ESSEX WILDLIFE TRUST

This is the place where I work as a volunteer! The trust has responsibility for many sites throughout Essex, including our local one in Laindon. It covers some 460 acres and adjoins the flats where we live.

My work is at the information centre which houses a Shop selling Books/Memorabillia/toys for kids/teas and coffee. There is also an education section which handles the many school visits to the site, and there are Rangers who maintain the parkland.

Basically we try to encourage people to visit the park and learn something of the wildlife which abounds in the area Foxes/Badgers/Bats/snakes and birds of every description. There is a small museum which is housed in one of the original shacks whcih were built on this land. In the 1930's there was an auction of available land which attracted buyers from London looking for a holiday home. During WW2 many of the Londoners moved here permanently to escape the blitzes. But in the 1950's a master plan was drawn up to develope the new town of Basildon and all the Plotlands shacks were aquired and demolished.

The Trust organises event days with guided tours day and night to promote the concept of the preservation of wildlife, and part of the job is organising these bookings. It is also a fairly regular occurence to have calls for help with unwelcome or injured wildlife. These are referred to a whole host of specialist organisations.

Few people realise that there is an enormous amount of legislation for the protection of wildlife in this country. For instance, should you be unfortunate enough to find that your roof is the newly aquired nesting place for a colony of bats.Stiff! The bats win out and there is nothing that you can do to eliminate them legally. In fact your house can be declared under the law as a protected place. Similarly if one should find that a fox has taken up residence in your garden -live with it.

So it is all very interesting and the people working with me are really dedicated to the Trust and extremely nice folks.

Another little sidelight to my life is that I have become a volunteer walker of retired Greyhounds! There is a big interest in the welfare of these beautiful dogs and considerable publicity inviting people to adopt a dog or, if not able to, to become a friend of the Society and take them walking. The Greyhound is a most mild mannered dog, described as a 40 mph Potato Couch!! Their graceful walk and their forlorn expression wins the hearts of most people.