Little Terns face many pressures and are highly sensitive to disturbance. To help this rare seabird, Essex Wildlife Trust has been working hard to create optimum Little Tern habitat on their reserves. Please see their Little Tern project page for more information.
Planning decisions should be based on up to date information, but exactly how old this information can be before it is no longer considered "current" is often a bit of a grey area. In some cases there may be specific guidance, but now CIEEM, the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, has published general advice on the length of time that professional survey reports can be considered valid.
As a not-for-profit organisation we rely heavily on our volunteers, and have regular volunteers that help to digitise data. We are very grateful for their help and dedication, and recently had the opportunity to recognise one of our longest serving volunteers via the Room for Reward scheme. Essex Wildlife Trust can nominate a limited number of volunteers for the scheme each year, and we were delighted to have our volunteer Brian Arbon recognised under the scheme.
The Wildlife Trusts have published a report on the status of Local Wildilfe Sites (LoWS) in England in 2017/18. Local Wildlife Sites are part of the country's ecological network and form important links between statutory sites such as SSSI's. They are not legally protected in their own right, although national planning policy requires Local Authorites to give them some level of protection from development.
