About us
Looking after Staffordshire's wildlife for over 50 years
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust is your local wildlife charity. Established in 1969 we are dedicated to protecting the county’s wildlife and wild places.
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust is the county's leading nature conservation charity. We have around 130 members of staff, who are guided by a board of trustees and supported by a network of volunteers that our work would not be possible without.
The Trust's main offices are at The Wolseley Centre in Wolseley Bridge, near Rugeley, which is also a popular visitor centre. We were the first Wildlife Trust to launch a charity shop in our mission to raise funds for Staffordshire's Wildlife.
Our work would not be possible without your support. Become a member and help us keep looking after Staffordshire's wildlife for future generations.
Our mission
is to bring wildlife back, to empower people to take meaningful action for nature, and to create an inclusive society where nature matters.
What we do
- We manage 45 nature reserves around the county totalling over 1,980 hectares
- We carry out conservation projects to create and restore habitats for wildlife, to ensure that the county's wild creatures have secure places where they can feed, shelter and breed
- We run events to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to discover, enjoy and care about the natural world
- We work with families and schools to inspire a love and respect for nature and teach environmental education
- We work with communities to improve local green spaces for wildlife. Find out more about our community projects here and discover how you can support wildlife and wild places in your area.
- We campaign on behalf of the environment to protect threatened places and rare species. We advocate for nature, striving to influence policy and decisions affecting wildlife.
- We offer advice to individuals, planners, developers and landowners about how to protect and enhance gardens and habitats for wildlife
We need nature and it needs us. We’re here to make the world wilder and make nature part of life, for everyone. We’re helping to make life better – for wildlife, for people and for future generations.
Get to know us a bit better
Image by kevin Palmer
We are visionary
Our vision and strategy
How we are doing
Our finances
We are friendly
Our peopleWhat's happening
Flagship UK-wide nature project sees people-power dramatically helps communities and wildlife in Stafford
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust’s Nextdoor Nature programme worked with 12 communities to take action for nature
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust calls for urgent action to protect county’s natural riches as world nature summit gets underway
As global leaders meet for a UN summit focussing on the crisis facing our natural world, the county’s leading nature conservation…
Charity urges more GPs to think ‘green’ to enhance patient wellbeing
A nature conservation charity is encouraging health providers to follow a Newcastle-under-Lyme medical centre that has embarked on a…
The bigger picture
The Wildlife Trusts is a movement made up of 46 Wildlife Trusts: independent charities who all share a mission to create living landscapes and living seas and a society where nature matters.
Each Wildlife Trust is a member of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) which is a registered charity in its own right, founded in 1912. The central charity’s role is to ensure a strong voice for wildlife at a UK and England level and to lead the development of the movement. You can find out more about the history of The Wildlife Trust here.
Together the 46 Trusts and RSWT are known as The Wildlife Trusts. Read about The Wildlife Trust movement here.
There are thirty-seven Trusts in England, five in Wales, a Trust for Scotland and a Trust for Northern Ireland. There are also Trusts in Alderney and the Isle of Man. Each of the Wildlife Trusts is a registered charity.
The Wildlife Trusts Annual Impact Report
This annual report gives an overview of The Wildlife Trusts impact in the year 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023, including key statistics, stories and highlights - from the area of land managed and influence for wildlife, to measuring the impact of volunteering on peoples' mental health. View the report here.
Like what we do, get more involved
Further reading
Lobbying Act
The Wildlife Trusts recognise the need for charities to avoid political bias – particularly in the run up to major elections. We also believe wholeheartedly in the right of charities to express views on issues of public policy that relate directly to their charitable objectives. Many advances in social and environmental policy have been secured as a result of charities advocating beneficial changes and all our lives are better for it.
Our view
We have a vision of an environment rich in wildlife, for everyone. To achieve it, we are working to create Living Landscapes, secure Living Seas and to inspire people to value and take action for wildlife and the natural world: in and around the places that are important to them; at home, at work, at school. Society gains many clear public benefits from our work, in communities right across the country.
We believe that there are many ways in which the UK Government can contribute to improving the natural world and help The Wildlife Trusts to achieve our charitable aims. For it to do this, the politicians and political parties that influence the priorities, decisions and actions of the Government need to understand what we are trying to achieve, why it is important to society and what they can do to help. It is important that they adopt policies and pass laws that strengthen the natural environment and its ability to underpin the health and wellbeing of society and the economy. It is vital that they appreciate the enormous value that the British public place on our wildlife and wild places, and reflect this in their decisions.
In the run up to the 2015 UK General Election, all non-political organisations are required to take particular notice of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 (the Lobbying Act), which became law on 30th January 2014. It changes the established rules relating to activities undertaken by non-party campaigners (including charities), which could reasonably be regarded as being intended to influence the outcome of national elections in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland (including the UK General Election).
The Act aims to ensure that between 19th September 2014 and 7th May 2015 expenditure intended to influence the voting decisions of the general public is kept within reasonable limits and is reported openly, clearly and concisely. All organisations intending to spend more than £20K in England, or more than £10K in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, on a specified set of ‘regulated activities’ must register with the Electoral Commission and report all their regulated campaigning expenditure to them.
The Wildlife Trusts do not intend to register with the Electoral Commission, as during the restricted period, we will be focusing our efforts on influencing the policies that will be adopted and promoted by the political parties and individual candidates, rather than on influencing the way in which the public votes at the election. We will champion the natural environment – on land and at sea – and will be working to gain support for our views from politicians from right across the political spectrum.
We will be promoting our views directly to our members and committed supporters, to journalists and the media, and to the politicians and political parties themselves, highlighting legislation and policies that will help nature to recover, as we have done for many years. We will aim to ensure that anything that we communicate directly to the general public (on our web site, in leaflets and posters, at events, through social media or in paid advertising) is factual, balanced and entirely independent of the views of those standing for election or those helping them to do so. We will continue to respond to government consultations and to contribute to public debates that are not directly related to the General Election, as you would expect. And we will continue our work to increase everyone’s awareness and understanding of the natural world, and why it is a vital part of all our lives.
We won’t be looking to support one candidate or another, or one party over the next, partly because as charities we are not allowed to, but mostly because the future of the natural environment on which we all ultimately depend is too important for it to become the subject of party political disagreement or mean self interest. It is vital to everyone. We will work impartially to promote this understanding in all our politicians, as we have done for more than 100 years.