A wonderful spring time morning at Attenborough Nature Reserve with the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust

Article by John Ydlibi 26th March 2026

Our centenary event in March was hosted by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust at Attenborough Nature Reserve in Broxtowe.

The CPRE theme this month is nature and it was fitting to hold our event at this recognised site of specific scientific interest (SSSI) on the Trent River basin , and it has developed significantly since it was opened by Sir David Attenborough in 1966. One of the most significant changes has been the establishment of a Visitor Centre which is an award winning building for its design. This was built in 2005 after 20 years of planning and fundraising.

The site has been built on some old gravel and sand pits and has become a wetland habitat and grassland for a wide variety of British birds and overseas migrants , which migrate here in the winter months before starting their migration back home for the summer.

We undertook a gentle walk around the site and visited a few hides ( lookout points ) to see what wildlife was around.

Everyone who attended the event said how much they enjoyed it , and we had 30 members plus guests attend. After the walk, we enjoyed coffee and cake in a conference room next to the cafe in the visitor centre.  The catering provided by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust was excellent. Mr Kipling would have been proud!

We have to remember that Britain is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. The State of Nature Report 2023 highlighted that our nature has significantly declined both on land and freshwater  due to the way we manage land for agriculture, the effects of climate change and urban development. At sea and around the coasts, we have also seen impacts from unsustainable fishing.

The UK has set up ambitious targets to address nature loss through the Global Biodiversity Framework, and although our knowledge on how to do this is excellent, the size of the response and investment remains far from what its needed given the scale and the pace of the crisis.

Key actions required include:-

– Improving Species Status by targeting conservation action

– Increasing nature friendly farming, forestry and fishing

– Expanding and managing protected areas beyond the current 11% of area, and managing the existing ones better for nature

– Increasing ecosystem regeneration including peatlands and the UK seafloor

– co-ordinating our response to climate change better, using nature based solutions