Strettons Area

About

In 2012, Shropshire Wildlife Trust (SWT) started a local Stretton Hills Botanical Survey Group.  Subsequently, members of SACWG have joined with this group for surveys in and close to the Strettons area.

The survey is led by an experienced botanist who shows the group how to identify plants. However the eventual aim is for the group to gain enough confidence go out on their own. They venture into botanically interesting areas of the local countryside which are not normally accessible to the general public, where SWT has obtained special permission from the landowner.

The overall atmosphere of these groups is very relaxed and members do not need to have experience of plants or of habitat management, as this will be explained by the survey leader.  For regular surveyors, SWT offers free botanical training courses such as the “Grasses, Sedges and Rushes” training day at Brook Vessons and the “Dandelion Lookalikes” course at Llanymynech.

During 2020 the covid lockdown meant the programme failed to get off the ground; mid April to July is the main survey window and this coincided precisely with the first national lockdown.  No group surveys were held and so survey activities were limited to what individual members could do locally whilst exercising.   A summary of these surveys can be downloaded from the “Survey Results” section opposite.

Getting involved

Full details of dates, times and rendezvous, and other details are available by email from the programme organiser please contact Mike Carter (misawa47@gmail.com). 

IMPORTANT: For insurance purposes anyone wishing to join the group must register as a volunteer at the Shropshire Wildlife Trust prior to joining the group.