Stepping Stones is a landscape-scale nature conservation project. The project area covers more than 200km², stretching from the Stretton Hills in the west to the Welsh border in the east. The vision is ecological connectivity: creating or improving areas of heathland, flower-rich grasslands and broad-leaved woodland, and linking them by a network of wildlife-rich hedgerows, road verges, hillsides and streamside wetlands.
Stepping Stones was developed with a range of partners including Natural England, the Shropshire Hills AONB Partnership, Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Middle Marches Community Land Trust. It is currently led by the National Trust, who employ the project team.
Why is the project needed? Changes to the way land is managed and farmed over past decades have led to habitat being lost, damaged or reduced in size. Linking features such as hedgerows, road verges, field trees and streams have also been destroyed or degraded. The effect of these changes is that existing areas of habitat become cut off from each other, and the special wildlife of the Shropshire Hills, such as dormouse, curlew, mountain pansy and the small pearl bordered fritillary butterfly, is under threat.
Stepping Stones is being delivered in three main ways:
1. Supporting farmers, like the Upper Onny Farmers’ Group, to manage the land in a way that creates a healthy natural environment as an integral part of their farm business. We also offer advice and support to non-farming landowners, from people with smallholdings down to wildlife gardeners.
2. Working with the communities who live and work within the project area, as well as with those who visit for outdoor recreation. We are supporting the good work of established local community groups, including the Marches Meadow Group, Restoring Shropshire’s Verges and four local community wildlife groups.
3. The partner organisations are also committed to maintaining and adding to the wildlife value of their own land. For some, this also means acquiring smaller ‘stepping stone’ sites around the main areas of conservation land. We also run volunteer work parties to carry out important habitat management in support our partner organisations.
Everyone, residents and visitors alike, can play their part in the Stepping Stones project, enriching the area’s wildlife and countryside diversity. All are urged to follow the Countryside Code at all times, not leaving litter and not having BBQs or campfires. This is especially important on the area’s uplands like the Long Mynd. It is vital, too, that dogs are kept under control, where sheep and horses are roaming free.
You can join in with a Stepping Stones volunteer session on schemes such as hedge planting and the creation of meadows. – details can be found on the Stepping Stones website
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To get in touch, email [email protected] .
