The wildlife expert who founded a newspaper’s Millennium Havens Project to safeguard natural habitats, has won the coveted David Bellamy Award from the British Naturalists’ Association.

The accolade was a reward for a lifetime of conservation work by Trevor Beer, who writes a daily Nature Watch column for the Western Morning News.

He said: “Wildlife is my life but for the award to come from such a prestigious body is absolutely marvellous.”

The Morning News havens scheme, which was Trevor’s brainchild, began with a tentative target of 1,000 acres of protected land.

Within two amazing weeks, that figure had been beaten and the total stands at 6,300 acres.

The scheme preserves the environment with the direct help of readers. It was launched in 1999 and was last year named winner of the Devon Environmental Business Award for education.

Trevor will be presented with the award from David Bellamy in May.

Trevor founded the Taw and Torridge branch of the British Naturalists’ Association and is also a Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society, a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and a member of the British Ornithologists Union, as well as founding the North Devon RSPB group.

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