KEEN wildlife lovers from Evesham and Pershore were honoured with Wildlife Hero Awards for their contributions to supporting their local environment.
The second annual event was held at Worcestershire Wildlife Trust headquarters at Lower Smite Farm and saw nine awards presented to residents from across the Vale.
Alison Pearcey and Juliet Shiels were on hand to collect an award for Ashton-Under-Hill First School where pupils learn about the importance of biodiversity using the local woodland and orchards as well as habitats created in their school grounds.
Martin Brookes was honoured for his work as manager of the Vale Wildlife Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre which seen him closely associated with its development through most of its 30 years. The centre cares for, rehabilitates and, if possible, releases injured wildlife from across the region.
Matt Brotherton was rewarded for his dedication to a Facebook group from his home called British Wildlife Watch and Photography, which has almost 12,000 members. The group was established to share great photos and videos of our amazing wildlife.
Tina Brown picked up an award for venturing out in all weathers to deal with routine maintenance and one-off duties as warden of Beckford Nature Reserve.
She leads the winter work parties and visitors often acknowledge her huge contribution in time, commitment and the way she gets things done.
Peter Bugg’s wife Jane was on hand to pick up an award in his memory which recognised his efforts to lead a group of local residents to restore and manage a small, neglected orchard in Fladbury.
Peter organised work parties to prune and plant trees, graft new trees and manage the grassland and held events and visits from the local primary school. He passed away last year.
Deborah Duncan was handed award in honour of keeping her garden wild so any animal can have a home. There are numerous bird tables and feeders, a hedgehog house, two small areas for frogs, wildflowers and climbers for birds and bees.
Founder member of Evesham Bat Care, Elaine Larne, was presented with an award for caring for rescued bats for four years while Timothy Lea was recognised for supporting wildlife on the northern side of Bredon Hill, especially the nationally rare violet click beetle.
The team at Oxton Organics were honoured for their efforts to grow vegetables with holistic management of their land – impressing their customers with their care for flora and fauna on the farm.
The trust’s engagement officer Sadie Carr Simons, said: “We’d like to say a very big thank you to all our Wildlife Heroes for helping and caring for wildlife across Worcestershire and we’d also like to thank all the nominators for noticing their hard work.
“Nominations for the awards are still open so we’d like to encourage everyone to have a think about who the Wildlife Heroes are in their area and get in touch.”
Visit www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/wildlife-heroes for more.
