People's Trust for Endangered Species

PTES runs several national, public-participation surveys aimed at monitoring wild populations and habitats. This includes the two mammal surveys that now have been running for over a decade: Living with Mammals (2003) and Mammals on Roads (2001). It was a founding member of the Tracking Mammals Partnership.[3]

As of 2013, extant surveys are:

• Living with Mammals (2003–present): an annual survey running through April, May and June, recording sightings and/or field signs of mammals at sites within the built environment. These are mainly urban or suburban green spaces such as gardens, allotments, cemeteries and recreational ground.
• Mammals on Roads (2001–present): an annual survey collecting records of mammal road casualties ('roadkill') on journeys along single carriageways. Changes in counts (over a given distance) from year to year are used to estimate changes in the wider population.[4]
• The Traditional Orchard Survey of England and Wales: (2006 – present): orchards and fruit trees provide a highly biodiverse habitat and are listed as a Priority Habitat under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). PTES is creating a UK inventory and map of the habitat.
• The Hedgehog Hibernation Survey (2012–2014): runs between 1 February and 31 August, collecting sightings of dead and alive hedgehogs through the Hedgehog Street website.[5]

PTES maintains the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme (NDMP).[6] This is based on around 400 woodland sites where at least fifty dormouse nest boxes have been put up, per site, that are inspected by licensed volunteers at monthly intervals between May and October. In 2014, PTES collated 6,827 hazel dormice records from 387 sites.[7]

The NDMP has been running for the past 25 years and is run in partnership with Royal Holloway University, Natural England and several hundred trained volunteer monitors.

In 2015 PTES launched a new project to try and coordinate conservation efforts for the water vole - an animal that has declined by over 90% in Britain since the 1980s.[8] The National Water Vole Monitoring Programme is the first ongoing monitoring scheme for this species in the UK and aims to bring together data from several hundred sites to allow the status of the species to be assessed year-on-year.[9]

Linking gardens is central to Hedgehog Street as impermeable garden fences and walls can make hedgehog populations unviable.

In 2011 PTES, in partnership with the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), launched a national campaign to conserve the hedgehog, a mammal that has declined in Britain by at least 25% since the year 2001.^[10]

As part of the joint campaign, PTES coordinates the European Hedgehog Research Group and convenes a steering group for the species, based on the previous BAP group, that includes the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, mammal ecologist Dr Pat Morris, and hedgehog enthusiast and author Hugh Warwick. In 2015 they produced the first conservation strategy for the species in the UK. The only UK training course on hedgehog-friendly land management, surveying and mitigation for professionals has also been developed and is being delivered around the UK.

PTES also supports research into the causes of hedgehog decline. Some of this is jointly funded with BHPS.

In 2013 the campaign "Saving Big Cats and Wild Dogs" (shortened to "Saving Cats and Dogs") was launched. This is based around a website that provides information about the conservation projects that focus on wild felids and canids that are all supported through PTES grant funding. With a donation you can twin your pet cat or dog with a wild counterpart.[10]

PTES own and manage 158 hectares of land on the Isle of Wight, including a majority of the Briddlesford Copses Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC) together with about 50 hectares of farmland. The Briddlesford Copses represent the largest remaining block of ancient semi-natural woodland on the Isle of Wight. Notable species present include Hazel dormouse, Bechstein’s bat, barbastelle bat, red squirrel, narrow-leaved lungwort and the fungus weevil Pseudeuparius sepicola.

Rough Hill is a traditionally managed orchard of ~4 hectares, located on a bank of the river Avon on the outskirts of Pershore, Worcestershire. Since being acquired by the Trust in 2003, the orchard is being sensitively restored for the benefit of its biodiversity and heritage value. The principal management activities are the provision and care of new fruit trees, restoration pruning of extant mature trees, and the use of extensive livestock grazing to manage the species-rich calcareous grassland communities present.