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100th patch of land saved!

Celebrating our 100th patch of land - Alison (local group), Colin (Director), Jim (Severn Waste Services)

A local conservation charity is celebrating its 50th anniversary with the purchase of its 100th patch of land.

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust has just completed (Friday 21st Sept) the purchase of its 100th patch of land. The small woodland is next to the wildlife conservation charity’s existing Knapp and Papermill nature reserve at Alfrick Pound.

Colin Raven, Director of the Trust, explained “This is the perfect way for us to celebrate 50 years of protecting wildlife in Worcestershire.

“The Knapp and Papermill was one of the first nature reserves owned by the Trust shortly after it was established in 1968 so to add to it in our anniversary year is very special indeed.

“This new patch brings our nature reserve to 95 acres – that’s a mix of orchard, woodland, river and meadows that wildlife can thrive in and people can enjoy.”

The woodland, just over 10 acres, has been sympathetically managed with wildlife in mind by the previous owners for more than 25 years.

Generous donations

Purchase of the wood was only possible because of a generous donation from a private individual and a grant from Severn Waste Services through the Landfill Communities Fund.

The orchard and house were donated to the Trust by Hugh and Shifa Doncaster and The Knapp and Papermill has been a Trust nature reserve since its formation in 1968. Since then the Trust has been fortunate enough to purchase adjacent land in several stages, creating one of the area’s most popular nature reserves.

Tor Coppice by Becky Bradshaw King

Tor Coppice by Becky Bradshaw King

Colin continued “We’d like to say a huge thank you to our donor and to Severn Waste Services for enabling the purchase of this land.

“Our nature reserves are incredibly important stepping stones throughout Worcestershire’s countryside that help wildlife to move from place to place.  For wildlife to truly thrive we need our landscape to be bigger, better and more joined up.

“That’s why, in our 50th year, as well as looking at how we can make our own land bigger and better, we’re also asking the public to help our landscape to become more joined up. Our Pledge a Patch campaign enables people to pledge their own patch for wildlife – adding their own plot of land to our map to turn Worcestershire wild.”

A public footpath runs through the new land from the existing Knapp and Papermill nature reserve. An eight mile Woodlands and Wildlife walk already runs along this footpath – a booklet to accompany this is available from the Knapp’s information centre and an audio trail is available to download.

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