Volunteering
Latest volunteering
opportunities
Emergency seabird survey
Take part in a sponsored walk or cycle ride
Support us
There are many ways you can get involvedDo you know of a business that might want to help fund one of our projects?
Find out more on our Corporate Support page
Current campaigns
Marine
Devon’s coast is home to many rare and protected species, from basking sharks to pink sea fans. But in the past it held far more and bigger creatures – there has been a huge decline even in living memory.
With a new Marine and Coastal Access Act recently become law, DWT is campaigning for effective management of the marine environment through a network of Marine Conservation Zones.
Species campaigns
In 2011 DWT launched the first of a series of species focussed public campaigns.
2011 - Help The Hog was the first campaign, which proved to be a huge success. It gained more than 3,000 individual responses to its survey.
2012 - Glow-worm campaign, a less well known species, this survey campaign has helped raised awareness of this declining species through schools work and events.
Follow on surveys will be done on each of these species after five years.
Wildlife and farming
Farmland accounts for over 80% of Devon’s landscape. There has been a
shift from small traditional mixed farming systems to large farms
specialising in just one or two crops. Our countryside is less varied,
fields are bigger with fewer hedges and as a result contain less – and
less variety of – wildlife.
The needs of wildlife must be balanced with the need for food production, and DWT advises landowners on ways to farm with nature.
Planning and Green Infrastructure
Wildlife is not confined to the countryside – parks, gardens, rivers and verges all provide useful habitat in towns. DWT is mapping these areas and campaigning to get them recognised, protected and extended by local authority planners.