Our partnership with Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust started back in 2020 as we are passionate about wildlife and understand the importance to protect it.
We donate a % of money from the sales of our bee and peacock butterfly collections, to the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, helping to protect wildlife and their habitats for now and future generations.
The Trust cares for over 40 nature reserves with help from over 600 volunteers. They also work alongside land managers, local government and community groups amongst others to create more precious and crucial space for wildlife across Hertfordshire and Middlesex. By working alongside our communities, the Trust helps people learn about the wildlife on their doorstep and how they can take practical action to protect it.
Everyone should have access to nature, and wildlife should have space to thrive alongside our everyday lives.
The Trust have an unmissable opportunity to buy and protect Archers Green and the vulnerable habitats it contains. They now need to raise £500,000 to secure this important site. Without purchasing and safeguarding Archers Green, its future and the wonderful wildlife it’s home to could be at risk.
The Trust secured a philanthropic loan which enabled the site to be taken off the market. Now they must raise the money to pay back the loan and care for the site for the future.
If the Trust doesn’t manage to raise the money needed, the site may have to go back on the open market, which risks the loss of its wildlife, including Water Voles, the UK’s fastest declining mammals. This would be a tragedy, right in the middle of the biggest nature crisis we’ve known in our lifetimes.
Sitting in a priority area for conservation action, the Mimram Valley, this 20-acre site supports some of our most iconic, yet threatened wildlife, such as Water Vole, Skylark and Harebell. It is home to lowland meadows, wet woodland, marsh and chalk stream – all of which are priorities for protection and have earnt Archers Green recognition as a designated Local Wildlife Site.
Archers Green flanks the River Mimram, which is one of just 240 chalk streams in the entire world, and the stretch that runs through the site is one of the very best in the county. These unique river systems are so rare, and support some of our most endangered species – they are the UK’s equivalent to tropical rainforests.
The Hertfordshire State of Nature report details that only 16% of semi-natural habitat covers Hertfordshire and that in the 50 years between 1970 and 2020 of the 7,696 species assessed, 1% have become extinct and a further 19% are threatened with extinction. As a county, we have already lost the nightingale, white-clawed crayfish and the beautiful sight of the burnt orchid. The good news however, is that with public support and active conservation management we can reverse this trend and see a better tomorrow for our local habitats, diversification of species and enjoy seeing wildlife populations grow.
To find out more about the fundraising appeal for Archers Green or to donate to secure and protect it, please go to www.hertswildlifetrust.org.uk/archersgreen
Please share this with your friends and family and lets help save Archers Green. Thank you.
