The Bison and the Butterfly is a heart-warming ecosystem story about friends in nature and the nature of friendship. The book, published in 2024, was inspired by Kent Wildlife Trust’s Wilder Blean project, which saw European Bison introduced into Kent woodland to help restore UK wildlife and tackle the climate crisis.
Alice first visited Herne Infants in 2023 to workshop initial ideas for her book with the pupils, and it was a wonderful experience for her to return to the school and meet some of those same pupils again now that the book has been released.
It was a joy to return to Herne Infants and share The Bison and the Butterfly with some of the children who helped me come up with ideas for the book in its early stages.Alice Hemming
In the story, Bison meets a range of different characters – woodpecker, lizard, dung beetle and butterfly – and learns that her natural behaviours are of benefit to them all. Alice spoke about how choosing the characters for her book was a tricky balance between creativity and science, and that she had to make decisions to leave some characters out. Animals like slowworm, dormouse and wood pigeon – all of whom are also helped by the bison in Blean – were initially left out of the book. That is, until todays workshop, when children got the opportunity to storyboard their own section of the tale, including a woodland creature of their own.
The creativity of the classes was amazing, with dormouse being supported with bison fur for nests, stag beetles helped out by the abundance of dead wood and other native animals like red squirrel supported by the increase in biodiversity brought about by the bison acting as ecosystem engineers.
I had the added bonus of meeting the children from Herne Juniors and helping Year 3 to come up with some story ideas of their own. I was very impressed by their creativity and their knowledge of the natural world.Alice Hemming
The sessions sparked some wonderful conversations around the role the bison play. Some children were asking how bison benefit humans (as we are animals too after all) and other children flipping the story on its head and asking how the other animals support the bison. The intelligence and inquisitive nature of these 7-8 year olds was astonishing and truly inspiring!
At Kent Wildlife Trust, we believe storytelling is a powerful way to inspire young people to care about the natural world. Seeing the enjoyment on the pupils’ faces as they engaged with Alice’s story – and began to tell their own – was a reminder of how creativity and conservation can go hand-in-hand.
A huge thank you to Herne Infant and Junior Schools for welcoming us, and to Alice for helping bring the bison’s story to life in such a magical and meaningful way!
This workshop was made possible due to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, as part of the Blean bridges project.
Want to book your own Bison and Butterfly workshop with Kent Wildlife Trust? Follow the link to book your class visit to one of our education centres and discover for yourself what makes Bison and the Wilder Blean project so special: www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/education/primary-schools