A celebrationof the year

2013/2014

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Living Landscapes Living Gardens Living Seas

A message from your Chairman

We can all take heart fromyour Trust’s report. Thepast year deserves to be acelebration. You can readabout the growing networkof reserves and of our keywork in education and inspreading good conservationpractice in the widercountryside. The work ofyour Trust is multi-faceted,but central to every aspectis our passion to conserveand improve our wildlifeand to involve ever morepeople in this joyful goal.

We are all fortunate that the Trust is wellmanaged by our dedicated staff. The financesare sound and the administration rigorous.This means that we can embraceopportunities that arise, whether that is tobuy land to extend a reserve or to support anew education initiative. Our staff’scommitment was proved last year afterDecember’s record tidal surge. Over thefollowing days the staff worked selflessly torebuild and strengthen the defences of ourcoastal reserves, and so averted amoreserious catastrophe.

This report describes how your Trust touchessomany aspects of Suffolk life; it is not justabout a few special places. In the endwe allrely on the people who support the Trust, our26,000members and 1300 volunteers who givetheir energy to every aspect of our activities.We could not operate without this help. Weare deeply grateful to all involved.

The Trust is truly a force for good, and it hasbeen a privilege to have been a Trustee.

Sir KennethCarlisleChairman

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GuntonWarren

Camps Heath

Old Broom

Arger Fen

This year, and indeedevery year, 30% ofSuffolk’s primary andmiddle school childrenlearnt about the naturalworld at one of oureducation reserves

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Church Farm

Doreen MortonMary NewmanJohn ShacklesLucy Sindall

Living Landscapes Living Gardens Living Seas

Creating Living Landscapes…

Over the course of the year, we received legacy giftstotalling £515,000 and we would like to thank thefriends of theTrust who remembered SuffolkWildlifeTrust in theirWill this year. Their generositywill enable us to actively pursue opportunities tomake our nature reserves bigger and better in theyears to come.

Miss F AllenMargaret AtkinsAnita BensonAnne CanhamPhyllis Chase

Queenie HallIrene HaversPeter LawsonJasmine LingwoodDenis Mills

Taking land into our care as a naturereserve is perhaps the most tangibledemonstration of SuffolkWildlifeTrust’sability to make the county a better placefor wildlife. But nature reserves are somuch more than simply places for wildlife,they matter to people – and the waythey come into our care reflects this.

The gift of Old Broom, close to Bury StEdmunds is an example of this.Withits remarkable ancient oak pollards,words like extraordinary and magicalseem appropriate.These inspiringtrees are a remnant of an open wood-pasture landscape. Owned and deeplycared for by the Hanbury family, theyhave chosen to give Old Broom to theTrust to ensure that this extraordinaryplace will remain extraordinary inperpetuity. For the time being, there isno public access to Old Broom, butspecial events will be arranged formembers to enjoy the reserve.

On the other side of the county, atCarlton & Oulton Marshes, theindividual commitment of members, alegacy from George Ford and a grantfrom Biffa Award made it possible for

us to buy Camps Heath Marshes.Withspecies like southern marsh orchid,tubular water-dropwort and marshstitchwort, Camps Heath is a refuge forsome of Suffolk’s rarest plants.We hadwaited 30 years to bring these pricelessmarshes into our protective ownership– and this year we finally succeeded.

GuntonWarren is another wonderfulwildlife habitat right on the doorstepof Lowestoft. As the only remainingsection of the coast with the full suiteof coastal habitats from mobile shingleto sand dunes, vegetated cliff slope andlowland heath, GuntonWarren isunique in Suffolk. Over time, thesevulnerable habitats had becomesmothered by bracken and scrub and soWaveney District Council, the owners,asked us to take on the site as a naturereserve, to restore the habitats andenable local people, who care so muchabout this patch of local wilderness, toget involved.

We also entered into anotherexciting land management partnershipat Blackheath,Wenhaston.Workingwith the community-led CommonsManagement Group, we provide

technical and mechanical support,whilst the group’s volunteersundertake the day to day maintenance.Working together like this will help toconnect up the cluster of high qualitywildlife sites in this part of Suffolk,which includes our nature reserve atChurch Farm.

Perhaps the best example this year,of the impact of bringing land into theTrust’s care to create larger sites, witha mosaic of mixed-up habitats thatmeet and merge into one another, isthe former arable land at Arger Fen &Spouse’sVale which we bought inautumn 2012. Less than two yearslater, nightingale have been singing inthe burgeoning scrub, the first timethey have been recorded on thereserve for three years and dormiceare moving through the hedgerows.

The importance of nature reservesas a place for people as well as wildlifeis most obvious at our six educationreserves. Each has a unique character,reflecting the landscape and habitatsof Suffolk, and is brought to life, forgroups of visiting children, by theexpertise of our education team.

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Bluebell woodsOur ancient woodlands withtheir spring wildflowerscontinue to be one of our mostpoplular reserve visits

This year saw the publication of thegroundbreaking State of Naturereport, a collaboration of the UK’swildlife organisations, includingTheWildlifeTrusts, to assess the balanceof nature in the UK.Whilst the reporthighlights what we have lost, andwhat we are still losing, it alsodemonstrates the positive impactindividuals and organisations likeSuffolkWildlifeTrust can have to stopthis loss - and bring back naturewhere it has been lost.

The return of the barn owl toSuffolk’s skies demonstrates this. In

partnership with Suffolk Ornithologists’Group, our efforts for barn owlconservation have continued apace,with a focus on nest box installationsin west Suffolk, to support the rangeexpansion towards the county borders– supported by SITATrust and theMichael Marks CharitableTrust. But itwas a tough year for barn owls. 2012was the UK’s wettest year on record,which made feeding young difficult,and many adult birds succumbed tothe unseasonal cold March in 2013.

The network of boxes provides thenesting infrastructure to ride these ups

and downs, so that when conditionsare right, as they are looking to be in2014, barn owl numbers can recoverquickly and expand their range.

With a coherent nest box networkin place and widespread understandingof the role of nest boxes in securingbarn owl breeding success, themomentum behind the boxprogramme means we can now directbox requests to the trusted suppliersand tree surgeons we have used forthe project.This is the sustainableoutcome for the project we werehoping to achieve.

…a bigger, better and more connected la

Trimley MarshesAround 3000 people enjoyed thesurprise arrival of a Pacific swift,seen in the UK only a handful oftimes before

Lackford LakesA pair of red kites havethrilled visitors and areregularly seen huntingover the reserve

Carlton MarshesBreeding redshank andlapwing are using the bareground and shallowscrapes created as part ofa new wetland mosaic

Bull’s WoodAfter years of searching, adistinctive woven barkdormouse nest wasdiscovered in one of theprickliest thickets. Our goalnow is to create ahedgerow network to linkBull’sWood to the thrivingdormouse populations innearby BradfieldWoods

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ndscape for wildlife

Norah Hanbury-KelkMeadowsTrout have returned to the RiverLark, Suffolk’s only chalk stream,thanks to the restoration projectled by BuryTrout Club andinvolving a partnership of localgroups including theTrust

Knettishall HeathHabitat restoration funded byHeritage Lottery Fund andWREN is now underway.Visitors regularly spot commonlizard and grass snake baskingalongside the trails

Rendlesham ForestWoodlark & nightjar numbersare up, thanks to SITATrustfunding to restore areas ofheath within the forest

we place on inspiring andhelping others to create moreopportunities for wildlife in theirpart of Suffolk is our HeritageLottery funded project, NetworkingNature, to inspire action forwildlife in every parish. Now inits third year, theTrust team hasworked with groups in 346 of the477 parishes in Suffolk.

One of the highlights of theyear was the community wildlifeconference where inspirationalgroups that are making a realdifference for wildlife wherethey live, came together to sharetheir experiences and expertise.Amongst these were the groupfrom Bredfield, who later wenton to be winners in thelandscape and biodiversitycategory of the Suffolk – theGreenest County Award for theirJubilee Meadow project.

We are proud that anotherwinner this year, rewarded bythe Suffolk Agricultural Awardsfor their wildlife friendlyfarming, was the Rolph familywho farm theTrust’s arable landat Foxburrow Farm.

Living Landscapes Living Gardens Living Seas

To celebrate Coronation year,the Prince ofWales launchedCoronation Meadows – anetwork of ancient meadowsacross the country from whichseed can be gathered to createnew flower-rich meadows.Martins’ Meadows naturereserve was chosen as Suffolk’sCoronation Meadow.The greenhay from here will be used tohelp create new meadows ofcowslips and orchids.

The choice of aTrust site asthe source of seed wasparticularly appropriate asSuffolkWildlifeTrust is unique inthe time and energy we put intosecuring biodiversity outcomesin the countryside beyond theboundaries of our nature reserves.

Last year our farmland andwetland advisers worked with203 farmers and landowners,whilst our volunteerconservation advisers made afurther 48 visits to help peoplewith smaller plots turn their bitof Suffolk into a wildlife oasis.

Perhaps the most emphaticdemonstration of the importance

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Mickle MereWe have installed aswift nesting towerand will continue tobroadcast their callsover the next couple ofyears to draw inbreeding birds

Bradfield WoodsImproved ride and deermanagement is reapingdividends, with healthypopulations of white admiraland silver-washed fritillary

The value of towns for wildlife is wellrecognised, but the extent and qualityof Ipswich’s network of natural openspaces may well be a surprise.TheIpswichWildlife Audit, which wecompleted this year for the BoroughCouncil showed that over 2,300 acres,(nearly a quarter of the Borough) ismedium or high value wildlife habitat.The diverse townscape of allotments,parks, cemeteries, gardens, railwayembankments and river bankssupports a rich variety of species.

Neighbouring these areas ofwildlife interest are gardens, and inJanuary we launched our LivingGardens campaign to give freshemphasis to the role of gardens increating a Living Landscape.

Pollinators like bumblebees areinterdependent on both the natural

habitats and gardens of urban areasand species like hedgehog, stagbeetle, frog, common lizard and slowworm can all thrive in an urbanenvironment if we provide the rightconditions.

Celebrating Living GardensOur wildliferoadshows intown centres,village fetesand eventsacross Suffolkare helpingpeople getcloser to nature

The dramatic declineof hedgehog inSuffolk, and across theUK, has set alarm bellsringing.We hope ourcounty-wide survey in2014 will provide aninsight into how wecan pull Suffolk’shedgehogs back fromthe brink

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For SuffolkWildlifeTrust, theGovernment’s announcement inNovember 2013 that 27 marineconservation zones were to bedesignated in England, was amoment of both relief and bitterdisappointment. Relief that aftermonths of uncertainty, anetwork of marine protectedsites was beginning to takeshape – but disappointment thatthe Stour and Orwell estuarieswould not be one of them.

Despite being one of therichest estuaries in the UK, notjust for waders and wildfowl,but for marine habitats and itsrole as an important nursery forfish, the Stour and Orwell wasone of four potential MarineConservation Zones to beexcluded. Designation wouldhave given these marinefeatures the protection theyotherwise lack.

The Minister’s announcement

made clear that the Stour andOrwell was not designatedbecause of the burden it wouldcreate on the Ports of Felixstoweand Harwich.We believe thisperception that the needs of thenatural environment and theeconomy are in conflict is a falsepremise. For Suffolk to prosper,economic growth andenvironmental responsibilitymust go hand-in-hand.

One of the challenges ininspiring support for marineconservation is that Suffolk’scolourful undersea world ishidden from view. Our educationstaff have risen to the challenge,with a creative programme ofbeach exploration for schoolgroups, weekend and holidayactivity days for families and forteenagers from Lowestoft, apioneering approach to learningwhich uses the coast as theirclassroom.The Heritage Lottery

Fund has enabled much of this,through their support for ourCoastal Discovery project andthe AONB’sTouching theTide.

Our coastal reserveswitnessed the majesty of the seain a more shocking way, with thesurge tide that struck inDecember. Ours is a dynamiccoast and previous surge eventshave given a sense of what canhappen – but this was on analtogether greater scale. HenReedbeds, Dingle Marshes,Snape Marshes, and TrimleyMarshes were all flooded, butwith time, will fully recover. AtHazlewood Marshes, the breachin the river wall was far moresevere, and the reserve hascompletely changed. Shockingas this was at first, changedoesn’t have to mean loss andnew intertidal habitats willcreate different, but exciting,opportunities for wildlife.

Campaigning for Living Seas

We are grateful to all theindividuals, CharitableTrusts, grant-makingbodies and statutoryorganisations that fundour work.Without theirsupport we could notmaintain our existingactivity or develop newprojects

WildlifeInvestorin

Thank you to all ourBusiness Supporters

PlatinumEDF EnergyUK Power Networks

GoldAnglianWaterAspallBritishTelecom PlcCemex UKClimax MolybdenumLegal & GeneralMuntons plcRealise Futures

SilverArncliffe Leisure LtdBarnes ConstructionBinderBirkettsBOCM PAULS LTDCenter Parcs LtdDalehead FoodsEssex & SuffolkWaterHarwich Haven AuthorityJohn Stebbing ArchitectMagnox LimitedNational Express EastRansomes Jacobsen Ltd

BronzeABP IpswichAfrican AdventureAmbient LightAlan Boswell InsuranceManagement Ltd

Birds Eye LimitedBTS Group LtdCassiopae LimitedCulford SchoolFlempton Golf Club LimitedIpswich Building SocietyIpswich Golf ClubJ Breheny Contractors LtdLafargeTarmacLandscape PartnershipLarking GowenMaritime Cargo Processing plcNicholas Jacob ArchitectsNotcutts LtdRansomes Dock LimitedSW Cross & SonsSeckfordWines LtdStrutt & ParkerSuffolk LifeUfford Park LimitedWhite Stuff, Ipswich

A warm welcome to newmembers Muntons plc,Dalehead Foods andRealise Futures

The Marine Act promisedan ‘ecologically coherent’network of marineprotected sites but weremain far from realisingthis ambition in the NorthSea. We will continue tocampaign for Suffolk’scoast to get the protectionit deserves

Living Landscapes Living Gardens Living Seas

MARKTHOMAS

DAVEPEAKE

SuffolkWildlifeTrust, Brooke HouseAshbocking, Ipswich IP6 9JY01473 890089info@suffolkwildlifetrust.orgsuffolkwildlifetrust.org

SWT year ended 31 March 2014

Incoming resources £000’sMembers’ subscriptions & donations 860Legacies 515Fundraising & grants 1144SWTTrading company income 297Other 169Investment income 89Total incoming resources 3074

Resources expendedNature reserves & conservation 1289Education 377Membership 189Fundraising & grants 139Support, management & admin 112SWTTrading company costs 240Unrealised loss on investments 11Total resources expended 2357

Net incoming resources 717

Fund balances brought forward 10918Fund balances carried forward 11635

Analysis of group net assets between fundsFixed assetsNature reserves 6655Nature reserves purchased this year 146Other tangible assets 341

Net current assets* 449311635

* including designated, unrestricted & restricted fundsand legacy gifts set aside for significant projects

Financial summary

Income from legacy gifts isincluded in our net currentassets. Just as George Ford’slegacy helped to buy CampsHeath Marshes this year,legacy gifts are set aside forprojects, like buying orenlarging nature reserves,which make a lastingdifference to wildlife.

Legacy gifts underpin all ourland purchases and make itpossible for us to act quicklywhen opportunities arise.

Trustee’s statementThese are the summarised accounts.To allow a full understanding of thefinancial affairs of SuffolkWildlifeTrust you can view the full auditedannual accounts on our website orrequest a copy from SuffolkWildlifeTrust, Brooke House, Ashbocking,Ipswich IP6 9JY.

The annual accounts have beenaudited by Larking Gowen Ipswich Ltdand received an unqualified opinion.They were approved byTrustees on24th July 2014 and will be submittedto the Charity Commission andRegistrar of Companies.

TheTrustee’s target level of freereserves, equating to six monthsestablishment and core staff costs,currently equates to £706,000. Fundsabove this level are designated tospecific projects particularly theacquisition of land as nature reserves.Robin Drayton, Hon Treasurer

Auditor’s statementIn our opinion these summarisedaccounts are consistent with the fullstatutory accounts on which we havereported with an unqualified opinion.Approved 24th July 2014.

Legacy gifts

George Ford

4500 local children andyoung people havelearnt about BradfieldWoods through ourthree year project withHeritage Lo1ery Fund

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Expenditure

MembershipNaturereserves &conservation

LegaciesMembers’subscriptions& donations

Education

Fundraising& grants

Other InvestmentsSWTTrading

860 1692971144515 89

1289 377 189Management

& admin

112139Fundraising SWTTrading Nature

reservepurchase

240 146

Income

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