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24-451: The park includes three Local Nature Reserves , Reedbed – Watermead Country Park (North), Watermead Country Park – South and Birstall Meadows . The northernmost lake is named John Merricks Lake, after the late John Merricks , a silver Olympic medallist who competed in sailing events on a nearby lake as a schoolboy. He died in a car accident in 1997. Further south is King Lear's Lake, a popular fishing lake which can be circumnavigated and

48-500: A common interest in wildlife and biodiversity, rooted in a practical tradition of land management and conservation. Almost all Wildlife Trusts are significant landowners, with many nature reserves. Collectively they are the third largest voluntary sector landowners in the UK. They often have extensive educational activities, and programmes of public events and education. The Wildlife Trusts centrally and locally also lobby for better protection of

72-600: A guide to their selection and declaration , 2000). The 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 2,300 nature reserves , covering around 98,500 hectares (243,000 acres). As of 2020 ,

96-407: Is a member of The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) . The Wildlife Trusts offer a Biodiversity Benchmark scheme through which companies can be assessed and recognised for their contribution to biodiversity. The assessment covers the organisation's performance under the headings of "Commitment, Planning, Implementation, and Monitoring and Review". The Wildlife Trusts are one of

120-788: Is a statutory designation for certain nature reserves in Great Britain . The Wild Life Conservation Special Committee established them and proposed a national suite of protected areas comprising national nature reserves , conservation areas (which incorporated suggestions for Sites of Special Scientific Interest ), national parks, geological monuments, local nature reserves and local educational nature reserves. There are now over 1,280 LNRs in England, covering almost 40,000 hectares, which range from windswept coastal headlands and ancient woodlands to former inner city railways and long abandoned landfill sites. The National Parks and Access to

144-409: Is not, or may have other designations (although an LNR cannot also be a national nature reserve ). Except where the site is an SSSI, there is no legal necessity to manage an LNR to any set standard, but management agreements often exist. An LNR may be given protection against damaging operations. It also has certain protection against development on and around it. This protection is usually given via

168-478: Is popular with people walking dogs and cyclists. A statue on the western side of the lake depicts the final scene of Shakespeare's play King Lear . The lake is also used for open water swim training by Leicester Triathlon Club, and for water training of Newfoundland Dogs. A 5km parkrun takes place at the Country Park each Saturday morning. There are several further artificial lakes continuing south following

192-600: The local plan (produced by the planning authority ), and often supplemented by local by-laws. However, there is no national legal protection specifically for LNRs. Information on LNRs is available from the Countryside Council for Wales ( A Place for Nature at your Doorstep: the role of Local Nature Reserves , 2004), Natural England ( Local Nature Reserves: places for people and wildlife , 2000) and Scottish Natural Heritage ( Local Nature Reserves in Scotland:

216-543: The Countryside Act 1949 combined elements of several of these categories in its definition of a nature reserve (Section 15). The hope of the Special Committee was to see sites protected which represented sites of local scientific interest, which could be used by schools for field teaching and experiment, and in which people with no special interest in natural history could "... derive great pleasure from

240-637: The Promotion of Nature Reserves (SPNR), which was formed by Charles Rothschild in 1912. It aimed initially to draw up a list of the country's best wildlife sites with a view to purchase for protection as nature reserves, and by 1915 it had drawn up a list of 284 (including the Farne Islands and the Norfolk Broads ), known as Rothschild Reserves. During the early years, membership tended to be made up of specialist naturalists and its growth

264-550: The Trusts have a combined membership of over 870,000 members. The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) is an independent charity, with a membership formed of the 46 individual charitable Trusts. It acts as an umbrella group for the individual Wildlife Trusts, as well as operating a separate Grants Unit which administers a number of funds. King Charles III serves as the patron of the Wildlife Trusts. David Bellamy

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288-419: The UK's natural heritage, by becoming involved in planning matters and by national campaigning through the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts . The Trusts rely heavily upon volunteer labour for many of their activities, but nevertheless employ significant numbers of staff in countryside management and education. Thanks to their work promoting the personal and social development of young people, The Wildlife Trusts

312-490: The course of the canal ending with the southernmost lake, often referred to as the Mammoth lake due to the presence of a large statue of a Mammoth atop a small hill aside the lake, from where one can see Leicester and the surrounding area for some distance in either direction. There was a previous woolly mammoth where the current one stands, although it was burned down in an arson attack several years ago. The Millennium Mammoth

336-659: The first urban Wildlife Trust (now the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country ) was established in the West Midlands , rapidly followed by others in London, Bristol and Sheffield. This was a watershed for the movement that strengthened its focus on wildlife and people. It was during this period that some Trusts changed their names from Naturalist Societies to Trusts for Nature Conservation. In 2002

360-589: The geographical areas they served. Encouraged by the growing number of Trusts, the SPNR began in 1957 to discuss the possibility of forming a national federation of Naturalists' Trusts. Kent Naturalists Trust was established in 1958 with SPNR being active in encouraging its formation. In the following year the SPNR established the County Naturalists' Committee, which organised the first national conference for Naturalists' Trusts at Skegness in 1960. By 1964,

384-456: The group changed their name to The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts. The badger logo was adopted by the movement to establish its common identity. Also in 2002, the newest wildlife trust was formed, in Alderney . As the number of Trusts grew, so did their combined membership, from 3,000 in 1960 to 21,000 in 1965. Membership topped 100,000 in 1975, and in that year Wildlife Watch was launched as

408-492: The number of Trusts had increased to 36 and the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves had changed its name to The Society for the Promotion of Nature Conservation. In recognition of the movement's growing importance, its name was changed to The Royal Society for Nature Conservation in 1981. The movement continued to develop throughout the 1970s, and, by the early 1980s, most of today's Trusts had been established. In 1980,

432-456: The owner. The land must lie within the area which the declaring authority controls. LNRs are of local, but not necessarily national, importance. LNRs are almost always owned by local authorities, who often pass the management of the LNR onto County Wildlife Trusts . LNRs also often have good public access and facilities. An LNR can also be an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) , but often

456-588: The peaceful contemplation of nature ." A Local Nature Reserve (capitalised) is a statutory designation made under Section 21 – "Establishment of nature reserves by local authorities" – of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 by principal local authorities (district, borough or unitary councils) in England , Scotland and Wales . Parish and town councils in England have no direct power to designate nature reserves, but they can have

480-588: The powers to do so delegated to them by their principal local authority using section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972 . The first LNR in Scotland was established in 1952 at Aberlady in East Lothian . To establish a LNR, the declaring local authority must first have a legal interest in the land concerned, for example, they could own it, lease it or have a nature reserve agreement with

504-494: The steering group partners of Neighbourhoods Green , a partnership initiative which works with social landlords and housing associations to highlight the importance of, and raise the overall quality of design and management for, open and green space in social housing. Kathryn Brown OBE was appointed as the charity’s first director of climate action in January 2022. Today's Wildlife Trust movement began life as The Society for

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528-456: Was built to commemorate the discovery of ice age mammoth remains found when Watermead was a quarry. In January 2010, two brothers died after falling into one of the frozen lakes. They had been plucked from the lake by a police officer, who was leaning out of a helicopter hovering above the frozen surface. [REDACTED] Media related to Watermead Country Park at Wikimedia Commons Local Nature Reserve Local nature reserve ( LNR )

552-894: Was comparatively slow. The first independent Trust was formed in Norfolk in 1926 as the Norfolk Naturalists Trust, followed in 1938 by the Pembrokeshire Bird Protection Society which after several subsequent changes of name is now the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales and it was not until the 1940s and 1950s that more Naturalists' Trusts were formed in Yorkshire (1946), Lincolnshire (1948), Leicestershire (1956) and Cambridgeshire (1956). These early Trusts tended to focus on purchasing land to establish nature reserves in

576-573: Was president of The Wildlife Trusts for ten years between 1995 and 2005, and was succeeded by Aubrey Manning . Sir David Attenborough, Simon King and Tony Juniper are all Presidents Emeritus. Stephanie Hilborne OBE was chief executive for 15 years, and left in October 2019. Craig Bennett became CEO from April 6, 2020. Wildlife Trusts are local organisations of differing size, history and origins, and can vary greatly in their constitution, activities and membership. However, all Wildlife Trusts share

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