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Sandra Fretwell-Smith and Claire Baker of Owlthorpe Fields Action Group celebrate the new Local Wildlife Site

Owlthorpe Fields gains Local Wildlife Site status

After almost 4 years of campaigning against housing development on a rewilded Greenfield site in Owlthorpe, Sheffield, the decision to designate the two remaining allocated housing areas as Local Wildlife Sites came as very welcome news to local community group Owlthorpe Fields Action Group (OAG).

The decision was made following a meeting of the Local Wildlife Sites Partnership, made up of representatives from the council, Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust, the Universities and others.

Christine Rippon (OAG) said: “We are absolutely delighted. The sites have been rewilding for over 20 years and the biodiversity has increased significantly in that time. The locals are passionate about the flora and fauna and have watched it develop over the last 20 years. The fields have become a valuable greenspace and community asset used daily for mental and physical wellbeing, bird watching, dog walking, walking in nature and it is just lovely to see its true ecological value recognised by experts.”

Sandra Fretwell-Smith (OAG) added: “As a group we have spent a lot of time observing the flora and fauna and have recorded them on the Wildlife Trusts Nature Counts database, which feeds into the national ecological database, the NBN Atlas. We also commissioned a professional habitat and invertebrate survey. The local people of Owlthorpe knew the breadth of the biodiversity on the fields as we live here and see the variety of birds, mammals invertebrates, plants, trees, grasses and wildflowers on a daily basis and through the changing seasons.

We would like to thank Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust for helping us pursue the designation and advising us to submit our observations. We would also like