I have to admit it even feels a bit strange to me, but it is at this time of year decisions are taken to plan the conservation work for the next 12 months.

From what has already been decided it looks as though it is going to be quite an exciting year in terms of conservation.

Out on the lowland heaths of Wyre Forest, it is hoped this coming year will see the completion of much of the large-scale heathland restoration works.

Following these works, we hope the nature reserves can settle down into a more routine management pattern for future years, which will allow this internationally important habitat, and the wildlife it supports, to flourish.

Next year, if all goes according to plan, the district council will be embarking on an experiment to create an area of lowland heath out of a patch of rough grassland.

The process will involve the burial of nutrient rich topsoil to expose poor base subsoil onto which locally cut ripe heather seed is spread.

Similar techniques have been tried elsewhere with some success, but it will be a first for this area. We will also have to wait up to five years to see whether the operation has been a success.

Not much new is happening on the wetland reserves. The year's programme revolves around the continued management of willow growth on the marshes and the control of foreign invasive weeds.

As in the last few years, the grazing animals project is still going to help manage the district's wetland and heathland nature reserves.

This year, it will also include a few other important wildlife sites in the area.

For those of you who got to know the animals last year, the calves born on the reserves will be back this year, but of course now they have grown and are a lot more boisterous.

It is also hoped that through the course of this season a few more calves will be born on the reserves.

There is some bad news though for those of you who have become attached to Sooty, the pure black cow.

Despite some quite knowledgeable opinions that she was in calf, it turned out not to be the case and she was just getting rather fat.

Other proposals for the coming year are the declaration of Half Crown Wood in Stourport as a Local Nature Reserve and the possible creation of two new nature reserves along the river Stour corridor.

However, there are still a few things which have to fall into place before this can become certain.