Amazing what you can find ! I regularly visit my local Oxfam used book shop in Taunton. I found a collection of Annual Reports which I bought for a few pounds. They were annual reports for the Trust which became the Somerset Wildlife Trust, SWT. Barbara Gibson was a Trustee and a distant relative of mine. She worked as an educational Advisor for Somerset County Council. So especially interesting to me. I'm now a member of SWT. I have sent a copy of this report published in 1971, a long time ago. The message is still valid 50 years later.
B. M. GIBSON.
The Somerset Trust for Nature Conservation.
7 th Annual Report.
October 1971
CONSERVATION AND CHILDREN
Great changes are taking place all around us and at no time in the history of the world has change in the countryside been so rapid or so pervasive than at the present. What is happening in our own locality — an approaching motorway, a new housing estate, another school, a caravan site, an uprooted hedgerow, a felled tree, another machine on road or farm - and what else? Changes and additions to meet the needs of the seventies - but all making impact on our lives and on our landscape. No doubt planning, research and often sacrifice preceded every change - but did we give thought or realise the effect till viewed in reality. Improvement or spoliation did it happen overnight? This is only part of the report, I may publish the rest if its of interest! I sent the entire report to SWT which is about to publish a new 10 year policy document.
