Share

Annual volunteer awards recognise the region’s hardest working friends of nature

Five of the most dedicated Wildlife Trust supporters have received recognition in the charity’s annual volunteer awards.

The awards, named in honour of some of the region’s most important ecologists, are given each year to the people who have gone above and beyond to help protect nature and habitats in our three counties over many years.

Wildlife Trust Conservation Director Matt Jackson said: “There is absolutely no way we could care for 100 nature reserves, protect wildlife across our region and inspire people to care for nature without the huge amount of support we receive from many very dedicated volunteers.

“Each year we have the great honour to pick some of the most hardworking of these volunteers and make sure they get the public recognition they deserve. The people we have chosen are real friends to nature and regularly go the extra mile to support us. From assisting with vital paperwork and welcoming visitors to reserves to running wildlife workshops, sitting as trustees and carrying out practical conservation work.

“I would like to say a big thank you to all of them on behalf of everyone at the Trust.”

Gail Anscombe and Katherine Banham

The Richenda Huxley Award

The Richenda Huxley Award recognises outstanding contribution to the work of the Trust and this year has been given to Gail Anscombe and Phil Bray.  

Gail has volunteered in Northamptonshire since 2009. Since 2020 she has dedicated over 400 hours to helping put over 60 years of reserves paperwork in order as part of the Trust’s efforts to digitise our records – a huge job which has made a real difference to our reserves team’s operations.

Phil Bray

Phil has been a valuable volunteer on Bedfordshire work parties for many years. He is hard working and reliable with reserve staff knowing they can give him any task, and has also been crucial in the maintenance of Trust equipment by repairing damaged tools.

The Oliver Rackham Award

The Oliver Rackham Award recognises an individual who had demonstrated outstanding service to wildlife in our area through conservation, monitoring or research. This year the Trustees have decided to give the awards to two very familiar faces around the Trust, Martin Baker and Peter Pilbeam.

Volunteer Awards 2025

Martin was volunteer warden at Lady’s Wood and Raveley Wood for nearly 40 years until last year. He promotes the Trust via organised walks and continues a long running annual orchid monitoring scheme at Raveley Wood. He was a member of the Trust’s Conservation, Education and Community Committee and served for six years as a Trustee to 2016.  

Peter began volunteering with the Trust in 1977 and has given hundreds of hours of his time helping both the Reserve Team and Monitoring and Research Team, as well as serving as a Trustee in the 1980s. Since 1979 he has been Reserve Warden at Dog House Grove nature reserve making him the longest serving, still current, warden in Cambridgeshire.  He is also an expert mammal surveyor and has led many bat surveys across several nature reserves and dormice surveys at Brampton Wood. He continues to run Wildlife Training Workshops for the Trust each year covering mammal tracking and owl pellet dissection.

Jon Smith Award

The Jon Smith Award recognises volunteers who have gone the extra mile in their work for the Trust. This year the Trustees decided to make an award to Keith Jones.

Keith started volunteering at the Summer Leys visitor centre when it opened in 2022 and has been an invaluable help to the team. He turns up every Saturday morning to help in the centre and at events - staff can always rely on him to be there to assist them and welcome visitors to the reserve. He has also recently started volunteering with the reserves team over the winter, helping with work parties at the Nene Wetlands. 

Related news