Please vote to give Sherwood a secure future

[Tapper50]

PLEASE help secure the future for Sherwood Forest and the rare and endangered species that make it a site of international ecological importance.

Sherwood?s down to the final four finalists in the BIG Lottery?s People?s ?50m contest this December. Unless it wins the public vote, ambitious plans to transform the forest into a world-class tourist attraction and restore it to its former greenwood glory could fall by the wayside.

Without votes Sherwood won't get a penny. I'm urging everyone who cares about wildlife to pledge their support at Robin Hood | Sherwood: The Living Legend - Welcome or Home | The People's 50 Million

With 1,000 ancient native trees, Sherwood Forest has Europe?s largest concentration of ancient woodland along with Redstarts and Woodlarks, rare fungi, Leisler, Noctule Brown long-eared and pipestrelle bats, 1,500 varieties of beetle, 200 types of spider along with common lizards, moths and even pseudo scorpions.

Although sections, including the area around the now frail 800-year-old Major Oak, are protected by European Special Area of Conservation and National Nature Reserve status, only fragments of the legendary greenwood survive.

Sherwood boasts a unique mosaic of habitats, parts of which are as ecologically important as the tropical rainforest. Acclaimed actor Brian Blessed, a committed member of the Wildlife Trust, is champion of theSherwood cause and will front the bid before a national TV audience when the four finalists air their case in the first week of December.

Because of its conservation status, the current visitor centres have to come down by 2010 to protect the most important parts of the site. Only last week a section of the visitor centre was closed when cracks were spotted in one of the most important ancient trees.

Sherwood?s only hope is a ?50m lottery win that will fund plans to restore 300 hectares of farmland into native woodland and heathland, reconnecting the remains of the original forest and conserving the irreplaceable mix of wildlife habitats for the next 1,000 years.

Internet voting opens on Monday 26th November.