The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country is a wildlife trust covering

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands county, England covering most of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. It became industrialised during its ro ...

in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It covers five of the seven districts of the West Midlands county: Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. B&BC Wildlife Trust Headquarters

History

Created in 1980, by

Chris Baines Chris Baines (born 4 May 1947) is an English naturalist, one of the UK's leading independent environmentalists.

and others, it was formerly known as the ''Urban Wildlife Group'', and then the ''Urban Wildlife Trust'', the United Kingdom's first urban Wildlife Trust. It was responsible for the first ever

International Dawn Chorus Day The dawn chorus occurs when birds sing at the start of a new day. In temperate countries this is most noticeable in spring when the birds are either defending a breeding territory, trying to attract a mate or calling in the flock. In a given loc ...

event, held at

Moseley Bog Moseley Bog and Joy's Wood Local Nature Reserve, formerly The Dell, is a Local Nature Reserve in the Moseley area of Birmingham, England, with an area of about 12 ha (29 acres). History There are burnt mounds on the banks of the Coldbath Brook, ...

in 1984. In the mid-1980s it established

Plants Brook Plants Brook (originally Ebrook, Ebrooke''The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield - A Commemorative History'', Douglas V. Jones, 1994, Westwood Press () or East Brook

Nature Reserve in Birmingham. The Trust was the first UK Wildlife Trust to become a member of Countdown 2010 the European initiative to halt the decline in

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

by 2010. Black Country Living Landscape was a major initiative of the Trust that aimed to be the first practical application of the principles of

landscape scale conservation Landscape-scale conservation is a holistic approach to landscape management, aiming to reconcile the competing objectives of nature conservation and economic activities across a given landscape. Landscape-scale conservation may sometimes be atte ...

to an urban area. In 2012 the Trust built a partnership that was successful in getting Birmingham and the Black Country declared as one of the UK's first tranche of

Nature Improvement Area Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs) are a network of large scale initiatives in the landscape of England to improve ecological connectivity and improve biodiversity. They were launched in 2012. At 2015 the NIAs covered 47,000 acres of England in total ...

Description

The organisation had a 40 hectare reserve at

Park Hall Park Hall is an affluent area near to the south-eastern edge of Walsall in the West Midlands of England. It is considered that the area near to the local Park Hall Primary and Infant schools and the Gillity Village shops are classed as Park Hall. ...

near

Minworth Minworth is a suburban village situated in the civil parish of Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands. It lies within the City of Birmingham on its northeastern outer fringe, where it forms part of the Sutton Walmley and Minworth electoral ward and b ...

but despite opposition this was taken possession of by

HS2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...

under powers granted by the

High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Act 2017 The High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Act 2017 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom which authorises the construction of Phase One of High Speed 2, a high-speed railway between London and Birmingham. The Act was introduced to P ...

. Other nature reserves include Portway Hill,

Deer's Leap Wood Deer's Leap Wood is a nature reserve of the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country, in West Midlands, England. There is woodland with a variety of tree species; also a pond and a meadow area. Description The reserve has an area of a ...

Peascroft Wood Peascroft Wood is a nature reserve of the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country, in Bilston, West Midlands, England. Description The wood is situated between Mountford Lane and Peascroft Lane, north of the town centre.

Richmond Garden Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

in Soho, Birmingham and

Hill Hook Local Nature Reserve Hill Hook is an area of Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England. The area includes Hill Hook Local Nature Reserve, declared in 2003 with an area of 5.65 hectares, which is on the site of a watermill built in the 17th century. An earlier dam showed ...

. The Trust also manages

and has a close involvement with reserves such as

Moorcroft Wood Local Nature Reserve W. Moorcroft Limited (trading as W Moorcroft Ltd) is a British art pottery manufacturer based at Burslem in Stoke-on-Trent, England. The company was founded by William Moorcroft in 1913. History In 1897, Staffordshire pottery manufacture ...

. The Trust operates a number of environmental centres including the

Centre of the Earth The Centre of the Earth is a purpose-built environmental education centre in Birmingham, England, run by the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country. Location It is 1.5 km away from Birmingham City Centre and was opened in 1 ...

and the

Birmingham EcoPark The Birmingham EcoPark is an environmental education centre in the Small Heath area of Birmingham, England, operated by the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country is a wildlife ...

. It is a full member of the

Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts The Wildlife Trusts, the trading name of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, is an organisation made up of 46 local Wildlife Trusts in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and Alderney. The Wildlife Trusts, between them, look after more than 2, ...

, (one of 46 covering the whole United Kingdom), and was the first urban Wildlife Trust and has a membership of over 11,000. The trust carries out a wide range of activities to protest and develop biodiversity and engage with local people and various nature conservation, community and education projects. They carry out research, surveys and campaigns. Each year it co-ordinates

. Their President is Professor David Bellamy OBE, and Vice Presidents are Professor Chris Baines, Professor Ian Trueman and Peter Shirley MBE. The Trust is managed by a council of trustees drawn from the membership. The Trust has about twenty full, part-time and contract staff and many active volunteers. They produce a regular magazine, Wildlife Focus, which provides coverage of their activities and a range of urban wildlife issues.

References

External links

The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country website
*
International Dawn Chorus Day websiteBlack Country Living Landscape website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wildlife Trust For Birmingham And The Black Country Birmingham and the Black Country Environment of the West Midlands (county) Organisations based in Birmingham, West Midlands 1980 establishments in England Urban forestry organizations Black Country