But the Trust faces an even greater challenge during its second quarter century. The wildlife of Avon is facing huge pressures. Some are global, like climate change and rising sea levels; others are local, like rapid economic growth – latest forecasts are for 100,000 extra houses and jobs in Avon by 2030.

The Trust needs to speak up for wildlife louder than ever during the next 25 years. It must work hard to ensure that wildlife can cope with these pressures, and that in turn the pressures are sufficiently moderated to ensure a future for Avon’s wildlife. Even more ambitiously the Trust is determined that by the time it is celebrating its 50th anniversary Avon will be richer in wildlife than it is today.

An impossible dream? The Trust doesn’t believe so. On its 25th birthday at Folly Farm on 1 May the Trust launches a new ‘Prospectus’. This sets out the Trust’s vision and priorities for the next few years, and will be promoted to key audiences during the coming months. It shows how the Trust will be working towards its 2030 goal in four ways:

• Bringing people and wildlife together – inspiring people to learn about and enjoy the wildlife of Avon
  
• Being a champion for wildlife – speaking up for wildlife and trying to make the whole of Avon as wildlife-friendly as possible through campaigning and advice
  
• Creating havens for wildlife – ensuring that there is sufficient space for wildlife to survive and thrive; the Trust will lead by example through its own network of nature reserves, and work with the owners and managers of other important wildlife sites
  
• Promoting sustainable lives for wildlife – encouraging people and businesses to adopt sustainable ways of living and working so that we all reduce our impact on wildlife.

The Trust has exciting plans to take forward in support of these four themes:

• Realising the dream at Folly Farm – after 9 years of hard work to secure major funding, the Trust has finally just launched its most ambitious project ever to create a leading environmental centre by Easter 2007
  
• Building the Trust membership – strengthening the voice and influence of the Trust and engaging more people in the campaign for Avon’s wildlife; the number of members has recently doubled to well over 10,000 and the Trust wants to double that again by 2008
  
• People and Wildlife – developing a major programme to involve more people and community groups across Avon in enjoying or helping wildlife, in their back-gardens or local neighbourhoods as well as at wildlife sites
  
• Rebuilding Biodiversity – working on ambitious proposals to enhance the wildlife interest of whole landscapes and develop incentives for sympathetic land management and use.
  Meanwhile, of course, all the Trust’s regular work will continue – working in schools, collecting better information about Avon’s wildlife, managing the Trust’s nature reserves, advising other landowners and land managers, offering opportunities for volunteers, campaigning against damaging proposals...
  

As ever, the key to all this is people – us! The Trust will only be celebrating in another 25 years if we can get across the message to the widest possible audience about why wildlife is so important to our quality of life and future prosperity.

We must win hearts and minds. Wildlife and quality in our natural environment are not just ‘nice to have’ or optional extras. They are essential to our health and wealth, our well-being, and the quality of our lives both in urban and rural areas.

Wildlife – it’s all about us!