Wild News from our Teams - May 2025

Wild News from our Teams - May 2025

Catherine Harrison

The latest news and updates from our teams across Suffolk including wildlife sightings, our nature reserves, landscape projects, and community engagement.

Wader wonderland

Ground nesting bird season is well underway and we’re seeing some promising wading bird breeding results at our reserves. Surveying has shown a good number of breeding pairs of lapwings and ringed plover at our Trimley Marshes Nature Reserve

Our efforts at Snape Marshes suggest a record breeding year for waders, helped by the installation of anti-predator fences. Surveys have shown at least 26 lapwing chicks on the marshes. 

Over £900 fundraised by Katie's Garden

The team at Katie’s Garden have supported us for the second year in a row with their ‘Spring Clean Your Shed’ programme. Customers were asked to bring in gardening accessories and tools they now longer had a use for to be sold with all proceeds being donated to Suffolk Wildlife Trust. 

This year Katie’s Garden raised £903.70 to support our vital work for wildlife and nature in Suffolk! 

Thank you to the whole team involved, and all those who bought or donated tools. 

You can read more about Katie’s Garden’s fundraiser here 

Inspired by Katie’s Garden – get fundraising inspiration here: The Big Green Fundraiser | Suffolk Wildlife Trust 

Two people holding a giant check outside, looking at the camera and smiling

Suffolk Show Spectacular

We had a great time at the Suffolk Show again this year in our dedicated Wildlife Area.

Over the two days we welcomed over 5,000 of you to our area. From exploring the fabulous world of invertebrates with our free activities, talking to you about our new Mission 2030 appeal, and so much more, our team spent the two days encouraging positive action for nature and championing Suffolk's wildlife and natural environment.

Thank you to everyone who explored the Wildlife Area and talked to us about how they can take meaningful action for a wilder Suffolk. 

Thank you to Greenways Countryside Project, Wildlife Wise, Suffolk Beekeepers, and SOS Swifts for joining us in our area. 

How you can help nature

We’re on a Mission to bring back nature in Suffolk with our new 3-year campaign – Mission 2030. Launched on Tuesday 27th May we’ve already had a wonderful response to the campaign. 

Your generous donations have raised £20,000 so far, thank you! 

Mission 2030 aims to raise £1million over the next three years to support vital conservation and community work to bring back nature in Suffolk. The year 2030 is crucial, it’s the universal deadline set at COP15 to halt biodiversity loss and begin nature’s recovery. 

Nature is at tipping point, but it’s not too late. With your help we can bring back nature in Suffolk! 

Find out more and help nature

Churchyards keeping pockets of rare plants flourishing

Our conservation adviser visits across Suffolk this spring have shown churchyards in bloom, providing vital pockets of nature throughout the county. 

Churchyards are a valuable habitat, often remnants of a species-rich grassland and meadows. Our Community Advisers, Cathy, Graham, and their group of volunteers work closely with parishes and community groups to encourage sympathetic management of these sites to benefit both wildlife and people. 

Recent surveys of some of the churchyards we work with have shown a burst of spring blooms including the increasingly rare meadow saxifrage which prefers unimproved soils and sensitive management of the area to prevent the growth of courser grasses. 

With the wildflowers and sensitive management comes the insects! A cloud of solitary bees was found in Stanstead churchyard on a visit this spring. Here, it was heartening to find a group of people coming together from neighbouring churches to understand how they could support biodiversity in their churchyards. 

Have an area of land that could benefit wildlife? Find out more about our wilder landscapes team and how they can help - Landscape Recovery | Suffolk Wildlife Trust

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Suffolk Wildlife Trust have released a joint statement with Norfolk Wildlife Trust to raise grave concerns for wildlife as the Government rejects amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

The Office for Environmental Protection recently declared that the Planning & Infrastructure Bill will cause environmental regression. To date, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Norfolk Wildlife Trust and other NGOs have called for a series of amendments which would tone down the most damaging aspects of the Bill, while also suggesting positive measures to improve it such as adding safeguards for irreplaceable habitats like chalk streams. 

However, the Government has rejected these and so now Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Suffolk Wildlife Trust have joined forces with the RSPB and the national Wildlife Trust movement to call for part 3 of the Bill, which has the potential to be the most damaging section, to be removed.

Find out about how your voice can help nature here: Planning Bill breaks Labour’s nature promises | Suffolk Wildlife Trust 

 

Ben Hall

(C) Ben Hall/ 2020VISION