Welcome to Wild Walsall
In our latest project, Wild Walsall, Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust will undertake an ambitious nature recovery programme across the landscape east from Walsall centre, alongside a linked programme of community engagement. Currently in its year-long development phase, thanks to funding from National Lottery Heritage Fund, the aim of this project is twofold - to make a significant intervention into vital habitats, such as globally rare lowland heathland, across a peri-urban area, and to connect people to this remarkable natural resource on their doorstep.
Where
Our work will encompass the whole Walsall landscape but the project’s main focal area encompasses two neighbouring areas identified as ‘Core Landscapes'.
The first priority area is in the east, running from Shire Oak Local Nature Reserve in the north, through Barr Beacon, down to Streetly and Sutton Park in the south. This landscape is distinguished primarily by its underlying geology and associated topography. As a result, the ecological opportunities here offer the opportunity for the creation and restoration of lowland heathland - a globally rare habitat.
The second of the priority areas lies immediately adjacent to the town of Walsall and stretches from Aldridge in the north to Great Barr in the south. It is a mixed green belt landscape of agriculture, grassland and woods, and is ecologically focused on sites of high conservation value such as Park Lime Pits and Cuckoo’s Nook & the Dingle Local Nature Reserves
What
This bold programme would improve for nature 1% of the land across the borough, alongside a programme of community engagement, including:
- 55 hectares of land improved through habitat restoration or creation
- 55 hectares of land with updated or new site assessment
-
20 sites assessed for presence of flagship species
- Community events
- School sessions.
- Citizen science events
- Health and wellbeing walks.
- Volunteer opportunities
The project will focus attention on a number of ‘flagship’ priority species of local and national importance - bell heather, cross-leaved heath, willow tit, green hairstreak butterfly, white-clawed crayfish, black (common) alder, green tiger beetle, and the common lizard - with the dedicated aim of providing high quality habitat to expand their local range and abundance, along with improving overall ecological condition and connectivity.
Why
In the peri-urban landscape around Walsall, nature is under pressure and local communities face numerous barriers to accessing and appreciating it. Significant areas of the heaths that once surrounded the town have, in particular, been lost as land-uses and local livelihoods have changed. The result is a landscape in which action to save natural heritage is in high demand.
Wild Walsall will protect, restore, and reconnect important natural habitats and priority species at sites across Walsall. In particular, the UK is vital for conservation of lowland heaths, and we will prioritise action for this habitat that deeply connects local natural and agricultural heritage. This will be embedded in landscape-scale conservation management, advocacy, and engagement with local communities, that encompasses not only heaths, but also local woodlands, grasslands, and river corridors. We will reconnect people to the value of this remarkable natural environment and enable them to take action for its protection.