New technology opens up new guided tour of nature reserve

VISITORS to Warrington’s Risley Moss nature reserve can experience a unique guided tour – through the eyes of children- thanks to the introduction of new technology.
Rangers have worked with children from three local primary schools, Gorse Covert, Locking Stumps and Birchwood CE, to digitally capture the children’s thoughts about the wildlife they have been studying during their visits to the reserve in Birchwood.
Now visitors can be accompanied on their walk by the thoughts of the children about a whole variety of wildlife such as woodpeckers, spiders and even lizards.
It’s simply a matter of tapping your phone on the tag at the start of the trail and letting the children lead the tour.
Risley Moss has introduced new NFC (near field communication) technology to provide an exciting new way of exploring the reserve and discovering its hidden treasures.
It means everyone setting off on the nature trail can access information, photographs and voice files created by children.
Warrington Borough Council’s cabinet member for leisure and community, Cllr Tony Higgins said “This is a great addition to the set of trails which have been such a great success since opening at the nature reserve last year. It’s about using new technology to enhance the experience of visitors and give them a new insight into the variety of wildlife around them.
“I’m delighted that the rangers have worked closely with school children on this fantastic educational project. And with plans being developed to capture even more stories from children in the future, I’m looking forward to this project going from strength to strength.”
Visitors can call in at the Risley Moss Visitor Centre to collectr trail sheets and maps if They wish to have a go.
Android
To use the new NFC tag at the Risley Moss wildfire trail activate the NFC function on your phone which can be found in “settings/connections”
Where you see “tap here” on the wildlife posts just tap your phone to the tag.
IPhone (iPhone 7,8,X,11- running iOS 11 only)
Download the NFC app “goToTags” from the Apple Store, then activate the NFC function which can be found in “settings/more”
Where you see “tap here” on the wildlife posts just tap your phone to the tag.