June Receives Volunteer Award from Cheshire Wildlife Trust

June Mortazavi (centre) with Felicity Goodey, President of Cheshire Wildlife Trust (left)
and Charlotte Harris CEO of Cheshire Wildlife Trust (right)

At the Cheshire Wildlife Trust AGM on November 26th Wirral Wildlife volunteer June Mortazavi was presented with the Eric Thurston Award. This is the highest accolade for volunteering given by Cheshire Wildlife Trust. It is given to acknowledge the Trust’s most inspirational and outstanding volunteers. Winners are awarded a limited edition of a Roger Stephens print of peregrines circling above Beeston Castle.

Here is a taste of why June was nominated.

June arrived with a burst of enthusiasm on the Wildlife Trust scene in 2017 and has made an impact across several Cheshire Wildlife Trust areas. At New Ferry Butterfly Park, she rapidly got involved in practical habitat management and also as a warden, an active committee member and helping host courses and open days. Her impact is Wirral-wide, being an active and encouraging part of the Wirral Wildlife biological recording team. June started with little plant knowledge but has developed her confidence in carrying out botanical surveys and this year is in charge of her own survey. June is a real support to some over stretched volunteers e.g. helping Dr Hilary Ash by writing up flora records. June has become very adept at deciphering Hilary’s annotations of plant names in Latin!

She was trusted to help the Wirral Wildlife recording team process data and publish a peer reviewed paper on quadrat survey carry out at Thurstaston common for 39 years. That is a lot of data!

June gets out and fights for nature, for example liaising with neighbours over injured hedgehogs found at the New Ferry Butterfly Park. June is also a stalwart of the Friends of Lowfields Wood, Eastham, which was set up by Cheshire Wildlife Trust's Natural Futures programme in January 2019 and continues to flourish. June works beyond Wirral with CWT staff in the Delamere area.

All this tremendous activity and sustained and growing enthusiasm is on top of a part time job.  June has not retired yet and achieves so much for the Trust locally on the Wirral and further afield. June is prepared to both do the spade work in the field and in the digital world with alacrity.

She is a deserving recipient of this Award and we are grateful for her commitment and drive.

Award Winning Volunteer

Presentation of the award to Tim Ganicliffe (right). The other people are (left to right) Charlotte Harris (CEO of Cheshire Wildlife Trust), John Thurston (son of Eric Thurston after whom the awards are named) and Felicity Goodey (President of Cheshire Wildlife Trust).

Eric Thurston was an eminent Cheshire naturalist and also an experienced and skilful photographer. The Eric Thurston Award is the highest accolade for volunteering given by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust. It seeks to showcase the Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s most inspirational and outstanding volunteers, recognising the importance of wildlife, conservation and the natural environment throughout both urban and rural areas of Cheshire.

One of this year’s recipients is Tim Gannicliffe. Tim has been working locally in Wirral with the Cheshire Wildlife Trust for 27 years. His strength is carrying out fresh water invertebrate surveys in ponds and streams. Tim’s survey work has been important in assessing Local Wildlife Sites, and the state of the Clatter Brook which runs through Thornton Wood and he has also been monitoring nitrogen inputs at Red Rocks and at Thornton Wood.

Tim Ganicliffe (left) with Stephen Ross, Chairman of Wirral Wildlife.

He is a valued volunteer at New Ferry Butterfly Park, especially encouraging participation in pond dipping. This includes our very busy opening days (circa 1000 visitors), regular Sunday opening and on group visits. He shares his expertise, enthusiasm and knowledge of the pond’s denizens.

Tim is also involved in a broad array of conservation networks within Wirral. The hedgerows of New Ferry Butterfly Park have been kept in good order partly through Tim’s skills at hedge-laying. Importantly Tim has been tenacious in his removal of Himalayan balsam in the Dibbin catchment. These events are not exactly popular: “Come to the wood to be stung by nettles, scratched by brambles and bitten by flies whilst removing the Himalayan balsam!”. Sometimes there is only one other volunteer. Tim has recently taken on a new role on the steering committee of the recently created Dee Coastliners project. As you can see, Tim certainly deserves this Award.

Volunteer Award for Steve Yandell

Steve receiving his award. Photo: Hilary Ash

Steve Yandell was presented with the Eric Thurston Award at New Ferry Butterfly Park this Sunday. The award is presented by Cheshire Wildlife Trust to the most inspirational and outstanding volunteers.

Steve has volunteered on average 3 times a month at New Ferry Butterfly Park and Thornton Wood for the last 10 years. An experienced, can-do person who is always ready to work hard himself, he also willingly shares his knowledge with novices and encourages participation. We are very fortunate to have a volunteer of his calibre.

Cutting the celebration cake. Photo: Hilary Ash