Digital wildlife trust newsletter winter 2015

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE WILDLIFE TRUST CORPORATE SUPPORTERS

Registered Charity No. 1000412

BUSINESSES WORKING FOR WILDLIFE How local companies are getting involved

ISSUE 33 Winter 2015

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Apprentice Challenge is back page 3 Looking out for the water vole page 5 Partnership raises ÂŁ1m for wildlife page 6

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WILDLIFE AT WORK

STAFF ENGAGEM

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CONTENTS

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OUR CHALLENGES TO YOU WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST MEMBER

LOOKING OUT FOR WATER VOLES T HANKS A MILLION

C HRISTMAS WRAPPED UP

Cover image taken by Bob Coyle

John, Rachel and Helen

Contact Us

For more information on how your business can support the Wildlife Trust visit www.wildlifebcn.org, or contact Rachel Hopper, Corporate Partnerships Development Manager, on 01954 713 554 or email rachel.hopper@wildlifebcn.org To learn about how local businesses can promote the work and opportunities at the Trust, contact John Constable, Corporate Partnerships Manager, on 01954 713 557 or e-mail john.constable@wildlifebcn.org To get involved with activities featured in this issue, contact Helen Daniel, Fundraising Officer, on 01954 713 560 or email helen.daniel@wildlifebcn.org

/The Wildlife Trust BCN wildlifebcn Wildlife Trust BCN Some part/all of your donations could be used to make a Contributing Third Party (CTP) payment to a landfill operator to secure a grant through the Landfill Communities Fund’.

WORKING TOGETHER FOR NATURE Ten volunteers from Center Parcs Woburn Forest spent a day in July helping The Wildlife Trust BCN with essential bracken pulling at Cooper’s Hill.

Volunteers from Center Parcs Woburn Forest spent a day in July helping The Wildlife Trust BCN with essential bracken pulling at Cooper’s Hill.

Since the partnership with the Wildlife Trusts began in May 2013, over £80,000 has been raised through guest support and fundraising activities. Center Parcs considers staff engagement as important as funding when working with charities; their volunteering programme has been running for 4 years with projects including landscaping and gardening.

Cooper’s Hill is Bedfordshire’s largest remaining area of heathland, covered in swathes of heather in late summer.

Invasive bracken threatens the heather

by shading it out, so regular removal of the bracken needs to be undertaken.

The reserve is On the Greensand Ridge and Flit Valley Living Landscape, and was historically grazed by sheep or cattle, with the heather also used as fuel, bedding and for thatching roofs.

Open heath provides a home for the common lizard and insects, and lots of nesting birds also take advantage of the protection of spikey gorse.

Get involved!

Why not help our vital conservation work by taking part in one of our practical work days?

Get in touch for possible activities!

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STAFF ENGAGEM

ISSUE 33 WINTER 2015

APPRENTICE CHALLENGE IS BACK! Can you turn £50 into £500 for wildlife?

Rally you r team an d email helen.dan iel@wildli fe bcn.org, or call 019 54 71356 0 to sign u p The Center Parcs team Credit: Liz Millbank

Hard at work pulling bracken

The Wildlife Trust’s Apprentice Challenge is now open for registration, so it’s time to plan your activities for February if you want to win the coveted 2016 title. This fun competition encourages teams to work together and raise funds for local wildlife, any way you choose - as long as it’s legal! We will provide a seed fund of £50 and ideas to get you started, and you have until 31st March 2016 to return your pot of money.

You could use the £50 to hold a sociable fundraising event at work, such as a quiz and raffle; run an auction of promises; or have a bake-off and sell your cakes in the office. Last year’s winning team was Colworth Science Park, who created Christmas wreaths and jams and raised £587.50, demonstrating that everyone has something to offer and make a difference for wildlife.

GET FIT FOR WILDLIFE! The Cambourne 10k will be held on Sunday 10th April 2016, and we invite your company to take part in our 10k Business Challenge and raise funds for the Wildlife Trust. Now in its eighth year, the race is extremely popular with all ages and running levels, and the appealing route passes through woodland areas and alongside lakes.

Runners in the 2015 Business Challenge raised £4,985 – could you help us raise more than £5,000 next year?

Don’t miss out!

To be in with a chance of winning the trophy, get together your team of 4 runners and email helen.daniel@wildlifebcn.org (or call 01954 713560) as soon as possible, because places for the race go very quickly.

CSR – the 2015 10k Business Challenge winners

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WILDLIFE AT WORK

NEW MEMBERS

WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST CORPORATE MEMBER ROEM LTD

Karen Roem

We are delighted to welcome Roem Ltd to the Trust as our newest corporate member.

Roem Ltd is a Cambridge-based computer software training company specialising in Microsoft Office and Livelink. Founded by Karen Roem in 2001, the company has successfully delivered training in 23 countries across five continents and regularly works with diverse organisations and businesses across East Anglia, London and the Home Counties.

Karen herself is no stranger to the work of Wildlife Trust and relishes the opportunity to enjoy nature and wildlife wherever she is. We are very grateful that she has taken her personal

interest and support a step further by supporting the Trust through her organisation, helping to save nature and wildlife sites close to home.

MEET OUR TEAM

Helen Daniel joined the team in August as our Fundraising Officer. A true nature and wildlife enthusiast, Helen will be supporting both the team and companies to get involved in opportunities for engaging with local wildlife and improving the natural environment.

Helen Daniel

“I’m so happy to be able to use my fundraising experience and passion for wildlife in my new role, getting involved in all sorts of activities. I’m hoping to show how easy it is to make a positive difference for our natural environment by taking simple steps in your everyday working life, and reap the business and personal benefits at the same time.”

We also welcomed John Constable to the team in August. As Corporate Partnerships Manager, John will be exploring opportunities for collaborating with local businesses and organisations to protect local wildlife and to reach out to local communities.

“I’m delighted to have joined the Wildlife Trust BCN and use my experience of working at a university business school to develop corporate partnerships. I look forward to working with you - please get in touch with your ideas about how we can collaborate and promote the work you are already doing to support our local wildlife”.

John Constable

N UPDATE

CONSERVATIO

LOOKING OUT FOR WATER VOLES

ISSUE 33 WINTER 2015 Water vole spotted during this year’s survey at Ransonmoor.

Credit: Georgette and Alistair Taylor

HOW YOU CAN HELP Could you wade in to help? We need to replace 5 pairs of leaky waders.

Each pair costs just £60 – could your organisation support practical wildlife work with a donation for this amount?

Please contact Helen Daniel to discuss further.

The water vole is arguably Britain’s fastest declining wild mammal, and has disappeared from many parts of the country where it was once common. In the Anglian region there was an estimated 87% decline between 1990 and 1998, down from 1.4 million to just an estimated 179,000.* Here at the Wildlife Trust BCN, we have just completed a survey of two drainage districts: Curf Fen and Ransonmoor in Cambridgeshire, 10 years on from our original study. The next step is to analyse the findings to ascertain how the water vole population is changing in these two areas, but we are hopeful we’ll conclude it’s relatively stable in the face * Statistics from the survey completed by the Vincent Wildlife Trust

of the national population decline. Water voles have many predators, but are particularly threatened by the introduced American mink as they have few defences due to not having evolved with them. While other predators pick off a few animals from the population, a female mink is small enough to follow water voles into their burrows and can remove an entire population from a watercourse.

It’s likely that one reason the fen area affords this endearing creature a better chance of survival is due to its complexity. With lots of watercourses, even if a mink decimates the population in one place, there will be a nearby population that can expand back into that area once the mink has gone.

DISCUSSING NATURAL CAPITAL Nature is not an impediment to development; it is essential. So said Tony Juniper and Jeff Ollerton at our exclusive event in September, which explored the economic role of Natural Capital and how the Wildlife Trust helps to sustain this.

Tony, one of our Trustees, showed the clear economic benefits of nature; how it can often provide an essential function at a fraction of the cost of artificial methods.

Jeff, Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Northampton, highlighted the cost saving we make through insect pollination; it’s more effective if more species are involved, so we must protect all those involved, directly or indirectly.

Finally, our Chief Executive Brian Eversham reminded us that species cannot move unless they have a well-connected landscape - a network of local sites that we must protect for the sake of our future natural capital.

If your business would like to join in our Natural Capital debate, please contact john.constable@wildlifebcn.org for more information.

Thank you to Downing College for hosting the event.

Tony’s book “What Nature Does for Britain” is available to purchase from our website wildlifebcn.org/ node/15326 Left to right: Brian Eversham, Jeff Ollerton and Tony Juniper

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WILDLIFE AT WORK

BUSINESS RELA TIONSHIPS

THANKS A MILLION TO VINE HOUSE FARM

Tree Sparrows on Vine House Farm

One man’s passion for the natural world has shaped his method of wildlife-friendly farming, and now Vine House Farm has raised £1 million through its partnership with the Wildlife Trusts.

“It all started back in 1992, when I realised there had been a big drop in bird numbers on the farm.”

Award-winning farmer Nicholas Watts OBE

Nicholas’ daughter Lucy continues: “We signed up as a corporate partner of the Wildlife Trust BCN because we care about wildlife and the world we live in. As a human race, we are often obsessed about making money and looking after ourselves with little or no care for the environment and

wildlife around us. If we are not careful we will destroy the world we live in.

We believe the work of the Wildlife Trust is so important for the wildlife on OUR back door step. That’s the Trust’s great strength - you are helping wildlife locally.

For us our corporate partnership has turned into something far bigger than we could ever have imagined. 7 years ago we became The Wildlife Trusts’ bird food partner, and since then Vine House Farm has gone from strength to strength. I’m positive that one of the key reasons of this success is the benefit of being associated with such a recognised national charity.

We are now feeding and caring for so many more birds than we could have ever dreamed of”.

AWARD WINNERS! Congratulations to Anglian Water for recently winning two coveted awards. A Queen’s Award for Enterprise, in recognition of its significant contribution in setting new national standards for sustainability and embedding sustainability throughout its operations, and Green Flag status for Pitsford Water Park and nature reserve.

TIONSHIPS BUSINESS RELA

ISSUE 33 WINTER 2015

CHANGES TO OUR CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP SCHEME The Corporate Membership Scheme is the way we engage with many companies to obtain support for our work. We have reviewed the scheme to ensure that it is attractive and relevant to the needs of current and prospective corporate supporters, and also efficient and effective for the Trust.

CURRENT SCHEME OF 5 MEMBERSHIP LEVELS: Standard............................................................. £300+ Bronze ............................................................... £500+ Silver ............................................................... £1,000+ Gold ................................................................ £2,000+ Platinum ......................................................... £5,000+

After consultation with a number of partners, the key changes are that we have streamlined the scheme by moving from 5 levels to 3, renaming the levels and increasing the minimum membership subscription to £500 p.a. We are also updating the benefits associated with each level of membership.

NEW SCHEME OF 3 MEMBERSHIP LEVELS: Corporate supporter............................ £500+ Corporate investor............................ £1,000+ Corporate partner ............................ £5,000+

All the above subscriptions are per annum and exclude VAT

Why are these changes happening?

In response to the changing needs and expectations of companies, the focus of our engagement with our corporate members will be more strategic, offering increased opportunities for you to help deliver our vision of people close to nature, in a land rich in wildlife.

We aim to be the partner of choice for companies seeking to engage with a local conservation charity. We can help deliver corporate environmental, sustainability, community and staff development objectives, enhancing brand recognition and providing tangible evidence of the impact of your support in our region.

What does this mean for my company?

For some of you, we will be asking you to increase your membership subscription to £500 p.a. Every one of our corporate members will benefit from an updated package of events and activities designed to boost staff engagement and morale and improve and protect the environment in the communities where we live and work.

What happens next?

We will be in touch over the coming months to discuss what these changes mean for your company’s membership. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact Rachel Hopper.

WILDLIFE TRAINING WORKSHOPS Throughout the the year, the Trust holds a variety of workshops across the three counties. The workshops are a great way to meet like-minded people, develop your naturalist skills and to learn about what wildlife you have right on your doorstep.

Ranging from identification of bumblebees to introductory workshops on aquatic plants, the workshops are a great opportunity for discussion and learning.

Participants can share their own experience

of local wildlife, and most of the workshops include both an indoor session and a field trip to one of our reserves. By the end of the courses, participants are able to identity many of our local species and to understand the habitats they live in and the challenges that they face.

To see our diverse range of workshops and costs, look at the centre of your copy of Local Wildlife, or visit wildlifebcn.org/trainingworkshops

Discovering newts.

Image credit: Fiona Gilsenan

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WILDLIFE AT WORK

A WIN-WIN FOR YOU AND WILDLIFE

Corporate member Canoe2 offers dawn chorus walks followed by a paddle along the River Nene, whilst Scudamore’s bat punt safaris give a unique perspective of the River Cam. Why not buy a gift voucher for one of these experiences? Or how about buying a gift membership for a wildlife-lover?

We have the perfect gift ideas for hard-to-buy-for colleagues, relatives and friends, which allow you to support The Wildlife Trust BCN at the same time.

To purchase any of these items, visit our website: Canoe2: wildlifebcn.org/canoe2 Scudamores: wildlifebcn.org/events/bat-punting-safaris Gift membership: wildlifebcn.org/membership

Enjoying a group paddle.

Image credit: David Joyner

THANK YOU

TO ALL OF OUR CORPORATE MEMBERS PLATINUM

STANDARD

The Biodiversity Consultancy

Acorn House Veterinary Surgery • An Norvys • Athene Communications • Barnwell Trailers • British Racing Drivers’ Club • Cambridge Belfry Hotel • Cambridge Econometrics Ltd • Cambridge Regional College • Cambridge Water Company • Canoe2 • Cemex • Centrica (Peterborough Power Station) • Cranfield University • Creative Tops • Downing College Cambridge • GreenAir Cars • Highgate House • JB Shropshire and Sons • Lockhart Garrett Ltd • Moulton College • Mott MacDonald Ltd • OuterSpace Gardens • Perkins Group Ltd • Q Hotels Hellidon Lakes • Richard Buxton Environmental & Public Law • RPS Group • RWE Generation UK • Spendlove Contracting • The Jordans & Ryvita Company Ltd • The Marshall Group of Companies • The Wellcome Trust • Vine House Farm

GOLD Hewitsons • Prologis UK Ltd • UK Power Networks

SILVER Anglian Water Ltd • Arqiva Ltd • Central England Co-operative • NFU Mutual Cambridge • Orton Hall Hotel and Spa • PalmerSport • Scott Bader • Scudamore’s Punting Company • Unilever Research Colworth

BRONZE Alpro Soya • Building Services Design • Cambridge Steiner School • Cambridge University Press • Center Parcs Woburn Forest • Colpac Ltd • David Ball Group • Gardenworks Tree Surgery • Granta Park • Kier Homes • KierWSP • Lafarge Tarmac • Method • Roem Ltd • Wesley Coe

• Weetabix • Willowbrook • Whittlebury Park LLP

BUSINESS SUPPORTERS Ark House Veterinary Surgery • Carter Jonas • Emmanuel College • Greens of Soham • Mackays • Trinity College • University of Northampton

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES Could you help us raise awareness of our vital conservation work by sponsoring a community event or activity?

We have a range of sponsorship opportunities for local businesses starting at £1,000.

Please contact Rachel Hopper to discuss further.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU to the creative team at Method who have lovingly produced our corporate newsletter pro bono for the enjoyment of our business supporters. If you’d like to see other examples of effective marketing communication products, please visit methodcreative.co.uk

01223 781220