A keen chough-watcher and a National Trust ranger team are among the nominees for a BBC Radio Cornwall Make a Difference Environmental Award. Also in the running are a woman who uses her horticultural skills to support adults with learning disabilities, and the team behind the restoration of an abandoned water garden and nursery.
The award celebrates an individual or group who help make where they live more environmentally friendly and better for nature. Winners will be announced in September.
"It's my favourite day of the week."
Tuesdays are busy for Karen Balsdon-Johnson, who supports adults with learning disabilities at the Lanhydrock allotments, created on National Trust land in 2010. The site has potatoes and rhubarb 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 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 falling into disrepair. Since 2022, new owners have cut back invasive trees and dug out tonnes of silt to create a plant-filled space.
Norman Trebilcock, co-director of Lanjeth Nursery – Growing People CIC, is full of enthusiasm as he points out traces of deer, snakes, slow worms and 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 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."
Cornwall’s Green Champions Nominated for BBC Environmental Award