The Skagit Land Trust is a local non-profit conservation organisation located in the beautiful state of Washington.   It is supported by over 1,600 people (indidivduals, families and businesses).  It protects key natural land for future generations of people and wildlife and for the benefit of the community.

And great news!

The Skagit Land Trust has protected over 8,560 acres of land and 46 miles of marine and freshwater shoreline in Skagit County.  It’s done this  working with communities, landowners and partners.

And good news!  They’ve purchased 50 more acres.  These are at the entrance to Samish Island and the land will be managed as part of the Samish Island Conservation Area.

The Trust now protects 100 acres at the entrance to Samish Island and over half a mile of marine shoreline.  It includes a beach, freshwater wetlands, a tidal marsh, a small creek and tidelands.    And it means that the entrance will be natural open space forever!

The purchase was possible thanks to over 200 families, businesses and organisations who donated to help purchase the property, and the Washington State Department of Ecology who helped secure a grant of$875,000 from the National Coastal Weltands Conservation Grant Program.  

The Trust is working to secure further grant funds and these will help repay loans taken out for the purchase and also to help restore the property.  

The 100 acres includes the Samish Island Conservation Area, and the Samish Flower Farm.  It also includes an adjoining private conservation easement, kindly donated over 15 years ago by Jim Squires Jr and Cliff Squires.  Take a look at the areas protected by the Skagit Land Trust and you’ll see how important conservation easement is.

The first step is a site clean up. 

Find out all about the Skagit Land Trust’s Conservation Strategy here.

This just shows what can be done when people pull together towards a common conservation goal, so well done to every one involved.  Donate here.

IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare)  have been working for half a decade to end the Canadian commercial hunt.

It has been working with organisations, governments at a local and national level and dedicated animal lovers.

And they are making progress – the hunt is a shadow of its former self.

• 36 international trade bans on seal products
   
• 4 million seals have been saved since the European Union ban in 2009
   
• A 97% decrease in the value of the commercial seal hunt from 2006 to 2019
  
  

Sign petition to end the Atlantic commercial seal hunt

But the 2021 hunt has opened, and IFAW are asking us all to sign a petition to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to get this event stopped once and for all.

IFAW says that the hunt is cruel and unnecessary.  It’s time for the Canadian Government to stop funding the commercial hunt and invest in economic alternatives for those few fishermen who still take part in it.

They have a form you can use to send a message to Trudeau – there’s a personalised copy to make it more effective and you can actually personalise that.  Though as they say, please be polite!

Sign here and let’s really put the pressure on to get this commercial seal hunt STOPPED

Rainforest Foundation UK have good news from the Democratic Republic of the Congo!

Its community forest programme there has gained momentum, as the Bamasobha community has been granted their community forest!  This secures 29,142 hectares!   Find out more about it here.

There are now over 100 community forests which are either established or applied for, in the world’s second largest rainforest.  They total over 2 million acres!

Rainforest Foundation UK works in the two largest rainforests, the Congo Basin and the Amazon.  The forests are spread over billions of acres but as we all know, they are threatened by illegal logging and mining.    Destroy the forest habitats, and you also undermine the livelihoods of locals living there.  You also destroy eco systems.

ForestLink fights illegal activities in the forest

So communities are important in the fight against illegal activities, and the Rainforest Foundation UK’s ForestLink monitoring system enables communities to send low-cost alerts about illegal logging.  It’s been so effective that it’s been expanded to the Ivory Coast!

There was also a landmark conviction of eco-guards for human rights abuses which were committed in the Salonga National Park.   It sends a strong message that abuses won’t be tolerated.  

Rainforest Foundation UK says that much needs to be done to address the risks from a poorly designed UN plan to double protect areas within the next decade.  It is working to “amplify the voices of those on the frontline of deforestation on the international stage” as the climate summit in Glasgow approaches.

Visit Rainforest Foundation UK's website here

There’s good news from the Shropshire Hills. 

National Trust volunteers have planted over 2,000 native trees there as part of a big conservation project.

Introducing the Stepping Stones project

Stepping Stones is a landscape-scale conservation project.  It’s aiming to improve the area, restoring habitats and linking them together, thereby creating wildlife corridors.

Volunteers have planted wildlife-friendly saplings such as elder, holly, hawthorn and rowan.  These trees will give nectar, berries and shelter for birds and other wildlife in the future and they will create a corridor that connects areas for wildlife.  

Wildlife corridors are critical to wildlife

The idea of wildlife corridors is that wildlife can move through an area, because the corridors link up areas of habitat so they can get from A to B – almost like their own motorway network, or railway system.

This project is necessary because the area – like so many others – has lost many hedgerows and trees in fields.  This is because of agricultural practices which have changed over time.

Patches of woodland have been cut off from each other – so species such as dormice get stuck in one area – they need hedgerows to move through an area.  Less scrub and thicket have meant less breeding habitat for songbirds.

So planting long strips of native woodland – very wide hedgerows – have created new habitat which link up other areas.

This plan will help strengthen the network of woodland corridors

The ultimate idea is to strengthen the network of woodland habitat in the area.   This really will help wildlife move about safely – they will have somewhere to nest and rest, too, and it will make the landscape look even more beautiful for us all to enjoy!

You can support the National Trust’s Stepping Stones appeal here.

International Animal Rescue have a petition on line.  And it needs all of us to support it. 

They need all of us to help join their fight to end bear poaching in Armenia and to rescue the bears who are left and waiting for us to help free them.  They are being kept in terrible conditions.

IAR has been working with the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC), their partners in Armenia.   So far they have rescued over 30 bears.

It’s time to Break the Cage!

IAR estimate that there could be as many as 50 more bears who are waiting to be rescued.  They need all our help to set these bears free.

The brown bears are poached from the wild and then locked up in tiny cages.  Usually their mothers are killed, and the little cubs are captured and sold into a miserable life. They may be kept in tiny squalid cages.  They eat scraps, and drink dirty water.

Please sign IAR’s petition to end this horrible trade.

And please spread the word!