Protecting wildlife for half a century

It’s been a 50-year battle that began armed with the ‘princely’ sum of just £35.

In 1962, against a backdrop of concerns over the growing spread of post-war development across Britain, Shropshire landmark the Long Mynd fell under threat of plans from a hydrological research organisation to afforest one of the ‘batches’ to assess the effect on water flow.

Amid fears that any such action would seriously damage the Mynd’s rich flora and fauna, which at that time included 12 pairs of breeding ring ouzels, on July 12, 1962, Shropshire Conservation Trust – the forerunner to the Wildlife Trust – came into existence courtesy of donations of £20 from the Caradoc and Severn Valley Field Club, £10 from Shropshire Ornithological Society and a £5 individual gift.

Even in 1962 this amounted to a humble sum, but the group’s power lay in its people – a small, pioneering number of dedicated individuals that included botanists, ornithologists, landowners, country sports enthusiasts and geologists, all passionately driven by a common goal: to protect Shropshire remarkably diverse natural landscape and its wildlife.

Yesterday, Shropshire Wildlife Trust – which proudly took its place in the Cosford pageant for the Queen’s visit – celebrated 50 years of protection and preservation of Mother Nature’s handiwork and continues to go from strength to strength.

The Mynd proposals of 1962 came to nothing but the wheels were in motion and almost immediately the Trust was looking to protect other county treasures.

Amongst early projects was a move to take over the The Hollies, on the Stiperstones, which was then used as a prison farm. In those days the Trust could not afford to buy it when it came up for sale, but 40 years later an attempt to purchase this unique site rich in ancient trees was successful.

Then in 1964 the Trust secured on lease, and later bought, Earl’s Hill near Pontesbury and by 1983 had 21 nature reserves, including gems such as Sweeney Fen. Today its number of reserves stands at 37.

John Hughes, development manager for the Trust, says one of the keys to the success of the charity is the passion and dedication of its volunteers and staff.

The Trust’s founders were volunteers and the charity has continued to attract a fantastic array of people willing to give them time, skills and energy in undertaking everything from administrative duties to conservation work on nature reserves, crucially conducting vital data surveys to help monitor any changes in habitat.

Mr Hughes says: “I think that there would have been a lot of things lost if it wasn’t for the work of the Trust. I think that the most powerful tool we have is information gained through bothering to go out and collecting data, and through having good information on what was happening to our wildlife we have been able to influence all sorts of inappropriate developments and also attract investments into the area such as the agri-environmental scheme.”

A massive two-year field survey of the county was undertaken from 1978-1980. Scouring over a million acres, the survey yielded rich information about the county’s best wildlife areas. The information was then used to designate 500 priority conservation sites, now known as Wildlife Sites.

In the history of the Trust there are recurring themes, and protecting ancient wild peatlands is one of them. In the late 1980s the third largest raised bog in England, the Fenn’s, Whixall complex, was threatened with industrial-scale peat extraction.

Members of Shropshire Wildlife Trust campaigned furiously and effectively: the Moss was saved and designated a National Nature Reserve in 1990.

Elsewhere, the project ‘Back to purple’ was probably the first landscape-scale conservation scheme in the country. In 1998, a partnership of organisations including Shropshire Wildlife Trust, English Nature, the Forestry Commission and local landowners, set out to restore heathland along the Stiperstones ridge.

But it is not just the rural landscape that members aim to preserve and the Trust has campaigned long and hard for the retention of the green and wild spaces in Telford and Shrewsbury.

And through the efforts of the Trust, Telford’s green network has been recognised since the 1990s within the local planning framework. With proposals to build a further 26,500 houses in the area by 2025, the pressure on undeveloped ground is huge and the Trust remains fierce protectors of the landscape.

It is appropriate that in its 50th year the trust won the Shropshire Star’s prestigious Pride of Shropshire Award 2012 in the Environment Champion category and on the very day of their anniversary were guests at the Queen’s visit to RAF Cosford.

Prue Quayle, from the Shrewsbury branch of the Trust, says: “It’s good to think that the Shrewsbury branch, along with many other groups of committed enthusiasts, helped to create the current public awareness and enthusiasm for nature conservation, and the growth of Shropshire

Wildlife trust from a small office in an old primary school to its current premises and influential role in the life of the county.

“Perhaps my favourite memory of the branch is of a committee meeting in January 1996, icy cold outside and not much warmer in a cold dining room overlooking the River Severn. ‘Otter’, cried one member, and it was – a first sighting for all of us and a timely reminder of what the branch was working for.

The success and legacy of the work of the Trust is proof that Shropshire is a county where people care passionately about its unique environment.

John Hughes continues: “People do care very deeply about their environment here and treasure what’s different about it. Not to say that it hasn’t changed, but it has retained a certain quality and it’s that quality that makes it a lovely place to live.”

Fifty years after its humble £35 beginnings with a handful of like-minded enthusiasts, Shropshire Wildlife Trust is now a multi-million pound concern with 10,000 members.

Mr Hughes adds: “We are now turning over £1.5m a year and have 40 paid people working for us, 400 volunteers and 10,000 members. We have grown a bit!”