Update on the Badger Edge Vaccination Scheme (BEVS)

BEVS aims to tackle bovine TB through badger vaccination. As of 2022, with funding from DEFRA, we have moved to a new project area on the South Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire border. Gary Cragg, BEVS Project Manager, gives an update on the project:

‘I’ve been busy contacting landowners, visiting them on site, signing them up to the project and surveying with the help of my BEVS volunteers and EMEC staff. To date I have signed up 10 landowners to give access for surveying which equates to approximately 600ha (6km2) of land. There are lots more in the pipeline, including some of the University of Nottingham land, who I am hoping will be signed up very soon. I’ve had a good response from the landowners I’ve been in touch with, and it seems that every person I see face to face has then given me information about other landowners near to them to contact.

I really want to keep the impetus on new landowner contacts going over the next 6 months of the project and I am working hard on increasing landowner sign ups. We are hoping for the next tranche of funding for badger vaccination will be confirmed over the next few months to enable NWT to progress the project into 2023 and beyond.’

Wildlife for Children

Rushcliffe Wildlife Watch meets every second Saturday at the Rushcliffe Country Park Visitors Centre between 11 am to 1pm and is open to children between 8 and 12 years of age. Charge £3. For more info contact rushcliffewatch@nottswt.co.uk  . Next meeting is on Sat 10th Sept, with subsequent meetings on the 8th Oct, 10th Nov and 12th Dec.

UPDATE – this is the planned programme of activities  Rushcliffe Wildlife Watch programme Autumn to Winter 2022

Beetle Mania

The big excitements at the Wilwell Work Party on Saturday was Ian`s discovery of a possible dung beetle (yup it is true to say we are easily pleased). We sent a photo to Christopher Terrell-Nield who knows a thing or two about beetles and he reckons it’s either Geotrupes sterorarius 16-26mm. Among the largest of our species. Habitat cattle pasture but also woodland, moorland and hillsides.
 
Or it’s Geotrupes (Anoplotrupes) stercorosus 12-19mm.. Habitat mostly damp deciduous and mixed woodlands. The typical Dor beetle of woodland, moorland, and upland habitats.
 
But probably the former based on size, habitat and the shape, so it`s gone into Nature Counts as likely.
 
Geotrupes sterorarius – Martin Smith

Brownie fundraisers visit Wilwell Farm Cutting

On Tuesday 14th June we had the wonderful opportunity to connect some amazing fundraisers with
their local reserve – Wilwell Farm Cutting. As a thank you for generously raising £584 towards our
Ancient Woodland Appeal and support these diverse and much needed habitats. As a thank you Volunteer Warden Gordon Dyne took the Lady Bay 2nd Brownies and their leaders on a guided walk of the reserve.
 
Fundraising champions come in all sorts of, however the Lady Bay 2nd Brownies’s fund-raising activity were was definitely one of the more novel fundraisers we had seen in a long time, with the Brownies donating the proceeds from a pre-loved clothing sale they held the December. When asked why they chose Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust they said ‘we wanted the money to go towards a local cause that was doing something positive for the environment, and NWT was the obvious choice’.
 
Reflecting on the walk and event, Gordon Dyne observed “It was really great to meet a group of young people taking an interest in their natural environment. And I hope they will all take that interest forward into their futures and continue to speak up for our environment in it`s many forms and that we will see some returning as adults to continue the work of nature conservation at Wilwell and other reserves”.
 
Photo – The Lady Bay 2nd Brownies with Sally Chambers Brown Owl receiving the certificate for fundraising with Gordon Dyne (Volunteer Warden Wilwell Farm Cutting) and Sienna Carver (Supporter Care Officer of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust).
 
If you would like to find out more about fundraising for Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and
supporting our work – please email fundraising@nottswt.co.uk.