There are 10 Community Wildlife Groups, which between them cover most of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and the north-west of the County.
A map showing the area covered by each can be found here
For further information about each group, see individual Group pages below.
Plans for 2025
Several groups have planned Annual Meetings in February or March (see individual group pages).
Bird Group meetings will be held by most groups in March. For further information, see Latest News Below.
All groups undertake bird surveys, mainly to monitor the local Curlew population. There are probably only about 120 breeding pairs left in the whole of Shropshire, so we haven’t got long to save them from location extinction.
All Groups need new helpers please.
A general description of the surveys can be found here
If you want to help, or need more information, please email Leo Smith (leo@leosmith.org.uk)
For other activities, please see individual group pages below.
Since 2003
Surveying and protecting declining species
About Us
Wildlife is an important part of our landscape and natural heritage but much of it is disappearing.
Community Wildlife Groups give local people a chance to do something about this by finding and recording wildlife of all types, so that existing populations and habitats can be conserved.
What the groups do
Our mission
We bring together people interested in wildlife, undertake survey work to establish the status of key wildlife species and their habitats, encourage and enhance local interest in wildlife, and actively promote conservation.
Get involved
Find out more
Don’t miss out
Latest News
Community Wildlife Group – Bird Surveys 2024
We need more help for the 2024 Bird Surveys. Please find below details of the Bird Group meetings, results from 2023, plans for 2024 and the Save Our Curlews campaign. Bird Groups - Updates for 2024
URGENT Save our Curlews 2024 appeal – more donations needed please
To date, the appeal has raised far less than we hoped, and we are still well short of what we need to implement the project, due to start at the end of next month. Please read on …
Save our Curlews Campaign and Appeal 2023
Community Wildlife Groups are working with the Shropshire Ornithological Society (SOS) Save our Curlews campaign, to find nests, protect them with electric fences, and fix radio-tags to the resulting chicks and track them to see how they use the landscape. Project...
Since 2003
Shropshire’s Community Wildlife Groups
Please note that the boundary of the Strettons area CWG actually follows parish boundaries, not OS tetrad grid lines like most of the other boundaries, and is therefore very tedious to draw in the mapping software. Also, when it was originally decided, it took no account of the boundaries of adjacent CWGs, and overlaps the eastern part of the Upper Onny area.
The actual SACWG boundary is the original parish-based map + the 30 tetrads covered by the bird survey, but for ease of presentation here the SACWG boundary also follows tetrad grid lines, and it includes all the tetrads that are substantially within the SACWG original area + the bird survey area. Tetrads in the SACWG area that are also in the area of adjacent CWGs are shown in the colour of the latter, but with a small green dot in their centre.
In practical terms there is no duplication or overlap in the activities of the GWGs concerned.
3 Parishes
We cover the parishes of Gobowen & Selattyn, Weston Rhyn and St. Martins.
Abdon District
Abdon Wildlife Group started up in the spring of 2016. We are a group of local residents who are interested in our area’s natural history.
Camlad Valley
We cover Churchstoke, Hyssington, Priest Weston and Chirbury, so we are partly in England and partly in Wales.
Clee Hill
Centred on the open hill land of Titterstone Clee, Clee Hill Common and Catherton Common, and includes the surrounding land .
Rea Valley
Our area includes Pontesbury, Minsterley, the Stiperstones and the Hope Valley.
Severn-Vyrnwy
We were set up in February 2018 to monitor Lapwing and Curlew. We cover Alberbury, Melverley, Pentre and Westbury.
Strettons Area
We have been active since 2012 helping to record and conserve wildlife in and around the around the Strettons area.
Tanat to Perry
Extending from Oswestry in the north to Kinnerley in the south, and eastward from the Welsh border to Ruyton-XI-Towns: from the Tanat to the Perry.
Upper Clun
We cover the catchment area of the River Clun west of Clun, including the valleys of the River Unk and the Folly Brook.
Upper Onny
We cover the area between the Long Mynd and the Welsh Border, including the parishes of Ratlinghope, Wentnor, Norbury, Myndtown, More and Lydham.
With thanks
Thanks to support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery, we have been able to redesign our website and receive training on digital communications. We are very grateful for the support. Thank you.
