Marsh flapwort? Untidy earwort? Thick-headed flies? Unknown and unnoticed by most of us, they are nevertheless part of the vast web of living things that have over millions of years crept, floated, blown and breathed into Shropshire.
This rich variety of life in the region is described as its biodiversity. Shropshire has a rich and diverse range of wildlife, and retains a significant proportion of the UK's overall resource of important wildlife sites, habitats and species. Many of these have suffered significant decline in recent years, however, and much of our wildlife is still under threat.
Shropshire Wildlife Trust is one of many conservation organisations working at the national, regional and local level to conserve and enhance this wildlife by establishing Biodiversity Action Plans. Each plan tells us the condition of key species or habitats in the wild, the threats that they are facing and sets out a strategy to ensure that their decline is stopped and the situation improved within a number of years.
The national Biodiversity Action Plan
The UK Government is committed to a UK BAP while a separate biodiversity strategy focuses specifically on England.
The Shropshire Biodiversity Action Plan
Shropshire was the first county in the UK to produce a biodiversity strategy and followed it up with a more detailed plan in 2002. A 2006 review of this highlighted the main achievements over the previous four years.
Shropshire Wildlife Trust is a member of the Shropshire Biodiversity Partnership. The Shropshire Biodiversity Action Plan,which incorporates Telford & Wrekin, can be found here.
Shropshire Wildlife Trust's key activities under the Biodiversity Action Plan
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Working with landowners to protect wildlife sites, especially species-rich grassland
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Protecting and creating floodplain grazing marshes for the benefit of lapwing, snipe and other wetland birds
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Heathland restoration and protection: management of Nipstone and Lower Shortditch turbary
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Lowland raised bogs: restoring water to Wem Moss
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Dormouse habitat creation and protection
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Water vole protection via the Whitchurch Water Vole Project
