Save a special home for Nightingales

Nightingale-Nigel Blake

The RSPB is here to give nature a home. Without a home to live in, all of nature is lost. So, when special places for nature are facing a severe threat, we must act. Today we need your help to protect these special places - beginning with Lodge Hill in Kent. Developers and the local council are proposing to build 5,000 homes in and around the woods where nightingales sing each summer. This is despite the fact that wildlife protection laws already recognise Lodge Hill as a nationally important site for the nightingale - a species we know to be in steep decline. But the implications are even more far-reaching than the fate of this wonderful bird. A must-win for all UK wildlife If this development goes ahead it would be the single largest loss of protected land in a generation - and could set a precedent that threatens every other protected area for wildlife in the UK. Without the nature conservation laws that protect special places, our wildlife would effectively be homeless, with nowhere to call their own. At a time when many UK wildlife species are facing serious declines, that would be nothing less than a conservation disaster. That's why we're issuing our SOS for Special Places and asking you to help us raise £850,000 for an emergency fighting fund for 2015. Take a stand to save nature near you This one case at Lodge Hill could unravel all the hard work our casework team are doing right now to save protected areas across the UK. Each and every one of these cases need your support too. For example, next to our Forsinard reserve near Strathy in Sutherland, RSPB Scotland is working with partners to stop multiple wind farm developments that would undermine our work to restore this part of the 'Flow Country'. In Wales, RSPB Cymru is battling to stop protected sites on the Gwent Levels being blighted by a proposed M4 relief road, which would drive right through special homes for lapwings, otters, water voles and one of the UK's rarest bumblebees. Often, we work with developers to find a win-win solution for people and wildlife. But when, as in these cases, our advice is not being taken on board, we have to stand up and be counted. Answer our SOS for Special Places with your donation today We've reached a critical moment for nature. We're not just trying to save one area of woodland, essential though it is for nightingales. We're actually trying to save every special place for wildlife in the UK. So please make a donation now and help us raise this vitally important £850,000 fighting fund. Let's do this together. Help us stand up for what's right and protect Lodge Hill and the Flow Country, and all the other special places our casework team are battling to save. Thank you. Andrew Dodd Head of Casework, RSPB