Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund is up and running!

Helping put 'eyes in the field'

This Summer we launched the Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund to put ‘eyes in the field’ and empower people to protect British wildlife.

We said that we would use any money raised from paid subscriptions here on Substack to provide groups and individuals with equipment (eg trail cameras, radios or night vision optics) that they may not be able to afford without a little help.

And we’ve kept to our word. Every penny we’ve received has gone straight into this new fund, and it has already helped us purchase a brand new set of radios for the brilliant Cheshire Borderland Monitors. This is the first piece of equipment bought for a group as part of the Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund and it will be the first of many!

These radios will be vital for helping members of Cheshire Borderland Monitors stay in touch with each other on the ground, monitoring hunts, and ultimately protecting the wild.

You can read more about Cheshire Borderland Monitors and how the equipment will be useful in their own words right here.

The ‘virtuous circle’ and helping more groups

Putting ‘eyes in the field’ is kind of what we’ve been doing since we set up Protect the Wild (minus the Substack element which is relatively new of course), but there is a key difference to the way we want this particular project to work - which is where the ‘virtuous circle’ bit comes in.

As we explained, all our content here on Substack will be free (we’re not going to paywall anything), but any paid subscriptions are ringfenced in our equipment fund. In other words, all the money we receive from Substack will be used to buy equipment to put ‘eyes in the field’.

In return for our funding we’re asking groups to let us know (just like the Cheshire Borderland Monitors have done) what impact new equipment can have. We’re sure the more that groups work with us like this, the more we can demonstrate how we are putting ‘eyes in the field’ and ‘empowering people to protect British wildlife’ - and the more that readers and supporters will want to join in by donating via a paid subscription. Which of course we will then use to fund more equipment for more groups. We all help each other to help wildlife, in other words!

Thank you!

Every penny and pound raised will go into the equipment fund, and we’d like to say a huge thanks to every single person who is subscribed to us here on Substack.

We will be giving out many more pieces of equipment to groups over the coming months and years and we will keep you up to date with how your support is directly helping wildlife!