More than 1,000 hectares of Shropshire uplands to be protected as part of expanded Stiperstones nature reserve

Natural England has announced the creation of a new Stiperstones Landscape National Nature Reserve. 

The expanded reserve is more than three times the area of the original Stiperstones reserve. It brings together six partner organisations to safeguard precious heathland, ancient woodland, bogs and acidic grasslands on the border of England and Wales.

One of the six organisations is the Middle Marches Community Land Trust. Its chair, Dr Richard Keymer,  says:

"Middle Marches Community Land Trust is delighted that the Stiperstones National Nature Reserve is to be extended and will include 2 areas of land that we own, Minsterley Meadows and Norbury Hill. Larger areas of land managed for nature will make them more resilient in the face of a changing climate."

I took the photograph above, which looks across to the Stiperstones from the west, a couple of weeks ago.