Meet some of Cornwall's environmental champions

A keen chough-watcher and a National Trust ranger team are in the running for a BBC Radio Cornwall Make a Difference Environmental Award.

Also nominated are a woman who uses her horticultural skills to supporting adults with learning disabilities and the team behind the restoration of an abandoned water garden and nursery.

The aim of the Environmental Award is to celebrate an individual or group of people who help to make where they live more environmentally-friendly and better for nature.

The winners will be revealed in September.

"It's my favourite day of the week."

Tuesdays are a busy day for Karen Balsdon-Johnson, as she supports adults with learning disabilities at the Lanhydrock allotments, created on National Trust land in 2010.

There are potatoes and rhubarb plants in raised beds, blueberries and redcurrants in fruit cages, and a team of keen workers digging, weeding and picking.

Balsdon-Johnson said: "It makes a difference. The members who come here are able to come at no significant cost, there's no issue with following too many rules and regulations; it's a very environmentally-friendly place to be.

"We have fun, it's a social place to be and it's just very relaxed. We bring a picnic lunch, we all work together, it's great friendships, everybody has fun."

The group also carries out litter picks to keep the environment tidy.

The story of the restoration of the Lanjeth Water Gardens and Nursery is a tale of mud, sweat and tears.

The site near St Austell used to be a garden centre specialising in growing water plants in its 130 lakes and ponds before it fell into disrepair.

Since 2022, its new owners have cut back the invasive trees and dug out tonnes of silt to create a plant-filled space.

Norman Trebilcock is a co-director of the Lanjeth Nursery – Growing People CIC. He is full of enthusiasm as he points out traces of deer, snakes, slow worms and all sorts of rare insects.

Trebilcock said: "Between the four of us, we have worked very hard for two years, trying to make this place which was very overgrown into something that would be good for the people, good for the environment.

"We now have nature nymphs, we have a forestry school, we have mental health sessions, we have had people having their wedding blessings down in the woods, we've had wakes in our marquee, we just do so much for our community.

"We just do everything we can for the environment."

Rowena Castillo-Nicholls' nature journey started with a chance encounter at St Anthony Head in 2009, just after she had moved to the county.

"I saw a flock of black birds and one of them had a red beak and red legs... and that was the Cornish chough," she remembered.

"From that moment, it really sparked my interest in wildlife here in Cornwall.

"With chough-watching, you usually hear them first before you see them. They have this amazing, amazing sound.

"When you are out and about on your walks on any of the coastal areas in Cornwall, always keep your ears open.

"It's always exciting to see them, I never really get tired of seeing them... they are the iconic bird of Cornwall."

Castillo-Nicholls is the founder and chair of Connect with Nature, a free, self-funded community group in Cornwall.

Monthly bird-watching walks, butterfly field trips, beach cleans and moth nights are all on the calendar to help people improve their mental and physical health.

The stretch of Cornish coastline between Godrevy and St Agnes has inspired artists such as Alfred Wallis and Barbara Hepworth, and writers including Virginia Woolf and Winston Graham.

For the National Trust's Mid Cornwall Rangers, it is a living canvas that needs constant, careful management across the seasons.

Nick Holden and Rhea Walter were recently "brush harvesting" in the bone-dry countryside overlooking St Ives Bay.

Walter explained: "It's a great process to be able to take the rich seed that we have here and then use it elsewhere to improve our meadows.

"It means this seed here is perfect for enhancing other areas because it's tailor-made for this specific habitat and these weather conditions, so it's great to be able to use native seeds elsewhere."

Holden added: "We look after everything that is in-hand land and farmland that we own for the benefit of wildlife, access, people, culture, heritage.

"The thing that gets us up in the morning - every morning - is we're in a bit of a biodiversity crisis, we've seen it in our lifetimes go on the slide a little bit.

"We've got the possibility and the opportunity within our roles to increase biodiversity and make habitats better and, luckily, we've been able to do that in the last few years at a great pace."

The BBC Radio Cornwall Make a Difference Awards are in their fifth year and the winners in the eight categories - including Environmental - will be announced at a ceremony in Truro in September.

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