Type Registered Charity Chief Executive Sarah Mason | Headquarters Trenoweth | |
Formation 1985; 32 years ago (1985) Location St Mary's, Isles of Scilly Website Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust | ||
The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust, formed in 1985, is a wildlife trust covering the Isles of Scilly, a group of islands off the coast of Cornwall. It became the 46th member of The Wildlife Trusts in 2001 and is dedicated to ensuring that the archaeological and historical remains on the islands, as well as the flora and fauna, are protected and maintained.
The Trust leases all of the uninhabited islands, islets and rocks and much of the untenanted land (including almost all the coast) on the inhabited islands from the Duchy of Cornwall for a rent of one daffodil per year. The trust previously worked in conjunction with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, and jointly produced a thrice yearly magazine called Wild Cornwall & Wild Scilly which ended in the Summer 2014 edition. Members are now sent an e-newsletter.
Isles of Scilly Seabird Recovery Project
In 2013 the Isles of Scilly Seabird Recovery Project was set up by the Duchy of Cornwall, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Natural England, the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust. The five-year project aims to keep the islands of St Agnes and Gugh, brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) free, to help breeding sea birds, which lost 25% of their populations between 1983 and 2006. The rats eat eggs and kill the chicks of those birds that nest in burrows or on the ground. Rat removal began in October 2013 by a team of thirty volunteers led by Wildlife Management International Limited (WMIL) of New Zealand, and there has been no signs of rats on St Agnes and Gugh since December 2013. WMIL will return to the islands to do a final check for rats in 2016.
In 2014 Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) bred on both Gugh and St Agnes for the first time in living memory, and a survey of St Agnes in July 2015 found European storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) at six nests. A follow-up in early September, to confirm breeding, found storm petrel chicks at each of the sites. Storm petrel also bred on Gugh in 2015.