Trust Chairman Howard Curnow with Babs Atkins, at Eden, on her grand day out. The Trust has been overwhelmed by her generosity.
A message from our Chairman
We are living in a time of quangos, NGOs, reference groups and endless committees. Many of our decisions are made for us by politicians in whom people find it increasingly difficult to believe. Information is purveyed by a media of which some elements make up what they don't know. Profit comes first but rewards have no responsibility attached. When refuge and solace are found through the anonymity of the Internet it is refreshing to find individuals who are prepared to stand up and be counted. I like to believe that this applies to many in the wildlife movement. It certainly applies to our friends from NABU. To give up four weeks of your life and cycle 1,036 miles from	Oldenburg to Land's End, raising funds for the "corridors of wildlife", shows outstanding commitment. In Cornwall, these corridors - our hedgerows - have been vanishing at a rate something like the distance from Torpoint to Land's End each year. Thank you to those members who greeted them along the way. Another act of selfless generosity was the gift of St George's (Looe) Island to the Trust. Superbly summed up in the Western Morning News on 5th June, Babs Atkins signed the lease allowing the Trust to manage the island in her lifetime and then had a day out, courtesy of the Trust, to celebrate her 84th birthday. Half the day was spent at Eden, where the kindness of the staff was	exemplary. Then she went shopping before sailing home to her beloved island. Not everything, however, in the first half of 2001 has been quite as good. Foot-and-mouth, though barely affecting Cornwall, had quite an impact on our operations. Staff, unable to work in the field, had to use their time catching up on paperwork. The net result is a serious shortfall in revenue. Fortunately, just as we began to make plans for impending catastrophe the crisis waned. Now, as we plan to bridge the gap, we can but extend our sympathies to the Wildlife Trusts of Cumbria, Essex and our neighbours in Devon. Howard Curnow
Shop closed
Sadly we came to the conclusion that our shop in Penzance had to close. We are grateful to Kevin Mackness for giving us a temporary home in the Market Garden, Bread Street, but the recent wet weather has made it impossible to keep our stock there in a proper condition. Our bird food, feeders and nest boxes will still be available from the Market Garden and from other outlets such as Paradise Park and Poldark Mine.	Our thanks go to all those volunteers who have supported us so well in the shop over the years and who have contributed so much to the Trust. Alison Vaughan Poldark Wildlife Garden open and blooming! Our half-acre plot is an excellent source of inspiration on wildlife gardening and also serves as an outlet for our bird food, feeders and nest boxes.