Press Releases 

24- September 2018 - Somerset Wildlife Trust is proud to launch a new initiative for Taunton that aims to work together with local businesses, community groups, schools and residents to clean up the town for both people and wildlife, ensuring our green spaces and waterways are attractive and healthy places for everyone to enjoy, and help our urban wildlife to survive and thrive. 

26^th September - Wessex Water has provided funding to the Somerset Wildlife Trust for their Blackwater and Brown hairstreaks project. As part of their Biodiversity Action Plan since 1998 Wessex Water offer funding to practical conservation and research projects across their region.

Monday 10^th, 2018 - Somerset Wildlife Trust is today launching a second round of its Somerset’s Brilliant Coast Appeal to ensure that the county’s first ever coastal survey, which was started in 2016, can be completed by Spring.  Funds raised through the first appeal were not enough, so it is now appealing to the public and its supporters to help once more as it endeavors to provide the powerful evidence needed to support better decision making for Somerset’s coast - a hugely undervalued asset in the county that is under increasing threat. 

1^st August 2018- Somerset Wildlife Trust is pleased to announce that it is able to start a vital piece of its coastal conservation programme following it securing funds from the Community Impact Mitigation Fund, negotiated with EDF Energy as part of a wider mitigation package for the site preparation works at Hinkley Point in West Somerset. The funds will enable the Trust to carry out a three year coastal project focusing on connecting people who live, visit and work on the coast with our stunning coastline – a place that has been little explored, valued or understood to date

17th July 2018 – Melhuish & Saunders Ltd is a family-run construction company, established in 1923 and based in Glastonbury. Their work is mainly based in Somerset, including Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, as well as Wiltshire, Dorset and East Devon. A large proportion of their work is public-sector funded, for schools, healthcare and even the Somerset Earth Science Centre at Moonshill Quarry, where Somerset Wildlife Trust recently held their Volunteer Day. They are committed to improving their environmental performance and are also interested in developing their community links and supporting environmental protection by working alongside Somerset Wildlife Trust.

 17 July 2018 – Somerset Wildlife Trust is very pleased to welcome Branston as a new Corporate Partner.  Still privately owned, Branston specialises in supplying potatoes to supermarkets such as Tesco and Waitrose. Beginning as a farmers’ cooperative in the 1960s, Branston has grown into a large and forward-thinking fresh produce company with three sites across the UK, including one right here in Somerset.

12^th July 2018 - To raise awareness of how Somerset is uniquely vulnerable to many aspects of climate change, through rising sea levels and storm events. The Somerset Federation of the WI and Somerset Wildlife Trust held a combined event during the Climate Coalition’s ‘Speak Up Week’ (30^th June to 8^th July 2018), which is designed to bring people together across the UK to express their concerns about the impacts of climate change, and highlight where communities could be at risk if people don’t work together and take action now. 

10th July, 2018 - Somerset Wildlife Trust is pleased to have been selected as one of the charities to benefit from the ‘Tesco’s Bags of Help’ initiative, which awards grants raised from the 5p carrier bag charge to fund local community projects. There are grants of £4,000, £2,000 and £1,000 up for grabs, and Somerset Wildlife Trust is asking Tesco shoppers in Langport and surrounding areas to use the store’s token voting scheme to help it secure the maximum amount of £4000 to support its ‘Woodland Wonder at Allen & Beer Wood’ project.

6th July - Some of our best-loved wild flowers including wild strawberry, ragged robin and harebell are declining markedly as a result of the devastation of grasslands including our wildflower meadows - 97% of which have been eradicated since the 1930s, says Plantlife, Europe's largest charity dedicated to wildflowers and other flora.

28th June - Berrow and Brean Beaches were given a deep clean on Thursday [28 June] as volunteers from Southern Co-op were out in force with Somerset Wildlife Trust. The Somerset beach was the second of five to be overhauled as Southern Co-op have planned a series of beach cleans across the south as part of Co-operatives Fortnight.