Looking for young environment champions
By Rachel Shaw
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust
We have been bombarded with news stories that seem to lurch from upsetting to downright terrifying.
For most of us, what fills the news headlines is out of our control, leaving us with a sense of powerlessness. I seek solace in nature - a daily dose of wildlife from a long walk in the countryside to spending a few minutes watching the birds in the garden. It’s welcome relief and there is good news out there too.
Every year, we get a booster of inspiringly positive news through the Lincolnshire Environmental Awards. Organised by the Rotary Club of Lindum, Lincoln, and the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, this is our annual celebration of the extraordinary achievements of ordinary people improving their local green spaces for themselves, their community and for wildlife.
The awards are in two parts. Later in the year, we will be celebrating community groups but first up are the youngsters and the Lincolnshire Young Environmentalists Award 2026. This is open to schools, youth groups such as scouts and guides, and individuals aged under 13 years.
It's an almost impossible task to choose the winners from the finalists who are all doing amazing things. Last year, our joint winners were individual Brody Carter from Healing in North Lincolnshire and Potterhanworth Church of England Primary School. Both demonstrated that it’s often not about the resources you have to begin with but your passion and teamwork.
Last year’s winner, 11-year-old Brody has built up both a great reputation as a local wildlife hero and an impressive network of contacts and organisations that are helping him make a difference on a scale no one could achieve alone. His actions have resulted in warning signs for drivers at the places where hedgehogs and other wildlife crossroads, and the installation of hundreds of birdboxes and hedgehog houses in his local area.
Potterhanworth Primary School may be a small school but they have a group of children who are enthusiastic about creating an outside space that is better for nature and for them and are making clever use of everything they can.
The club’s creative recycling mission has included making different bird feeders from used water bottles and pinecones, producing seed paper decorations from scrap paper, and holding termly used uniform sales to raise funds. The children lead the way in educating and inspiring the rest of the school about taking care of the environment for wildlife.
The Rotary Club of Lindum, Lincoln, started the Lincolnshire Environmental Awards back in 1993. Over those years, think of the generations of bumblebees and butterflies that have found nectar in school wildlife gardens and community spaces, the blue tits that have discovered a nest box in an area with no old trees with nesting hollows, all the lights that have been turned off, plastics recycled and repurposed, rainwater collected and used to water pesticide-free vegetables.
Think of all the people, young and old, who’ve been able to sit outside and listen to bird song, the wildlife and children who have flourished together.
All because of the small actions that have built to something bigger. Now, we want to hear from the current generation of children who are change-makers.
If you’re a teacher, group leader or parent, and you know of any young green heroes, then please consider entering the Lincolnshire Young Environmentalist Award 2026. It’s easy to enter, please visit the website www.lincsenvironmentalawards.org.uk to find out more.
