Last year Cheshire Wildlife Trust launched an appeal to help them identify new Local Wildlife Sites.

Only around 10% of land in Cheshire is classed as wildlife-rich. And only 3% is legally protected – the remaining 7% has little or no protection. This means that the natural value of these sites is easily undervalued or overlooked, putting them at risk of being earmarked for development, housing and infrastructure in the planning system. Which is why it’s important to designate and help protect at-risk sites, before more projects are proposed.

The aim of the appeal was to designate 10 new sites. Following a busy survey season, 12 new sites have been identified for designation.

Conservation Officer, Laura, has had a very busy year speaking to landowners, surveying sites and working with the Local Wildlife Sites partnership to propose the designations.

In Wilmslow some new areas have been chosen:

• Two woodland sites in the Lindow area of Wilmslow: secondary woodlands on peat, near Saltersley Moss, with areas of heather and bilberry in ground flora.

• South of Wilmslow, a stretch of meandering brook and associated floodplain grassland, alongside a busy bypass.

Cheshire Wildlife Trust will work with landowners to finalise the Local Wildlife Site register and distribute this to the Local Authorities for consideration in planning policy.