Hen Harrier Life Project Community Engagement Officer Aimée Nicholson reports on recent the LUSH summit  

Since joining the Hen Harrier Life Project back in October of last year, I have spent many a happy day telling people about the wonderful birds we are working so hard to protect. Last Thursday was no different but there was a slight twist to this event; this time it was live streamed across the internet for the world to see.

The event I attended was the LUSH Summit, a two-day event organised by the ethical cosmetics company, which showcased the causes that they support through the campaigns in their shops. The Hen Harrier Life Project is very lucky to be one of those causes and since 2015 the sales from the Skydancer bath bomb has raised over £100,000 to fund the purchase of satellite tags. Thanks to this support from Lush we are able to tag double the amount of birds this year than we did last year, all due to people buying bath bombs.

My day started at 6am as I got on the train to head to the trendy Tobacco Dock in London’s thriving enterprise zone.  I am not usually an early morning person but the excitement of attending this event and talking about hen harriers alongside my colleague Mark Thomas and Chris Packham had me wide awake and prepared for the day. I arrived in London just as is started to snow, battled the rush hour tube (how do people do this?) and made it to the event with half an hour to spare, and time to warm up ready for our rehearsal.

We were hosted in the conservation room which was filled with trees, plants and cosy bean bags for people to relax in during the talks. The talks in this room were enough to keep you busy for the day never mind the numerous other rooms which were available to explore. 

The LUSH Summit

I met with Chris and Mark at rehearsal ready to be briefed about what we were doing that afternoon, the session we were taking part in was done in the LUSH Kitchen style (think Saturday Kitchen with cosmetics) so we were told that we would be talking about hen harriers whilst making the Skydancer bath bomb.  For someone who loves the bath bomb, this sounded great fun.

Aimée with Mark Thomas and Chris Packham

The summit was just as I had imagined, very LUSH! The place smelled incredible; you could actually smell it on the way to the venue and we were entertained with dancing flowers, ladybirds and unicorns whilst exploring all the new and exclusive products that were scattered throughout the venue.

This was the only LUSH Kitchen talk to be live streamed throughout the whole event which highlights the importance of this campaign. We sat awaiting the countdown and looked around at the crowded room of expectant faces and then we were live! The LUSH kitchen format was great fun to take part in; there was time for us to tell people about hen harriers, the problems they face,  the work, which LUSH has done to support the Hen Harrier Life Project, all whilst getting messy making  Skydancer bath bombs.

Making hen harrier bath bombs

The 40 minutes whizzed by and it all went incredibly well, which what you always hope for as a Community Engagement Officer, and the feedback in the room was that of a very caring audience who hope for the best future for hen harriers.

Here’s to hoping that the people in audience, and those watching online, went away and told others about these beautiful Skydancers and what they can do to help. After saying my goodbyes to the team I headed back to Kings Cross, Skydancers in hand, backpack full of goodies and smelling like I had been rolling in essential oils. I felt content that now even more people were aware of the work of the Hen Harrier Life Project, the amazing support we have received from LUSH and hoping for a successful breeding season in 2017.