Dudley's Path to Nature Recovery

Conservation works will be undertaken at sites along Dudley’s hills, specifically the Rowley Hills, Saltwells National Nature Reserve, Castle Hill, and Sedgley Beacon. Works will be informed by baselining work, pre-existing evidence, and prior Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust projects, and will include woodland improvement, calcareous grassland restoration, heathland creation, and work to preserve geological features.

Our work will focus directly on improving and restoring priority habitat and species, including Lesser Horseshoe Bat and Green Hairstreak butterfly, across sites in Dudley, along with restoring nationally important calcareous grassland and protecting associated floral species.

Drawing on the experience of our EcoRecord team, our citizen science work will establish and facilitate a Birmingham and Black Country invertebrates recording group. We will also work with Brum Bats and the local community to gather a baseline of evidence of bat species and movements across five sites. This will use remote recording equipment - set and monitored in partnership with community members.

Working with local artists and building upon and connecting with existing or planned routes, we will scope and map a Green Path walk across the project’s landscape, from Portway Hill to Sedgley Beacon. Echoing the area’s geological heritage and steered by the natural routes of local wildlife, our aim is to impact on sense-of-place and connections to nature amongst our communities by walking with them across Dudley’s landscape.