Wild Banbury accepting their outstanding contribution award.
Tony Chandler and Rodney Sims were honoured by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) at its 2025 Volunteer Awards.
The charity also presented three Outstanding Contribution Awards, three group awards and its two Wilder Future Awards, recognising the achievements of volunteers under the age of 26.
2025 Lifetime Achievement Award winners: Rodney Sims and Tony Chandler.
Tony Chandler has been a dedicated volunteer at BBOWT’s Warburg Nature Reserve near Henley for more than 20 years, showing up every Tuesday since 2002. Warburg was described by BBOWT President and Wildlife Presenter Steve Backshall as ‘a great place to inspire people of all ages, with mystical woodlands and flower-filled meadows.’
Tony has been one of the leading minds in the development of the charcoal production at Warburg, and is instrumental in both carrying out and instructing new volunteers and staff in skills for many practical management tasks, especially coppicing, hedge laying and scything. He has always gone above and beyond with his creative and practical solutions to problems and has helped shape Warburg Nature Reserve into the reserve it is today with his wit, wisdom and one liners.
Rodney Sims has been an active volunteer since the 1980s, originally pioneering the concept of BBOWT’s College Lake Nature Reserve in Tring with Graham Atkins. He was hands-on in the work required for its development, from digging ditches and seeding wildflower meadows to fundraising and delivering talks.
He had a special interest in the geological and paleontological features of the site, working with Bucks Museum on fossil finds which culminated in a project to expose the ice age geological features found there. He has only recently stopped volunteering at the age of 91 and, if not for an injury, would still be active at College Lake today.
Rose Addenbrooke started volunteering for Oxford Urban Wildlife Group in 2023 and has supported many of the Creativity in Nature sessions at Boundary Brook Nature Reserve. The sessions help people connect to the different habitats and conservation work at the site through art. Rose has been an encouraging presence enabling other young people from local communities to gain self-belief, self-confidence and self-expression.
Amelie Hazelton regularly takes part in BBOWT’s monthly Rangers sessions at the Nature Discovery Centre. At school, Amelie is a dedicated member of the Eco Club, where she champions sustainable initiatives and encourages her peers to take action for the environment. Beyond school, Amelia volunteers her time to care for injured juvenile bats, providing round-the-clock care to help them regain strength and be released back into the wild. Her enthusiasm for wildlife shines through and is truly infectious.
Charlotte Karmali and Pam LLoyd, two of the Oustanding Contribution Award winners.
Charlotte Karmali’s commitment to her volunteers is extraordinary, going well beyond her role as volunteer nature reserve warden at Finemere Wood in Buckinghamshire, making them all feel valued and inspiring huge loyalty. She writes a regular blog for BBOWT’s website and her local village newsletter about the beauty of the site and work party activities, which attracts new volunteers and reminds people of the nature on their doorstep.
Pam Lloyd has been a volunteer for BBOWT for over 10 years. She regularly goes out on the mid-week team to do nature conservation work on the chalk grassland reserves in South Buckinghamshire. She is also joint group leader of a volunteer team at College Lake nature reserve, inspiring the group with her knowledge and commitment, and does regular surveys for plants and butterflies, which helps with monitoring the impact of habitat management work.
Linda and Chris Wells have volunteered as a two-person team regularly at three main nature reserves since 1990. They are trusted, experienced stalwarts of both conservation work and surveying as well as being first aiders, mentors to new volunteers, task leaders and more, often over several days each week. They carry out BeeWalk monitoring for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and BBOWT, contributing important data from their walks at Dancersend and College Lake nature reserves in Buckinghamshire.
Wild Banbury accepting their outstanding contribution award.
The Friends of Blenheim Farm group are strongly involved with the management of Blenheim Farm Nature Reserve in Oxfordshire, which became BBOWT’s first community nature reserve after the site was gifted to BBOWT in 1988. Christine Elliot, a key volunteer for the group, has taught members of the community how to scythe and these volunteers then regularly help with the annual 'hay cut' of the reserve. Thanks to their combined contribution over the years, the reserve is now a valuable wildlife corridor connecting the neighbouring Centenary Woodland and the Ditchley Estate.
The Friends of the Earth Newbury group started their Lockdown Woods project in 2020 to commemorate lives lost in the pandemic by planting trees in their honour. As of 2022, five Lockdown Woods had been created across West Berkshire. The group broadened their ambitions and set up the Newbury Nature Corridor project, aiming to join local green spaces together, including some of the Lockdown Woods, to create a green corridor for people and nature. This has been a collaborative effort between the group, West Berkshire Council and some local schools.
Wild Banbury, originally led by BBOWT in partnership with the Town Council, has grown over the years, increasing the number of sites and tasks that they’re involved with, and their reach into the local community. They now volunteer on land owned by the Town Council and the District Council, help other local groups, including Banbury Ornithological Society, and attend community outreach events. Thanks to their habitat management work, they’ve been rewarded by seeing the variety and volume of plant and animal life increase at their sites over the years.
This eclectic group of walking wounded was recently joined by Estelle Bailey, Chief Executive of BBOWT.
BBOWT now has more than 1,700 volunteers across the three counties and would not be able to do its work without them. Volunteers help with every part of the Trust’s work from scrub bashing, stock-watching and bird-ringing at nature reserves, to helping run Nature Tots events and staffing reception at the charity’s headquarters in Oxford.
The Trust also recognises the collective impact that volunteers have in their local communities across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, helping to achieve its vision of more nature everywhere, for everyone.
Laura Rushby, BBOWT’s Head of Volunteering said:
“Our heartfelt congratulations to all of this year’s amazing volunteer award winners, and to everyone who was nominated. It is a privilege to be able to celebrate and recognise the remarkable contributions of volunteers across our three counties, who work together with us to help protect and restore nature for the future whilst supporting their local communities. We are deeply grateful for all our volunteers’ generosity, passion and commitment, which continues to inspire us every day and is the driving force behind our work.”
Find out more about BBOWT’s volunteers and the latest vacancies below.
