Somerset Wildlife Trust current and past projects.

Bitterns have been recorded on Somerset Wildlife Trust reserves for the past 10 years, and their numbers have been growing year on year. We're interested in finding out if the bitterns have spread out from the Somerset Levels and Moors, and if so, where they're going! This count is hosted on iNaturalist.

Our ‘Ponds Alive!’ project is an exciting community-led initiative taking place in West Somerset. Coordinated by Somerset Wildlife Trust volunteer Elizabeth Atkinson, it aims to help revitalise, enhance, and increase local freshwater habitats, while also encouraging more people to get involved in citizen science to help us learn more about West Somerset’s ponds and pond life.

Thanks to £94,000 funding from European Marine Fisheries Fund, with support from the Sustainable Eel Group (SEG), we have been working to ensure that incredible eels can continue to find safe refuge in our county’s wetland habitats during their epic journey in the future.

A project supported by the Landscape Recovery scheme - one of the Government's three new Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMS).

Somerset Wildlife Trust and Wessex Water joined forces to work towards cleaner rivers and good quality habitats for wildlife. Funded by Wessex Water, the aim of the project was to recruit and train local volunteers - Water Guardians - to monitor water courses, identifying possible pollution incidents and reporting them to Wessex Water for further investigation.

Despite the amazing diversity of habitats and wildlife along Somerset’s fifty miles of coastline, it often doesn’t get the attention it deserves. This vibrant piece of coastline includes sand dunes, rocky shores, cliffs, salt marsh, tidal estuaries, mud flats and coastal deciduous woodland, with 80% having environmental protection.

Here you will find some great ideas of garden projects - large or small - to improve your outdoor space for wildlife.

Peatlands are an amazing part of our landscapes, not only for the rare and specialised species they support but for the ecosystem services they provide like storing carbon, filtering drinking water, mitigating flood waters etc. Yet 80% of the UK’s peatland are degraded, emitting carbon and threatening the species the support.