Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve

Friends of
Paxton Pits Nature Reserve

The Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve is the voluntary group which supports the conservation of one of Cambridgeshire's premier nature sites.

The Friends started in 1995 and now has a membership of over 2200. The Friends registered as a charity in July 2008, Registration No. 1125221. The Annual Report and Accounts for The Friends' first full year as a registered charity (2009) can be viewed at the Charity Commission's website www.charity-commission.gov.uk.

The Friends helps Paxton Pits Nature Reserve and its visitors through a range of activities:

- enhancing habitat, and creating new habitat, for wildlife through funding and volunteer action

- action to achieve expansion of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve

- supporting wildlife monitoring on the Reserve by volunteers

- improving visitor facilities through funding and volunteer action

- running public events and promoting the Reserve and its wildlife

- enriching 'visitor experience' through support for the Voluntary Warden Scheme and running the Group Visit programme

- supporting informal and formal educational activities

- providing information about the Reserve through publications and the Reserve's website

Visitors to The Friends' Family Spring Watch event in May 2010

The Friends' volunteers in Bardon Aggregates Quarry - previewing progress on the extension to the Reserve

This range of activities would not be possible without the support of the membership of The Friends, the active volunteers (over 160) and the Reserve's many other supporters.

Most of the events organised on the Reserve each year, including the popular Nightingale Festival, are organised by The Friends.

The Friends supports the crucially important Voluntary Warden Scheme - very much the public face of the Reserve. Habitat management through regular winter working parties continues to make an important contribution to the Reserve and, like most of the Friends' activities, it provides a focus for volunteer involvement in the Reserve.

A major achievement for The Friends in recent years has been its leading role in securing the expansion of the Reserve from its current 192 acres to more than 700 acres during the next 10 years. The extension is part of the approval for Bardon Aggregates' plan to extract the remaining gravel deposits at Paxton Pits, and it will be managed by Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC) - with "a little help from The Friends", of course.

The Friends' funds are raised through sales at the Visitors' Centre, membership subscriptions, donations and at public events to promote the Reserve. Over £30,000 was contributed to improving the Reserve during 2009. This sum included £25,600 for habitat creation projects in Bardon Aggregates Quarry, to ensure that this area is as attractive as possible for wildlife when the quarry becomes the planned extension to The Reserve.

The Friends has also made a substantial contribution to the recently extended Visitors' Centre, and support has been provided for the new Environmental Education Centre opened in September 2010 by the Wildlife Trust (for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Northamptonshire) and HDC.

The Friends has a broad membership, including those who visit regularly or occasionally, from near or from afar; those who want to support the Reserve because it's there, and those who want to get involved.

If you have enjoyed a visit to Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, why not join The Friends today?

Join the Friends and make Paxton Pits a great place for people and wildlife

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