Tresco & RSPB - Working With Nature

Tresco is a special place to enjoy wildlife. It has heathland, farmland, scrub, dunes,wetlands and inter-tidal areas, as well as the famous Abbey Gardens.

Thousands of birds depend onits semi-natural habitats and benefit from the management and care of island staff and visitors. Some areas are so important that they are protected by law and form part of a network of designated wildlife sites on the Isles of Scilly.

Managing For Wildlife

The RSPB works with farmers and landowners such as Tresco, providing advice to conserve and celebrate some of the UK's most threatened wildlife. On any site, identifying and understanding the wildlife present is the first step in deciding conservation work priorities.

On Tresco, surveys by the RSPB and others found that more than 180 hectares of important wildlife habitats supportunique, rare or threatened plants and animals. There are more than 30 bird species of conservation concern, including breeding kittiwakes, oystercatchers and ringed plovers.

Song thrushes and house sparrows nest in high densities. More than 1,600 water birds, including gadwalls, greenshanks and little egrets, visit the wetlans in winter, while sanderlings and turnstones are found on the coast.

Natural England's Environmental Stewardship funds work to maintain and enhance the island's habitats. Some of the management to help wildlife on Tresco is highlighted in the downloadable leaflet at the top of the page.

For further information about the RSPB - http://www.rspb.org.uk/