Our nature reserves mean so much...

Our nature reserves offer so much to wildlife and people, but how many people realise the vitally important work that is carried out on every one of those wild places every day of the year? Our new campaign to spread the word starts here...

In this issue of Lapwing, we are launching our Nature Reserves Campaign to let people in on the secret that you, our members, know all about.

Let us begin by discussing the question “What is a nature reserve?” A nature reserve is a haven for wildlife to flourish. It can be one huge wetland or woodland, or a range of habitats, like Brockholes, Mere Sands Wood and Wigan Flashes.

Most of our reserves have a variety of habitats, offering feeding grounds and safe areas for creatures who live on the reserve or are just popping in.

One of my favourite stories is about lapwings on our island in Number One Pit at Brockholes. We have used conservation grazing sheep and volunteers to clear the island for spring every year.

This meant lapwings could nest and be able to look around pretty much the whole island, to see if dangers were lurking. When chicks were born and started to run around, the plants around them grew and eventually created a canopy, hiding them from predators and the summer sun. Our work helped this dynamic partnership between plants and birds.

Our nature reserves are places where plants can grow and mammals, birds and insects can nest and breed. While Nature has taken over vast industrial complexes, it still needs a little help from its LWT friends to retain fabulous habitats.

Some of our reserves provide homes for the willow tit, Britain’s most endangered small bird, the Manchester argus, a butterfly that hadn’t flown in the county for 150 years, and many rare and unusual species, orchids are everywhere in summer.

Our reserves are also inhabited during the day by volunteers, taking action for nature. We have conservation volunteers, friendly staff in our shops and cafes, and people supporting in our offices, all of whom take a pride in working in wild and not-so-wild places.

I honestly think that a lot of our wonderful peatland volunteers see the mosses as an extension to their own gardens. They work so hard and get a lot of satisfaction from balsam bashing, planting and scrub clearance, all vitally important jobs.

Volunteers create rides – or pathways – for handsome fritillaries, plant vibrant sundews, put up boxes for pied flycatchers and seed wildflower meadows for buzzing bees and flittering butterflies. They also mend fences and gates and tidy paths for another important element of our nature reserves, our visitors. The first aim of our Nature Reserves campaign is to welcome more visitors, who will support the work that the Lancashire Wildlife Trust is doing. They can come along to the reserves and tell all their friends what glorious places they are. >>>