Celebrating 50 years

by Jim Cokill, Director

1971-2021

ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION EDITION

I’ve been fortunate enough to be at Durham Wildlife Trust to celebrate both its 40th and 50th anniversaries. The truth is that it’s a bit debatable as to when the anniversary actually falls, as Durham Wildlife Trust formed following the split of a joint Durham and Northumberland organisation. Marking a divorce, however amicable, doesn’t seem right, so our anniversary is set to celebrate the birth of the new organisation, making our birthday 30th July.

Our charity has achieved a huge amount over the last 50 years, whether as a Naturalists’ Trust, County Conservation Trust, or as the Durham Wildlife Trust we see today. Over these pages, we take a look at some of the major achievements over the last five decades, and look forward to what the next five decades may bring.

Director

Durham County Conservation Trust came into being on 30th July 1971 and initially the Trust had seven nature reserves – Witton-le-Wear, Hawthorn Dene, Blackhall Rocks, Rosa Shafto, Joe’s Pond, Moorhouse Wood and Redcar Field. 50 years ago, the Durham region was a very different place – a landscape still dominated by coal mines and spoil heaps, with millions of tonnes of colliery waste being tipped into the sea along our coast. Before local government reorganisation in 1974, County Durham stretched from the Tees to the Tyne, which is why Durham Wildlife Trust covers the area it does today, not just present day County Durham. Pollution from industry was a major threat to wildlife. Rivers were poisoned by industrial waste, driving species such as the otter to extinction in our area. The Trust had to campaign to prevent Bishop Middleham Quarry – now a nationally designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its wildlife – from being used as a landfill site. Though small in terms of the number of members, the Trust had a powerful voice, and public support for nature conservation was growing.

By 1981 the Trust was managing 15 nature reserves, and the protection of wildlife was firmly on the political agenda - the Wildlife and Countryside Act entered the statute books that year. David Bellamy played a prominent role in raising the charity’s profile throughout the 1980s and, on the national stage, David Attenborough was an important supporter of the growing national movement. The impacts of industry were still significant, but European legislation was beginning to lead to change. Opencast coal mining was occurring on a significant scale across our region, with the Trust opposing several schemes. By the end of the decade, the Trust was expanding, and moved its offices from the city of Durham to Low Barns, to provide room for additional staff. Urban wildlife had become a big issue, with an Urban Wildlife Officer working across Sunderland and South Tyneside.

This was the decade when environmental issues were definitely on the political agenda and climate change gained public attention. The United Nations Rio ‘Earth Summit’ in 1992 highlighted human impact on the natural environment, and put the term ‘biodiversity’ in the dictionary. Closer to home, in 1994, the Habitats Regulations strengthened wildlife protection in the U.K. Durham Wildlife Trust continued to deliver the work on the ground that put the legislation into practice. Bringing back otters was a major success, with the Trust’s surveys and programme of habitat improvements supporting the natural recolonisation of our rivers by this iconic species. As the number of nature reserves grew and the organisation increased in size, there was a need for more space, and the Trust moved its HQ to Rainton Meadows in 1997.

A decade that saw significant growth in the Trust’s work. Support from the National Lottery allowed volunteer numbers to grow and the Trust was able to take on the management of Hedleyhope Fell, its largest nature reserve. The scale of species and habitat restoration projects increased, with work beyond the nature reserve boundaries, across magnesian limestone grasslands and lowland habitats. Work to slow the catastrophic decline of water voles was underway, and, by the middle of the decade, otters were once again found on every river catchment in the Durham Wildlife Trust area – a clear sign that, if there is public and political backing, nature restoration can be a reality.

By working on a landscape scale, the Trust was able to successfully re-introduce the small pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly to several sites, saving the species from extinction in the Durham region.

The landscape approach guided closer working with local councils to bring more land into Trust management. By growing the area of land it directly managed (with nearly 40 reserves by the end of the decade) the Trust was able to secure the land needed to allow nature’s recovery to begin. This decade also saw a further uplift in the ambition and scale of projects. Work done from the middle of the decade onwards allowed the Trust to develop projects that have generated more than £3 million in project funding for nature conservation and restoration. Discover Brightwater, Naturally Native, and SeaScapes projects are the result.

For very obvious reasons, the 2020s didn’t get off to the best of starts for Durham Wildlife Trust. There’s no need to expand on that here, the reasons are well known, but, thankfully, the Trust has been far more fortunate than many other organisations. The generosity and understanding of our supporters has meant that the charity is still in a position to plan how it can address the challenges of the next 50 years. Project success has continued with Healing Nature delivering a green recovery from the Covid crisis. The number of nature reserves continues to grow, with the ambitious target of 50 nature reserves by the end of our 50th anniversary year in July 2022. All the achievements of the last 50 years are thanks to Durham Wildlife Trust’s members, volunteers, and supporters. Without members providing their support, those initial volunteers who created the charity would not have seen their efforts rewarded. The organisation has grown steadily and, today, has dozens of nature reserves, hundreds of volunteers, and thousands of members providing the support needed to tackle the challenges the next 50 years will bring.

Any individual or organisation, whether a small business or national government, has to think about the impacts of climate change when considering their plans for the future. The issue is massive and can seem overwhelming, but the only way it can be addressed is by taking action, which is exactly what the Trust will be doing over the next 50 years. Our first step is to measure the size of the problem, or at least the part that is within our control. The Trust has very recently calculated its carbon footprint for the first time. Our current best estimate is that emissions in 2019/20 were 237.0 tCO2e (tonnes of CO2 equivalent). That number is only an estimate, as the first thing that becomes apparent when undertaking a carbon calculation is that you don’t have all the necessary data readily available. That will be changing for Durham Wildlife Trust over the coming months and years, as it will for all of us. Climate change isn’t an issue that is going away soon, so we all have to get used to thinking, in a different way, about our own impact on the environment, and get used to accounting for our individual and organisational carbon budgets. If we can do that, and use the information to see what changes we need to make, climate change can be brought under control by the time Durham Wildlife Trust celebrates its centenary. There’s no reason why that can’t be the case.

Our climate and ecosystem are so intrinsically linked that the climate and ecological emergencies must be viewed as two parts of the same issue. It’s true that our wildlife was in crisis before climate change was recognised as a global threat. Durham Wildlife Trust was created because people across the region saw the loss of habitats and species around them. In the 1970s, pollution, development, and agricultural intensification were driving the destruction of nature, and those issues all still play a part. But, unless the climate issue is addressed, our efforts to conserve nature will be in vain. Thankfully, nature is part of the solution. The Durham region lay at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. The coalfields provided the energy needed to drive developments in railways and industrialisation that spread around the world. The same region can also be at the centre of efforts to reverse the man-made climate change that resulted. Industry will provide some of the solution, with reduced emissions and new technologies, but nature is also needed. By restoring damaged habitats and creating new ones, carbon sinks can be developed that draw carbon from the atmosphere. At the same time those habitats provide space for species to recover, so that nature is restored, not just conserved. That must be the ambition for the next 50 years. To complete that ambition, species that were driven to extinction by man must also be restored to the Durham landscape. By 2071, why shouldn’t golden eagles be a regular site over the restored peatlands of the North Pennines – part of the Great North Bog stretching from Derbyshire to Scotland? Beavers commonplace throughout our river catchments by 2071 – why not? Natural engineers creating wetlands that reduce the risk of flooding and provide habitats for other species. To the east, oyster and mussel beds flourishing by 2071; it’s completely possible. They can be major features of our estuaries and coastline, providing food for people and wildlife, buffering against erosion, and depositing carbon in their shells.

Looking forward 50 years, what will the future hold for Durham Wildlife Trust itself? Much as I love my job, I don’t think I’ll still be working here, but I do think there will still be a Durham Wildlife Trust. Perhaps a new name (we’ve had three in the first 50 years, after all), but there will still be a need for a locally-based organisation that champions wildlife and the natural world. The ecological and climate emergency is a long-term problem, and one that can only be overcome by 50 years of action at all levels. Government, both national and local, must set out the policies and provide the investment that makes action possible. Industry and agriculture must deliver the innovation that puts the Durham region at the centre of the next ‘green’ industrial revolution. And Durham Wildlife Trust? We must deliver the restoration of nature across our region, making sure that local people are involved in every aspect of that work.