When working in one specific role, on one specific site, on one small area of Surrey, it can be easy to lose track of the wider impact of what we are doing! It’s important sometimes to step back and recognise the wider impact of your efforts, as well as reflect on the work everyone else is doing. Here we've outlined three of our overarching goals for the next few years, which you may already be helping us to achieve!

The next five years will be crucial for wildlife conservation and the climate, and we have already planned our main targets:

1. Join up wild spaces across Surrey
2. Protect and revive rare species across the county
3. Use nature-based solutions to build climate resilience

1. The first target highlights the importance of broadening our focus from SWT’s nature reserves. Our nature reserves make up 3% of the total area of Surrey, and so while they are vital strongholds for wildlife we need to widen our gaze to the areas in between too. We are working closely with landowners and organisations across Surrey, and have target areas across the county to boost biodiversity on a landscape-scale. We have identified areas based on soil type and historic habitat for our restoration targets, and are working hard to provide incentives and solutions to landowners. We are also establishing close relationships with community groups and inspiring the next generation through our education team to engage the people who live across Surrey with their natural world. Our hope is that by targeting a wider area we will inspire a wider community to care about nature and take action for wildlife in their local areas.

2. Our second target, relating to reviving rare species across Surrey, is very closely linked to our first aim of joining up wild spaces. One target species is the Hazel Dormouse. In 2023 members of SWT donated almost £50,000 towards projects to conserve this little mouse, which is a staggering amount! These funds have been put towards planting and laying hedgerows, coppicing across several woodlands, and vital monitoring projects to determine the impact of this work, in this case supported by the incredible team from Surrey Dormouse Group. For the Hazel Dormouse and many other threatened species across the county, habitat connectivity is incredibly important to restoring their numbers. For all the work that has been done establishing wildlife strongholds in the form of our nature reserves, arguably more importantly is the effort put into joining up Surrey’s wild spaces so that vulnerable species can find food, mates and shelter. Habitat restoration efforts by separate organisations and landowners will support a landscape-scale effort to revive rare species across Surrey.

3. Our final overarching aim is to utilise nature and nature-based solutions to solve problems and build climate resilience. One of the key solutions is conservation grazing, which we have been able to implement across many of our reserves due to the invaluable support of the grazing volunteers. Using cattle or sheep to graze areas maintains the habitat without physical intervention from us, while also increasing biodiversity and reducing the uniformity of the habitat. Other nature-based solutions that we are going to focus on over the next few years will be natural firebreaks, beaver reintroductions and the re-wetting of wetland areas. All of these should reduce the impact of more extreme weather events while also increasing biodiversity across the county.

Hopefully this has made you more aware of the longer-term goals and wider projects going on in the background, even if you have unknowingly been part of them already! A huge thank you to all our volunteers who make our work possible!

If you are interested in joining our volunteer teams to help us achieve our aims for a wilder Surrey please click here to find your local opportunities.