A summary of the impact of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust in 2018 - 2019 Annual Review 2018 - 2019 Celebrating 70 years wild and looking to a wilder future “Surely we can afford to preserve these few remaining wild places. If we do not, Summary of our income and expenditure for the year ending 31 March 2019. You’ll we and our descendants will be poorer in mind, in heart and in spirit.” find more details in our audited Annual Report and Financial Statements at The second annual report of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, 1950. lincstrust.org.uk/publications. At the end of 1948, Ted Smith (then With our nature in crisis, it is no condition than it inherited and it is our During the year, we spent £2.74m on our charitable activities. In addition to a substantial legacy this year, we have also aged 28) and a small group of dedicated longer enough to merely protect areas of combined responsibility to see that it, This represents 92.5% of total expenditure and is spread across benefitted from a number of other bequests and are indebted naturalists came together to form the wildlife importance. There is a real need or any future government, honours this nature reserve management, wider countryside conservation to everyone who has supported our work in this way. Over Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. Seventy to develop a Nature Recovery Network. commitment. and inspiring people. We continue to develop and enhance our the years gifts in Wills have enabled us to buy new reserves, years on, the idea has spread to every A network of recreated habitats and Thank you for sharing our belief in reserves as needed and invest in advocacy, education and public manage them better and improve visitor facilities whilst county in the UK. Here in Lincolnshire wildlife corridors that ensures nature the importance of the natural world. It engagement. building up financial reserves to support ongoing work. we’ve grown from 130 members and two has the opportunity to recover. is the Trust members, volunteers and nature reserves in the first year to over This Nature Recovery Network staff, whose financial support and on- 27,000 members and almost 100 nature should form part of the Environment going enthusiasm allows the charity to Income Expenditure reserves today. Act, promised by the government and continue to prosper and innovate. Our vision is for Lincolnshire and the supported by the Greener UK coalition neighbouring sea and estuaries to be – an umbrella body which comprises rich in wildlife for the benefit of all. Yet, 14 major environmental organisations wildlife is still in decline; we need to do including RSPB, National Trust, WWF more to put nature into recovery and and Woodland Trust. The current David Cohen, help people reconnect with the natural government has pledged to leave Chair of the Board of Trustees world. the natural environment in a better £2.94m £2.93m Green-winged orchids in Heath’s Meadow Nature Reserve, May 2018 Subscriptions, donations and gift aid£784,000 Generating subscriptions and donations £143,000 Legacies £609,000 Merchandising £53,000 Merchandising £82,000 Nature Reserve management £1,214,000 Investment £196,000 Wider countryside conservation £670,000 Nature Reserves £745,000 Inspiring people £852,000 Wider countryside conservation £189,000 Inspiring people £300,000 Other £35,000 Thank you for your support 2,066 grey seal pups were born at A gift to us all Donna Nook National Nature Reserve BARRIE WILKINSON BARRIE We would like to thank everyone who remembered Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust in their Will. We are honoured to record our Cover image: juvenile bittern at Far Ings, July 2018 (Neil Griffiths) appreciation to the following individuals whose legacies we received or were notified of in the year ended 31 March 2019. After many weeks of observing feeding flights, with Mary Angela Sarah Bates Alan George Riseborough the adult female appearing to be bringing in food for Martin John D’alessandro Doreen Stella Shakeby two chicks, we are delighted that we had, for a second Anastasia Elizabeth Healey Winifred Margaret Spilman consecutive year, successful breeding of bitterns at Far Ings.” Beauford Douglas Linley Geoffrey Arthur Taylor Simon Wellock, Warden, Far Ings National Nature Reserve Alfred McGowan Joan May Timson Ruth Winifred Painter Barbara Mary White RUTH TAYLOR Nature recovery on reserves Caring for and beyond Highland ponies helping Pyramidal orchid special places coastal wildlife We care for 3,852 hectares (9,518 acres) of nature reserves across Lincolnshire. We also Your membership is champion wildlife beyond the boundaries of our nature reserves through targeted work with For the first time we have used ponies protecting local wildlife in to graze reserves. After a successful trial nature reserves and the local authorities, community groups and landowners and through the planning process. at Toby’s Hill Nature Reserve, the small wider countryside Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust manages Looking after the places in our and development, protecting sites group of ponies were moved to Saltfleetby almost 100 Nature Reserves and 65 care also requires investment of nature conservation interest and reserve and then to Gibraltar Point where Roadside Nature Reserves across in infrastructure; the paths and securing biodiversity gains. We try they became a popular attraction as well Lincolnshire. These special places are birdwatching signs that gives access to to help decision makers see that as an effective conservation management home to some of the county’s rarest you and all our visitors. solutions with nature are solutions for tool. wildlife as well as a vast array of more We have a long history of working everyone. By looking after our natural common species in partnership; beginning with environment we are also looking after 3,852 They are carefully and sensitively the pioneering partnership with the prosperity and wellbeing of the Green hairstreak hectares of Lincolnshire’s finest managed for the benefit of wildlife. Lincolnshire County Council at Gibraltar people of Lincolnshire. countryside were protected and Creating the right conditions through Point which began in 1948 . We believe we managed as Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust management has seen the return of can achieve more if we work together. nature reserves bitterns to Far Ings and for the first time We are actively involved in forward since 2014 little ringed plovers fledged at planning to try to ensure appropriate An additional 2.2 hectares (5.5 acres) Whisby Nature Park. policies are included in plans, strategies of SSSI grazing land adjacent to MATTHEW BLISSETT MATTHEW Lapwings have nested at Woodhall Spa Once they arrived on site at Toby’s Hill, they made no Far Ings Airfield Nature Reserve fuss and started tucking in to the dead grass straight was purchased away, like they had always been there. Their grazing Nature returning to creates a mosaic of short grassland, perfect for a host of Woodhall Spa Airfield associated plants, insects and birds.” Five years ago, with the help of funding Matthew Blissett, Outer Humber & Coast Warden 8,222 forward planning from WREN, a generous legacy, and from and development control donations, we bought the old airfield on applications were checked the outskirts of Woodhall Spa. Formerly Working together for positive change against the Trust’s planning the home of four brave RAF squadrons criteria, of which 398 were Everyone has a part to play in improving future collaboration will further improve during the Second World War but more reviewed in detail and 89 the natural world around them. We work and extend an important north-south recently was used as a sand and gravel were responded to. quarry. with partners to ensure wildlife benefits corridor in the county. wherever possible. As well as being a large site in itself, the We gave advice to Anglian Water, and airfield also connected to various nature North and South Kesteven District reserves and habitats that already exist. Councils, on how to secure gains for six In this one purchase we were able to wildlife on 55km of pipeline installation create a bigger, better and more joined up from Lincoln to Grantham. Proposed osprey area for wildlife. works will cause disturbance to soil. nesting platforms Grey partridge, lapwing, turtle dove, We supported the avoidance wherever were put up on cuckoo, song thrush, starling, tree possible of sites designated for their farmland in sparrow, linnet and yellowhammer have biodiversity and geodiversity value. south Lincolnshire bred most years. Whimbrel and curlew However there is also an opportunity have also been seen feeding on the wet to reinstate soil and vegetation in a way grassland. that would be beneficial to wildlife and The process of connecting aid nature’s recovery. Upper and Lower Thanks to funding from the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust cited Environment Agency a number of small central and local government policies islands were recently created in one Sow Dale to call for road verge enhancements nature reserves by buying of the lakes. By spring 2019, lapwings, along Ermine Street which would link the land inbetween began avocets, oystercatchers and black-headed wildflower-rich grassland identified by early in 2019 gulls were all sitting on eggs. the ‘Life on the Verge’ project. Anglian Water and consultant ecologists have DAVID TIPLING/2020VISION DAVID responded positively and it is hoped that SHAW RACHEL Connecting people to the Inspiring and natural world Experiencing and learning about nature empowering We engage thousands of people every year, inspiring an interest in the natural world Your membership is through walks, talks, school visits and at Visitor Centres, helping people feel less isolated helping people build from nature. connections with nature that will last a lifetime Education in its broadest sense has 70th anniversary of the establishment of over 2,000 historic plant specimens from always been fundamental to the this, the first Trust nature reserve.