Guest blog by Adam Rowlands, Senior Sites Manager, North Suffolk
The Discover Nature project at Minsmere has been a great journey for me, as well as a brilliant opportunity to connect many more people to nature. Thanks to the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund we have had the opportunity to develop the facilities at Minsmere to enable folk of all ages and abilities to appreciate the beauty of the outstanding landscape and get closer to the site's amazing wildlife. The Discovery Centre has presented many new opportunities from toddlers having their first experience of Minsmere to eight year olds enjoying a unique birthday party and school children having the opportunity to spend the night on the reserve. The experience is great by day, but it has been a pleasure to see children enthralled by the percussion of bat detectors on the woodland trails at dusk or being amazed by the variety of moths that are discovered in the traps at dawn and then released.
Families enjoying the Wild Zone and Discovery Centre
The wonder of Minsmere has been brought to life by the amazing BBC Springwatch programmes and the recent BBC Radio Suffolk dawn broadcast. It has been tremendous to see more people exploring the unique treasures of Minsmere after first learning about them from these broadcasts.
Today I had the honour of being invited to a reception hosted by the Prime Minister in Downing Street to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the launch of the National Lottery. It was a pleasure to represent RSPB Minsmere at the event and to speak to a number of people, including the event's organisers from Camelot, who had enjoyed the delights of the reserve. The heightened security was far removed from my childhood memories of my parents walking me up Downing Street to see no. 10. However, the policeman on door duty was politely giving way to all the delegates taking 'selfies' on the doorstep as they left, something that would have been unimaginable in my youth.
Reflecting on childhood brings back memories of a different age, but I am delighted that the Lottery-funded developments at Minsmere will enable many more children to recall fond memories of their experiences on the reserve and guarantee that future generations protect and value our fantastic natural places and the wildlife that call them home.
The Wild Zone is the perfect place for children to discover nature. Photo by Sue Alderman