Jenny Hackland, RSPB Mersey Valley Project Officer said: We are so proud of the RSPBs Manchester roots. The organisation was founded by the wonderful Emily Williamson from her home The Croft at Fletcher Moss back in 1889. At the time it was fashionable for Victorian women to wear hats with the feathers, wings and whole bodies of birds, which was causing the slaughter of millions of them every year. Along with other pioneering women Eliza Phillips and Etta Lemon, they campaigned against this barbarous trade and were successful in getting it stopped. Now 130 years later, their legacy has grown into the RSPB as we know it today, the UKs largest nature conservation charity, with over 200 nature reserves and still campaigning on issues affecting our natural world.
Although the campaign to prevent the use of bird plumage in fashion was successfully stopped all that time ago, there are many significant threats to the UKs wildlife that still exist today. The RSPB have recently reported on the loss of over 40 million birds in this country in the last 50 years and released a single of pure birdsong into the charts called Let Nature Sing, to raise awareness of this issue.
We continue the fight to save nature, that started here in Manchester all those years ago. Its a big task that cannot be done alone. Here at Fletcher Moss and other sites across the Mersey Valley, we work in close partnership with Manchester City Council and the Friends of Fletcher Moss Park and Parsonage Gardens, to deliver activities that inspire young people about nature and advise on habitat management here. Everyone can play their part, so we hope that lots of you will come along to our celebrations on Saturday 1st June to discover more about your local wildlife and how you can help our much-loved and threatened species.
