Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is celebrating its 75th anniversary with an appeal
A charitable trust set up to stop the destruction of Lincolnshire’s most precious natural habitats and to protect the species that call them home is marking its 75th birthday with an ambitious fundraising appeal.
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust celebrated its milestone anniversary earlier this month (December 2) and to coincide with the occasion has kickstarted the Nature Recovery Fund to raise £1 million for nature conservation over the next two years.
Paul Learoyd, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust chief executive, said the money will be spent on four areas – saving species and habitats, inspiring people and connecting them with nature, mitigating the effects of climate change on Lincolnshire’s wildlife and securing more land for nature conservation.
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During its 75-year history the trust has worked to welcome the return of bittern, otters, natterjack toads, several birds of prey species, and more to its reserves county-wide, but it says the challenges facing wildlife have never been greater and people’s disconnect from nature has never been more stark.
Mr Learoyd added: “We are delighted to be celebrating our 75th birthday and it provides a wonderful moment to look back on all that the trust has achieved in that time.
“However, with nature in crisis, our plans for the next period in the trust’s history have to be ambitious. It will be a huge challenge if we are to reverse the declines in Lincolnshire’s wildlife and that is why the Nature Recovery Fund is so vital.
“We would urge anyone who cares about Lincolnshire, its wildlife and landscapes to contribute if they can.”
Dr Arthur Edward Smith (1920-2015), who was born in Alford, signed a new county-based trust, dedicated to nature conservation into being on December 2, 1948. Just a few days later the fledgling charity officially took over its first nature reserve at Gibraltar Point, on the coast near Skegness.
It became the trust’s pioneering reserve and remains a vital site for wildlife. Decades of committed shorebird protection have ensured rare little terns still nest there – the only place in Lincolnshire – and it is a stronghold for many other migratory and resident birds.
Further north, between Mablethorpe and Grimsby, it manages Donna Nook National Nature Reserve with its incredible grey seal colony. More than 2,000 pups are born here every winter and around 55,00 visitors enjoy the experience of seeing them close-up in the wild, Willow Tree Fen, near Spalding, has also been transformed from arable farmland to a reserve teeming with nature, including breeding pairs of common cranes - a species extinct from Lincolnshire for more than 400 years prior to 2020.
Donations to the Nature Recovery Fund can be made via the trust’s website www.lincstrust.org.uk or by sending a cheque to Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Banovallum House, Manor House Street, Horncastle, Lincolnshire, LN9 5HF.
Have you visited one of the Trust’s reserves? Post a comment below.
