Wildlife on our Reserves needs Your help

The Trust manages 700 acres of nature reserves including many of Herefordshire’s most important areas for wildlife. They include nationally important woodlands, wetlands, grassland and orchards together with a rich and diverse range of species.

Take a tour of the reserves around Herefordshire and you will find:

• Ancient semi-natural woodlands carpeted with bluebells, ramsons and herb paris where dormice and wood white butterflies can be found
• Floodplain grasslands inhabited by great burnet, mud snails, skylarks and curlew
• Rivers and streams with dippers, crayfish and scarce dragonflies
• Meadows and pastures with green winged orchids, betony, devil’s bit scabious and waxcap fungi
• Old orchards where ‘Catshead’, ‘Lady’s Finger of Hereford’ and ‘King’s Acre Pippin’ trees provide habitat for little owls and mistletoe
• Miles of ancient and species rich hedgerows with massive pollarded oak and willow trees

Managing our nature reserves for their wildlife remains one of the most important aspects of the Trust’s work. To do so we rely upon committed staff, investment through local contractors and positive working relationships with local farmers.

We depend upon a dedicated and loyal band of volunteers who undertake practical management on the reserves every week of the year. Thanks to our teams of volunteers, over 7000 man hours of conservation work were carried out on the reserves during 2008.

The cost of managing land never decreases and in the current economic climate the future of wildlife conservation will rely upon better investment, prudent spending and further funding being generated. Managing and employing the unstinting labour of volunteers does not come free. It requires investments in vehicles, tools and machinery, training, travel and insurance, all of which cost the Trust upwards of £45,000 per year.

We need your help to raise £25,000 towards these costs over the next year.

Your help will secure the immediate future of our nature reserves with their wonderful diversity of habitats and species.

> Click here to download Reserves Appeal letter (470KB)

YOUR HELP WILL ENSURE:

• Our woodland reserves remain a stronghold for dormice and other mammals.
• Green winged orchids continue to flourish at Crow Meadow.
• Wet Grassland habitat for overwintering snipe is maintained and enhanced.
• Grass snakes, adders and slowworm are safeguarded at Davies Meadow, Pool Ellocks and Common Hill.
• 5 species of bat can continue to feed over and around Titley Pool.
• Access paths, woodland rides and glades are kept open for all our visitors.
• Globeflowers continue to flourish at Upper Welson Marsh – its most southerly limit in Britain.
• Deadwood at Crow Wood continues to provide habitat for rare bees and wasps.
• Purple emperor butterflies survive amongst our oak woodlands.
• 54 nature reserves continue to be positively managed for people and wildlife.

 

To continue the positive management of our reserves and the involvement of volunteers from all walks of life, any gift you can give today will enable us to:

• provide chainsaws, brushcutters and motorscythes which allow coppicing,
  grass cutting, bracken and scrub clearing to be carried out
• provide training for volunteers – tractor driving, chainsaw use, brushcutter
  use, first aid, etc.
• run and maintain the Trust’s tractor used for hay making, path cutting, thistle
  topping, hedge trimming, log cutting, etc.
• cover volunteer travel costs
• secure the funds needed to cover minibus and landrover running costs
• purchase and maintain hand tools
• purchase safety and protective gear

> Click here to download Reserves Appeal letter (470KB)

 

Thank you for supporting this appeal