Staff news
So the time has come for Wendy Murray to take a well earned rest as she goes on maternity leave to wait for the arrival of her baby due in January. I know you will join me in giving her our very best wishes enjoying some special time with her baby in the months to come. We will miss Wendy but are delighted that Nicky Willner will be stepping into the role as Learning Development Officer whilst Wendy is away. We know Nicky will work hard to keep the well oiled ‘Education machine’ up and running and I am sure you will all support her in her new role.
This leaves us without a Visitor Officer but we will be recruiting in the new year so please watch this space!
We have also recruited a new warden to replace Stefan Bodnar who leaves us on 15th January. Her name is Katie Thorpe and she joins us from RSPB Old Moor on 20th January. More on Katie in our next update! We are also able to confirm the appointment of our new Community and Volunteer Development Officer. Her name is Nadia and she also used to work at Old Moor (which seems to be a great training ground for out latest staff (Fergus was also there!). Most recently though Nadia has been working for the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust heading up the Wild About Tamworth project. I am sure that she will tell you more about that when she starts in February.
On the reserve
Some fantastic news for Middleton Lakes – our planning application for construction of our new welcome barn providing toilets, multi use space for visitors and school groups has been approved and tenders have been invited for works to begin in Feb/March. It was also exciting to see our cows exploring the new Jubilee wetlands this last month too. After Christmas we expect to see the gradual demobilization of the Environment Agency contractors and the release back to us of the new look South of the reserve. I am sure that some of our volunteer wardens and work party volunteers will have enjoyed a sneaky preview but even for me I don’t think that we will really get the full picture of how it will work and look until all of the activities have finished.
The ‘Bigger Picture’
Both Sandwell Valley and Middleton Lakes are very much part of a “bigger picture”, where RSPB is working with a host of other organisations to help nature at a landscape scale. To find out more visit The RSPB: Futurescapes
Middleton Lakes sits towards the southern end of the Trent and Tame River Valley’s Futurescape, check out the web page and blog.
Partnership working is central to landscape scale work and two very active partnerships are spearheading this approach in our area:
The Central Rivers Initiative (CRI) covers the river valley of the Tame and Trent in Staffordshire. CRI comprises 14 commercial, statutory and charitable organisations working towards a shared vision to revitalise and restore the river valley from former quarries to beautiful places, teeming with wildlife. If successful, wildlife at Middleton Lakes will benefit from a wetland corridor stretching northwards towards the Humber, dotted with high quality patches of habitat created during the restoration of gravel quarries.
The Tame Valley Wetlands Landscape Partnership led by our friends at the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, is on the cusp of securing substantial funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for major enhancements to benefit the local landscape and people. If successful (we’ll find out in March), the funds will help create more reedbeds at Middleton (on the Dosthill side of the river) and improve wetland habitats at Kingsbury Water Park and Whitacre Heath.
Nick Martin
Senior Site Manager
See you on the reserves,
Best regards,
Chris Edwards