Remember a Charity Week
Broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough is supporting Sussex Wildlife Trust in its quest to protect vulnerable wildlife and the places they live by encouraging local people to find out more about its work this week during Remember A Charity Week (12 – 18 September 2016).
Sussex Wildlife Trust, a registered charity and the largest nature conservation organisation in Sussex was formed in 1961. Over the years thanks to those people who have remembered the Trust in their Wills it has been able to restore grazing marsh at Pevensey Levels which now boasts wildlife-rich ditches and pools offering a safe haven for birds such as lapwing, redshank and tree sparrow.
Otters, a species almost wiped out in Sussex, are now slowly returning thanks to the Trust’s campaign to clean rivers and waterways and the nightjar, a bird in serious decline, is thriving thanks to its heathland restoration projects– all made possible by people remembering Sussex Wildlife Trust in their Wills. Other species back from the brink include bats – numbers of the scarce Barbastelle bat, one of Britain’s rarest mammals, have doubled around our Ebernoe Common nature reserve in West Susssex and work has also benefitted other bat species, as well as the vulnerable lesser spotted woodpecker and wood white butterfly.
Mark Barkaway, who heads up the Legacy team at Sussex Wildlife Trust said, 'A gift in your Will could help us create another success story like Woods Mill nature reserve at Henfield with its streams, marshland, lake and ancient woodland. We have carefully managed this crucial landscape, establishing an education centre visited by hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren over the years, helping them to learn and experience wildlife at first hand.
‘We have exciting plans for the years ahead as we want to secure a further 6,000 hectares of land in the county to protect vital wildlife habitats and help to create near-naturally functioning wetlands on all our river catchments . This will provide a home for wildfowl and waders and will be used by hundreds of thousands of birds.’
Sir David, President Emeritus, The Wildlife Trusts said, ‘The future is much too important to be left to chance. I am sure, like me, you are concerned about the future of our planet and it is important we leave a thriving natural world for future generations to know and enjoy. That’s why making a Will is one of the most important jobs that any of us has to do.’
To find out more about the work of the Sussex Wildlife Trust and how you can offer your support during Remember a Charity Week please email: [email protected] or telephone Mark for an informal chat on 01273 497520.