"(The Green Network is) the key to sustain the attractiveness of Telford itself; for residents, visitors and investors, as part of Telford's own investment in its future."
Ian Lacey, Inspector, Report into Objections to the Telford Local Plan, 1992
The Forest City, they called it. When the new town of Telford was created its designers imagined a landscape veined with woodland, parks and green spaces. This pioneering vision for a 'Green Network' was made real through the planting of around six million trees and 10 million shrubs. Along with the natural regeneration of former mining and industrial areas, this created an urban landscape in which people and wildlife live together.
The Ercall nature reserve
The Green Network covers about 2,800 hectares, most of it publicly owned, and links up with the surrounding countryside, including the Wrekin and Ercall hills to the west, and the thickly wooded River Severn valley along its southern edge. This network is, however, under threat. Telford's population is expected to grow to 200,000 within a generation, larger than that of Oxford or Newcastle today, and putting pressure on the town's wild places. Shropshire Wildlife Trust is working hard to preserve the green spaces that make Telford unique.
Visit Shropshire Wildlife Trust reserves in Telford
