AONB Enews 2023

Take a look at the March 2024 Cannock Chase National Landscape e-newsletter with details on how to book for the Annual conference, dates for Heath week in July, and Hour for Earth in March and how Fipl funding can help you if you have horses.

The e-newsletter will keep you up to date on news from the Cannock Chase National Landscape, work in progress and the projects we are currently involved in.

Please do forward and share with colleagues, family and friends and ask them to sign up here to receive their own copy.

Click here to download.

We are pleased to launch the first Destination Access Guide for Cannock Chase National Landscape.  The purpose of the guide is to give visitors more information on accessible leisure activities that can be visited if you have a disability, require assistance with access, or a parent and guardian with small children and a buggy. Helping everyone to be able to plan, easily explore and have a great day out.

The guide is available as a download here and has information on the accessible facilities available at 21 different locations including each of the visitor centres and cafes such as the Cannock Chase Visitor Centre, Cannock Chase Forest Centre and The Wolseley Centre which all make ideal starting points for your visit. Shugborough Estate and other attractions, trails, nature reserves and car parks are included too. Each entry in the guide includes sensory information, what you can touch, see, smell and hear on a visit.

For use alongside the guide are 6 videos that have been produced for some of our shorter, popular walking trails from 1 to 2.25 miles long which provide a taste of the Chase.

Part of the project included supporting Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles to purchase an additional 8 inclusive, adaptive bikes that are available for disability groups to use from Cannock Chase Visitor Centre.

Councillor Victoria Wilson, Chair of the Cannock Chase National Landscape Partnership added: The development of an Access guide for the National Landscape has been an amazing achievement and we look forward to welcoming new visitors as well as helping others discover different areas that they may not have thought of going to before.

Access Guide can be downloaded here.

The trail videos can be found here.

Images of inclusive bike users Rob Clarke and Sophie Goode.

We are asking everyone to join in with the national campaign Great British Spring Clean to help to protect our own special Cannock Chase National Landscape. The national campaign takes place from 15th to 31st March 2024.

We are all responsible for keeping it unspoilt, natural, wild and beautiful for everyone to be able to enjoy in the future. Join a group or go out as an individual and make a difference.

Be a #litterhero today.

Friends of Cannock Chase have 2 litterpicking dates planned so far this year – June 1st and August 31st 2024

Both start at Cannock Chase Visitor Centre, Marquis Drive, Hednesford WS12 4PW at 10am to 12 noon.

The Friends of Cannock Chase supply litter pickers, bags, gloves and high vis jackets.

Take a look at the January 2024 Cannock Chase National Landscape e-newsletter with details on the Adder Survey, annual conference and also how Fipl funding can help you if you have horses.

The e-newsletter will keep you up to date on news from the Cannock Chase National Landscape, work in progress and the projects we are currently involved in.

Please do forward and share with colleagues, family and friends and ask them to sign up here to receive their own copy.

Click here to download.

We are pleased to announce that a partnership led by wildlife conservation NGO Amphibian and Reptile Groups of the UK (ARG UK), with the Cannock Chase National Landscape Partnership, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the local volunteer-led Shropshire and Staffordshire amphibian and reptile group, SAS ARG has been successful in securing funding from DEFRA’s Farming in Protected Landscapes programme to find out more about the status of the adder on Cannock Chase, and collectively develop a programme to help conserve one of our most iconic native animals.

During the first phase of the project, starting in the Spring of 2024,  a survey and monitoring programme will be established to collect and collate records for adders across Cannock Chase and its environs. We would be grateful for any historic records or other information that local residents or visitors to the area may have, that will allow us to better map the distribution of adders, and where possible target survey areas where little is known or there are gaps.

If you would like to find out more, join our survey team or have any other comments please contact Dr Angela Julian, Coordinator, ARG UK

Long term monitoring programmes show that the adder (Vipera berus) is declining rapidly across many parts of the UK, and faces local extinction in many counties. This pattern of declines is mirrored on Cannock Chase where, despite being widely considered to be a historic ‘adder stronghold’, there is evidence to suggest that populations may be vulnerable.

Whilst many land managers are working hard to support wildlife on their sites, to decisively reverse these declines we need to act at the landscape level, to understand how adders are using the landscape and what factors are affecting them. We also need to conserve adders through habitat improvement and by increasing connectivity. We are pleased to be able to recruit many of our local land owners to the project including: Beau Desert Golf Club, Cannock Chase District Council, Cemex, New Hayes Farm, Staffordshire Borough Council, Staffordshire Country Council, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, and The National Trust (Shugborough Estate). The project is also supported by The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Forestry England and Lichfield District Council.

See website for ARG UK here with further details.

Image from Kevin Clark

Take a look at the December Cannock Chase National Landscape e-newsletter with some great ideas for walking over the festive period, Christmas stocking fillers and an introduction to a new member of the team.

You will find details of the 6 walking leaflets around the Chase that have just been produced from 4 to 9 miles long spanning from Castle Ring in the south to the Sow Valley and Tixall in the north of Cannock Chase.

The e-newsletter will keep you up to date on news from the Cannock Chase National Landscape, work in progress and the projects we are currently involved in.

Please do forward and share with colleagues, family and friends and ask them to sign up here to receive their own copy.

Click here to download.