This blog features stories about our very best wildlife sites, places dripping with designations and international recognition. There's a reason for that, my colleagues across the UK are kept more than fully occupied by threats, issues and occasionally opportunities faced by the best of the best. But in that focus there is a risk - that by default the rest of nature is overlooked. You sometimes hear the term 'second tier site' referring to those myriads of places that, in their totality, provide home and sanctuary to an amazing array of wildlife. There is an impression that second tier means second best - yet a wedding cake has a second (and sometimes a third) tier without which the top tier would be a small and rather unsatisfying cake.
I was reminded of this the other day when I was kindly sent a copy of the newsletter of the Netherfield Wildlife Group celebrating ten years of local action saving and enjpoying a post-industrial wetland next to the Trent in Nottinghamshire. I'd been sent a copy as a result of a tiny amount of help and some encouragement that I'd given at the outset of the project and it was wonderful to catch up with a real success story.
The great news is the gang at Netherfield are not alone, local action works and I hope to be able to feature other examples in the future.
Our Wildlife Action Pack provides lots of advice on how to get active locally - and will no doubt feature again in these pages.