Bristol Wildlife project

Avon Wildlife Trust was the very first urban wildlife trust in the country; with Bristol at its heart the Trust has always put great emphasis on the importance of wildlife in the city and involving the people who live there. The aims of the Bristol Wildlife Project, which is run in partnership with Bristol City Council, are:

• to promote recognition of the importance of wildlife in Bristol

• to protect and encourage positive conservation management of the city's wildlife sites and green spaces

• to promote people's access to and enjoyment of the city's natural environment and wildlife

Urban wildlife conservation really took off in the 1980s with the realisation that cities could be good for wildlife, and that wildlife was important to people too. Until that point most conservation was traditionally associated with looking after nature reserves in the countryside. These days there is greater recognition of the fact that conservation is not purely about preserving wildlife for its own sake, but should be (and needs to be if it is to be successful) about engaging people's interest and support, and encouraging them to value and protect their local environment. Since most people live in urban areas it is important to make wildlife directly relevant to them through initiatives such as the Bristol Wildlife Project.

One of the first achievements of this initiative was the creation of a nature park at Brandon Hill in 1981. This groundbreaking project was the first of its kind within a formal city park anywhere in the country, and involved the transformation of five acres of one of Bristol's most urban parks into a haven for wildlife, with a large hay meadow, two wildlife ponds, a butterfly garden and heath all created from scratch. Since then the Trust has worked alongside the city council to encourage the allocation of land for wildlife in over 30 parks in Bristol. The Trust also had a major involvement in drawing up the 'Greater Bristol Nature Conservation Strategy', which laid out policies for the protection and enhancement of wildlife in the city, and led to the council appointing a nature conservation officer.

The Trust currently manages seven nature reserves in Bristol, all owned by the city council. Ashton Court Meadow, Brandon Hill, Coombe Brook Valley, Kingsweston Down, Lawrence Weston Moor, Royate Hill and Stockwood Open Space represent a range of different habitats and are managed for benefit of wildlife and people. But nature reserves are not the only important green spaces in Bristol, and the Trust works to promote awareness and appropriate management of all kinds of others, including gardens, allotments, cemeteries, sports grounds, derelict land and so on. These can support a surprising diversity of wildlife - see description of Bristol for more details.

In 1997, a major biodiversity project was initiated in Avonmouth (see Biodiversity Project). This came about after the discovery of an unexpected variety of wildlife in this heavily industrial part of the city, including a regionally important population of water voles surviving in the old drainage ditches criss-crossing the area.

Over the years the Trust has been involved in several high profile campaigns in Bristol, supporting local communities in their fight against the development of local green spaces. This kind of work can include making objections to planning applications, speaking out at public enquiries and in the media, and lobbying local councillors and MPs. Probably the most famous campaign was the fight for Royate Hill, in Eastville, which was bulldozed by developers in 1992, following the rejection of their planning application to build homes on the site (a former railway embankment). The Trust and the local community entered into a long fight to save the site, which attracted national media coverage and was eventually successful. In 1995 Avon County Council carried out the first ever compulsory purchase of a site as a local nature reserve in the country, while Bristol City Council undertook the only ever wildlife prosecution by a local authority in the country. This campaign gained recognition of the value of wildlife to people, and set precedents for many other similar battles around the country.

Another important aspect of the Bristol Wildlife Project is raising public awareness and enhancing appreciation of local wildlife and green spaces. This is achieved through events such as schools activity days on local sites, and public surveys based on particular species and habitats. These surveys are enormously popular, and encourage people to make records of the wildlife on their doorstep. In the past few years subjects have included foxes, frogs, hedgehogs, hedgerows, churchyards, gardens and ponds. See surveys section for details of any current projects running in Bristol.