Devon Wildlife Trust
The Devon Wildlife Trust is a member of The Wildlife Trusts partnership covering the county of Devon, England. It is a registered charity, established in 1962 as the Devon Naturalists Trust, and its aim is to safeguard the future of the county's urban, rural and marine wildlife and its environment.
It has over 37,000 members which help fund its work and it is aided by around 800 registered volunteers which help with running 12 local groups and habitat management work on the charity's nature reserves. There are also some 60 full-time staff working for the Trust.
Devon Wildlife Trust campaigns on a number of regional and national wildlife issues, and also looks after some 40 nature reserves including Sites of Special Scientific Interest such as Bystock, Dawlish Warren, Bovey Heath, Chudleigh Knighton Heath, and Dunsford.
The Trust's headquarters and visitor centre is located at Cricklepit Mill in Exeter. The building features a working 19th-century water-powered flour mill and displays and information about the Trust's reserves and activities.
Devon Wildlife Trust also manages Wembury Marine Centre on the coast in Wembury
Nature reserves
Devon Wildlife Trust manages the following nature reserves:[1]
- Andrew's Wood
- Ash Moor
- Ashculm Turbary
- Blackadon
- Bovey Heathfield
- Bystock Pools
- Chudleigh Knighton Heath
- Dart Valley
- Dunsdon
- Dunsford
- Exe Reed Beds
- Halsdon
- Halwill Junction
- Hawkwood
- Higher Kiln Quarry
- Inner Warren
- Lady's Wood
- Lickham Common
- Little Bradley Ponds
- Lower East Lounston
- Marsland
- Mambury Moor
- Meshaw Moor
- Mill Bottom
- Old Sludge Beds
- Rackenford and Knowstone Moor
- Ruggadon Middlepark
- Scanniclift Copse
- Sourton Quarry
- Stapleton Mire
- Stowford Moor
- Swanpool Marsh
- The Rough
- Uppacott Wood
- Vealand Farm
- Veilstone Moore
- Venn Ottery
- Volehouse Moor
- Warleigh Point
- Wolborough Fen
Campaigns
Devon Wildlife Trust actively promotes and runs a number of campaigns:
- Climate Change - focusing on adaptation
- Lyme Bay Reefs - protecting rare corals from scallop dredging
- Wildlife gardening - encouraging the public to make space for nature on their own patch
- Culm grassland - working to save this rare habitat through its Culm Natural Networks project
- The Big SWitch - promoting local food
- Landscape scale conservation - promoting large scale work through the Rebuilding Biodiversity project
- Petition Fish - to put pressure on the UK's government to provide protection to the seas around the UK
Responsibilities
- Coordinates the Devon Cetacean strandings database