Reading through the various publications which relate to my work, an article by English Nature caught my eye.

It was a feature highlighting the importance of lowland heath and stated at present the lowland heath habitat which can be found on nature reserves to the north of Kidderminster is, "more threatened than the tropical rain forests". This was quite a frightening thought to take on board.

Lowland heath is thought to be an ancient type akin to ancient woodlands. Landscapes, very similar to those which can be seen on nature reserves such as Burlish Top, Vicarage Farm, The Rifle Range and Devil's Spittlelful have been around for tens of millennia.

Similar habitats may have even stretched back to the time of the dinosaur. However, lowland heath is rapidly disappearing, as it is easy land to develop on and can be simply converted into more productive agricultural land with the irreversible addition of fertilisers.

Lowland heath ecology is also dependent on large herbivores, without which the heath simply dies and is replaced by scrubby woodland.

Here in Wyre Forest we have a sizeable chunk of what remains of a once widespread habitat. Great efforts are being made to save what is left with the reintroduction of cattle grazing and for the next couple of months more mechanical methods.

These try to simulate the effects of heavy grazing in areas where either grazing is too difficult to implement due to social difficulties, or where the scrub has become too well established for the cattle to deal with.

Trying to help people understand the immense heritage value of this land is what I find the most difficult.

For years much of it was seen by many as an area of wasteland. I suppose it is also hard to be impressed by the wealth of wildlife the heaths support as most things on heathland are in small scale. It is also much more difficult to be enthusiastic about the conservation of a tiger beetle than a tiger even though both are threatened with extinction and one lives less than a mile from the centre of Kidderminster.

However, despite this uphill battle I feel the best hope for the survival of lowland heath is through education and determined conservation works.

It would be such a pity to lose this type of landscape due to lack of understanding. Once it has gone, it has gone, and all we will have to show our children are the photographs in museums and awkward questions to answer, about why we allowed this habitat and all it's unique wildlife slip into oblivion.