Nature groups

The group is mainly based at Crickley Hill but at times covers nearby sites such as Barrow Wake and Kilkenny The group meets regularly on Wednesday. Much of the work will be managing the SSSI grassland of Crickley Hill.

Join us every Wednesday from September and fortnightly on Saturdays from 10am-1pm to manage this beautiful reserve, with its heathlands, marshes and lakes.

Get involved with the management of the Trust's reserves in the Stroud Valleys area where there is a wonderful variety of nature reserves, from grasslands to ancient woodlands, this groups is led by our East Reserves team  and is active every Tuesday and Thursdays throughout the year. 

Currently at capacity

The Severn Hams group are active all year round on a Tuesday and help manage nature reserves in the Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury areas. Come along and help undertake practical conservation tasks at some of our most valuable habitats. Del Jones leads this group, visiting a wide variety of nature reserves.

Enjoy the Cotswold Water Park by helping us manage it every Tuesday with our Reserve Manager East team. Our Water Park reserves are great for waterfowl, dragonflies and damselflies.

Greystones is situated on the outskirts of Bourton-on-the-Water. Greystones Farm is home to Salmonsbury Meadows Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). These ancient meadows have an incredible diversity of wildflowers and provide a habitat for many insects, butterflies, birds and mammals. The river Eye which runs through the nature reserve has a thriving population of water voles and otters. The site is a working organic farm and also has a visitor hub, cafe and events space. The site has had human activity dating back over 6,000 years, and as part of a lottery funded project volunteers helped to build a replica Iron Age roundhouse. 

Volunteer can help manage this site on Thursdays, twice a month throughout the year.

Spend a day in the Forest of Dean working on a reserve near you. Join the Dean Green Team and learn all about wildlife with our Reserve Managers West team. The Dean Green Team supports both Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust nature reserves and  Forestry England land.  They are active throughout the winter on Tuesdays, alternating between Wildlife Trust sites and Forestry Commission sites.

If you come along you will have the opportunity to visit some spectacular landscapes and take home a variety of practical skills. We also have planning on launching a new group in the Dean this autumn, contact us for more information.

During the spring and summer the groups run more ad-hoc due to ground nesting birds limiting the work we can do on our sites. 

Come and get stuck into conservation work at our Lower Woods reserve, we promise a great day out at a spellbinding woodland. Join in and help with a wide variety of practical conservation tasks. Neil Lodge leads this group every Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the year. The Thursday group is currently at capacity but you would be welcome to join the Tuesday group.

This is our newest conservation team which runs from Robinswood Hill Country Park in Gloucester on the last Friday of every month between 10am-2pm. This site is accessible via public transport. Come along and enjoy getting your hands dirty for the benefit of our local wildlife. 

Between October - April our dedicated volunteer team visits our Snows Farm nature reserve and carries out vital conservation work to protect the species rich grassland. This is a monthly group run on a Sunday.

Support the management of our nature reserves in and around the Minchampton common. This group manages 2 of our nature reserves Box Woods nature reserves, a semi-ancient woodland and Stuart Fawkes home to the rare meadow Clarey plant. The group was created when Box Woods was purchased by residents in 2017 and is now managed by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust with help from regular volunteers from the village and nearby. The nature reserve supports more than 450 species, of which 58 are protected, and requires careful management to ensure that wildlife can thrive.

The work of the Wilder Landscapes team in the Cotswolds offers volunteers the opportunity to work on private land to help improve the habitats of key waterbodies. Volunteer tasks range from installing fish habitat enhancement features, undertaking over shading bankside scrub/tree encroachment, controlling invasive species and using natural flood management (NFM) techniques at priority locations. A reduction in degradation, and improved connectivity, of native marginal vegetation along these waterbodies and associated wetland habitats will improve the sustainability of the important wild brown trout & grayling fisheries and allow recovery of the area’s water vole population.

The group meets on mainly on  Friday at various locations in the Cotswolds.

A project called the ‘River Frome Invasives Control Initiative’ aims to improve river habitats through a targeted control programme of removing invasive species, restoring fish habitats and improving eel passage over minor barriers throughout the catchment. The project runs each year between mid-May to early August.

The removal of stands of invasive Himalayan Balsam along the Painswick Stream will improve the diversity and connectivity of native marginal vegetation along this waterbody, therefore improving habitat for the benefit of our native plants and animals.

One of the most effective ways to control its spread is to pull young plants out by hand. With cooperation from willing landowners, suitable resources and dedicated people a significant effort can be made to help our rare and native plants and animals. Between May and August a dedicated team of volunteers meet weekly to work on farms and private land to help control the spread of Himalayan Balsam for the benefit of our native wildlife.