagement Campaign to Improve Well-Being by Miles Richardson, Adam Cormack, Lucy McRobert, Ralph Underhill was published Feb 2016. Online here. A summary of the evaluations done of the participants of 30 Days Wild 2016 and 2017 are here.