With the town of Stroud at the centre, the Stroud landscape project extends as far as Crickley Hill in the north to Wotton-under-Edge in the south. Within this there are wonderful calcareous grasslands and ancient beech woodlands. The area is renowned for its rare species like the Duke of Burgundy butterfly, pasque flower and greater horseshoe bats.
What's happening?
We're in danger of losing these precious plants and animals from the west Cotswolds for ever. Important habitats are being lost through intensive farming and pressures from developers. It's not too late to save nature if we act quickly and work together at a large scale. If we provide plants and animals with the right conditions they will come back from the brink, and we'll be able to pass on a healthier natural environment to the next generation.
Making space
The project aims to establish a network of high quality wildlife sites, with connections between them allowing for movement or adaptation. We're creating more spaces for nature and making our network of wildlife sites bigger, better and more joined up.
Bigger - we're increasing the size of existing sites
Better - we're protecting what we've got and improving the quality of wildlife sites by better habitat management
More - we're creating new wildlife sites to make more space for nature
Joined up - we're creating wildlife corridors to connect and buffer wildlife sites, and encouraging more nature-friendly farming
