Our campaign is now complete. 281 supporters helped us raise £8,601.00
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The campaign has now expired but it's not too late to support this charity.
Visit the charity's profileWe've been blown away by the passionate support for this appeal!! Thanks to 175 generous donors we've reached our £5,000 public appeal target in less than two weeks! This has filled us with ambition so we've raised the target to £10,000 - can you help us reach it?
Along with the Friends of Moseley Bog, The Wildlife Trust have launched a public appeal to raise £5,000 to improve the site for visitors. The public appeal is part of a wider plan to raise £30,000 to repair the damaged paths, boardwalks and signs to enable a safer, more accessible and more informative visit.
In 1980 plans to build houses on Moseley Bog were thwarted by the Save Our Bog campaign. The Wildlife Trust have managed Moseley Bog since 2010 and named Joys Wood in honour of the late passionate advocate Joy Fifer who led the campaign to save the site in the 1980s.
The open area in the centre of Moseley Bog is not strictly speaking a bog, but in fact a type of rare habitat known as fen that supports numerous specialised plants and animals. Most of the fen that was historically found in Birmingham and the Black Country has been lost to urbanisation and the Trust works to protect this precious habitat with the support of volunteers by regularly removing colonising trees which dry the soil and shade out the plants.
Moseley Bog is home to a range of species including birds such as goldfinch, jay, tree-creeper, tawny owl, nuthatch and great spotted woodpecker, mammals such as bats and foxes and plants such as green-winged orchid and common spotted-orchid. The Wildlife Trust conserve the site to ensure a rich diversity of species.
Moseley Bog is known to have inspired J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and in 1984 the first ever International Dawn Chorus Day was held at Moseley Bog and broadcast live around the world on the BBC World Service. The reserve is much loved by the tens of thousands of visitors each year, many of whom rely on the boardwalk to access the wonders of the site with a wheelchair or pushchair.
Two burnt mounds can be found on the Coldbath Brook; these 3,000-year-old Scheduled Ancient Monuments made up of large piles of cracked stones and charcoal are thought to have been heated on a fire before being covered with water to create steam for sauna-type bathing!
Natalie Norton, Senior Conservation Officer at The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country said:
I love working with the volunteers and am delighted to manage a reserve that provides everyone a piece of tranquility and the chance to get closer to nature in an otherwise hectic world. The repairs to the boardwalks and paths will enable visitors, old and new, to continue enjoying Moseley Bog and Joys Wood whilst allowing nature to recover.
To learn more about Moseley Bog & Joy's Wood visit our website or watch our Virtual Tour
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