Help Us Save Craddocks Moss!

Aim

We want to save a precious site, Craddocks Moss, and turn it into an oasis for wildlife – but we need your help to achieve this dream!

Hello, 

 We are Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, a wildlife charity that has been working to protect the wildlife and wild places across Staffordshire for over 50 years.  The purpose of our exciting crowdfunder is to purchase a precious 47-acre site called Craddocks Moss, which we want to turn into an oasis for wildlife – but we need your help to achieve this dream.

We are embarking on our most ambitious goal ever, to put nature back into recovery across the county.  This is part of a national movement, #30by30, which is aiming to give 30% of the UKs land and water back to nature by 2030.  To kick start this mission, we are hoping to raise as much as we can to purchase Craddocks Moss, a unique habitat for threatened wildlife - and we need your help.

Craddocks Moss is a unique lowland raised bog situated to the west of Stoke on Trent in Staffordshire.  After years of neglect and surrounding habitat loss, the delicate balance of nature was damaged, and few species survived on the overgrown site.  However, recent on-site recovery work has shown this precious habitat could once again be an oasis for wildlife.  It is already a haven for rare plants like sphagnum mosses and cottongrass; and the four spotted- chaser dragonfly is making a cautious return.  We are sure, that under our care, more wildlife could return to this diverse habitat.

But we need your help to raise £75,000 to purchase the site and begin work on making it a haven for threatened wildlife.  We don’t want to miss out on this rare site and the chance to protect endangered species.

Our vision for Craddocks Moss includes attracting endangered and long-absent species such as the water vole, and the insect-eating sundew plant; birds such as willow tit and curlew; the rare bog bush cricket; the whitefaced darter dragonfly; and the pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly.

And perhaps most excitingly of all, we think Craddocks Moss could be the perfect location for reintroducing beavers to the county after over 400 years of local extinction!

Save today, protect tomorrow

Purchasing Craddocks Moss will help the Trust in it’s aim to achieve a Nature Recovery Network across Staffordshire – a network that will improve wildlife connections, allowing species and water to move freely and find new territories. 

We need a Nature Recovery Network because many wild spaces are isolated – leaving wildlife unable to escape threats such as predators, food shortages and habitat loss. Our mission is to bridge those green gaps through natural wilding. By forming a network of safe havens across Staffordshire, like Craddocks Moss, we can restore nature’s freedom to find new territory, and we’ll help all our wildlife to flourish as well as bringing nature closer to people.

Thank you for your support.  All money raised will go towards the purchase of Craddocks Moss.

Photography © Adam Jones, Chris Lawrence, David Cadman , Jon Hawkins Surrey Hills Photography, Nick Upton, Terry Whittaker/ 2020 Vision, Vicky Nall.

Illustration © Nat Ellis

This project successfully funded on 23rd November 2020