WANTED: one big blank wall for a mural of a giant green beetle.

Environmental charity New Networks for Nature has commissioned street artist ATM to paint a giant mural of a tansy beetle to provide a lasting legacy of a major nature conference which will be held in York later this year.

But first the charity needs to find a suitable wall.

Planning permission isn’t necessary, insists nature writer and New Networks for Nature organiser Dr Amy-Jane Beer. “It would be considered to be surface decoration.” But the permission of the wall’s owner will be needed.

York, with its Bile Beans and FR Stubbs wall advertisements, has a tradition of wall art. But a giant painting of York’s most famous beetle would be something different.

The tansy, which has an almost jewel-like beauty when seen up close, came near to extinction in the UK. The banks of York’s flood-prone River Ouse were one of the few places where it managed to cling on.

Thanks to the Tansy Beetle Action Group, which improved the river bank where the beetle lives and also planted lots of the golden-flowered aromatic tansy plants after which it is named, numbers have since recovered.

“The tansy beetle is a species of which York can be rightly proud,” said Dr Beer. “We want this piece of artwork to be a new landmark for York in more ways than one – a celebration of the amazing success of local conservation, and a timely reminder that nature has a rightful place in our city.”

Street artist ATM, who specialises in murals of birds and other species threatened with extinction, added: “The Tansy Beetle is such a rare creature, and as one of its only strongholds in Britain is the York area, it would make a perfect subject for a striking and vibrant piece of public art.”

The annual New Networks for Nature conference will be held for the first time in York in October, at St Peter’s School.

It will bring together leader naturalists, writers, artists and musicians inspired by wildlife - among them Springwatch’s Chris Packham.

The idea is for ATM’s tansy beetle mural to be painted in time for the conference - and to be left behind as a lasting legacy.

Property owners with a suitable wall are invited to send New Networks for Nature a photo of their wall by the end of May. Simply email Amy-Jane Beer at info@newnetworksfornature.org.uk or contact her on Twitter @AmyJaneBeer.