Our nature reserves represent some of Somerset’s most precious habitats – safe havens for very special wildlife. Their ongoing health and quality is also essential to our ability to create a strong and resilient nature recovery network across the county – one that can endure the challenges we know lie ahead, and to help us achieve our goal of 30% of land and sea managed positively for nature by 2030. Your donation makes our work for wildlife possible.

Managing our nature reserves costs us over £800k a year. It’s a huge endeavour and we take pride in our stewardship of this important land. But costs are increasing – as they are for everyone. We need to be as efficient as possible to make the most of every penny donated by our kind supporters. Your donation makes our work for wildlife possible.

We must modernise our equipment in order to reduce our longer term costs. This summer we’re asking our supporters not just to help us raise vital funds for our essential schedule of work, but also to enable us to replace out of date, broken equipment. There is always an extensive list of items which would make a real difference to our work, but most critical was replacing the 23 year old compact tractor used in the Blackdown Hills.

The difference this upgraded tractor will make in managing our grasslands and meadows cannot be underestimated. If we want to see more dragonflies on Ringdown, greater spotted woodpeckers at Ruggin and meadow browns at Jan Hobbs, we need to be able to keep these reserves in the best possible condition. 

It’s not often we ask our supporters to help with the purchase of such a large piece of equipment, and it may not seem particularly ground-breaking, but to us, it will literally transform the way we manage our reserves going forward. And, in the face of spiralling costs we also need to continue to raise money so that we can maintain all of our nature reserves across Somerset and ensure that wildlife continues to thrive.

Every pound that YOU donate has been put back into maintaining these precious sites.

Any gift you can give to the Somerset Nature Reserves Fund will always go straight to our nature reserves, ensuring that they are kept in the best possible condition to support the wide range of species that rely on them as well as helping us achieve our ambitious conservation goals. Please help us if you can.

You can also donate securely by card by telephoning Zoë 01823 652429.

Every donation, whatever the size, will make a difference.

Thank you so much for your continuing support.