WILDLIFE heroes from Evesham and Pershore were among 31 honoured by Worcestershire Wildlife Trust at an awards ceremony to celebrate people who are helping wildlife across the county.
From community gardeners to social media influencers, each had received a nomination for doing great things for wildlife in their local areas.
Among those honoured at the event at Lower Smite Farm last Thursday (January 30) was Charles Archer. Charles farms at Ashton under Hill and maintains a beautiful meadow on his land, encouraging the natural flora and fauna to grow and flourish.
In addition to this, he supports the local school in many of its environmental endeavours and allows regular use of the meadow.
Yvonne Rose, Jenny McLeish, Ursula Key-Davies and Jean Cotton from Pebworth in Bloom were also honoured on the night. As part of their bid to the Britain in Bloom Challenge Pebworth in Bloom have created many new planting projects for the benefit of pollinators, put up numerous bat, bird and insect boxes in the village, worked with the Vale Wildlife Rescue Centre to re-home and care for many hedgehogs and turned an attenuation pond on a new housing development into a wildlife haven.
They work closely with the local primary school to support them in their conservation efforts including the establishment of a Forest School.
Villagers have taken part in tree and wildlife surveys, created wildflower meadows, a stumpery, ponds and wetland areas and have held several events in the village to help local residents appreciate their local wildlife.
In February 2018 Pershore’s Bill Richardson read an article about the dramatic decline in bird numbers over the past 50 years and decided to do something to help.
Through his work at the charity Welcome to our Future, Bill made lots of grant applications to charitable trusts for funding to buy bird nesting boxes to help lots of different species.
During 2018 Bill secured grants totalling more than £23k, which has paid for hundreds of nest boxes to be distributed to a wide range of organisations including schools, churches, village halls, hospices, National Trust , Duckworth Trust, Bishops Wood Centre and many others, making a real difference to the bird population across Worcestershire
The Wildlife Heroes were presented with a certificate and specially commissioned pin badge by the director of Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, Colin Raven.
Sadie Carr Simons, organiser of the event, said: “It was an absolute delight to meet so many people who are doing important things for wildlife where they live.
“These are the people who really are making a difference for wildlife – from the nine year old who inspires classmates and other young people or the farmer who allows the local school to visit his wildflower meadows to champions of green schemes in their area or groups of people determined to help wildlife in their community.
Nominations are now open for the 2021 awards. Visit www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/wildlife-heroes or call 01905 754919 or e-mail [email protected] for more.
