Nature reserves – the beating heart of the nature recovery network

Over the past six decades, we’ve built up a unique suite of nature reserves the length and breadth of Nottinghamshire. — Writes Erin McDaid, Nottinghamshire Wildlife trust.

Whilst much of the Trust’s early focus was on saving the area of habitat that would one day become the much loved Attenborough Nature Reserve near Beeston in Nottingham, we also have a long history of activity elsewhere in the county, particularly in North Nottinghamshire.

Over the past decade much of our effort has been invested in the restoration of the Idle Valley Nature Reserve, our largest site, near Retford.

In the past century, the role and perception of nature reserves has evolved. No longer are they viewed as fragments of habitat to be fenced off and protected in the way you might seek to conserve a museum piece.

By the 1960s, our founding members recognised the educational and recreational value of wildlife areas alongside their direct value to wildlife - but there was still a tendency towards exclusivity.

When I joined the Trust back in 1993 there was a quiet revolution taking place. An increasingly vocal group, led by our former Chairman and all round greenspace champion, Ton Huggon, was pushing for as much of our estate as possible to be opened up to the public.

They believed that for people to be inspired to fight for nature, they had to have access to it. This approach won out, and our policy was changed, with all but a few fragments of our estate opened.

As a result, as well as being havens for wildlife, our nature reserves are now visited and valued by hundreds of thousands of people each year.

This value was underlined during the lockdowns of 2020 an 2021 when many new people discovered our sites such as the wonderful Besthorpe Nature Reserve in the heart of the Trent Vale between Collingham and Besthorpe.

Larger nature reserves are better able to cope with visitor pressures and sites that are directly connected to other areas of habitat, as Besthorpe is, being located adjacent to the RSPBs Langford Lowfields reserve and alongside the River Trent, are more likely to see a positive movement of species.

The benefits of scale are wonderfully demonstrated at our Idle Valley Nature Reserve which, at 375 hectares, is five times the size of Besthorpe and almost 70% larger than our best known and most visited Attenborough Nature Reserve.

Sitting in a less developed area, right alongside the River Idle, this huge reserve also presents more scope to work with neighbours to buffer and link its habitats and wildlife to the wider landscape.

The scale of the reserve means we are more able to use natural management methods such as grazing with traditional breeds of sheep and cattle. We have also had the space to utilise beavers - renowned as nature’s wetland engineers - to help create more diverse and dynamic habitats to benefit everything from fish, frogs and invertebrates to ground nesting birds.

No matter how large, a nature reserve which sits in a barren landscape will succumb to external pressures such as climate change and pollution, making it vital that nature reserves alone are not seen as the solution to protecting our cherished yet threatened wildlife.

To function well and to support nature’s recovery, they must sit in a landscape which is welcoming to wildlife. Our farmland, parks and gardens can all play a role.

By considering wildlife in how we care for wider areas, including green spaces in our towns and cities, we can create an effective nature recovery network. In doing so we can embrace the true potential of our protected sites as engines to drive nature’s return.

Thanks to the passion and energy of our members, volunteers and staff over the past sixty years we now care for more than 40 nature reserves across the county. Summer is a great time to be out and about enjoying them and most people live within five miles of one of our sites, so I would encourage you to check out the reserves on your doorstep, as well as those further afield.

Details of our nature reserves including what wildlife you might expect to see can be found on our website at nottinghamshirewildlife.org/nature-reserves