John Mackay Award 2025 presented to Maggie Freegard from Wildlife Groundswell.

This article is written by Friends of the Earth

The January Friends of the Earth meeting differed from our usual gatherings in that it was devoted to presenting the John Mackay Award 2025 to Maggie Freegard from Wildlife Groundswell.

For anyone unfamiliar with their work, Maggie describes it like this: ‘Wildlife Groundswell is a community group which promotes wildlife recovery on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall. We do this by spreading information about nature, hosting frequent events, most of which are free, and to which everyone is welcome. We also hold various groups where people can get together to help certain species, such as bats or birds, (swifts, swallows and house martins), or to examine the state of nature in certain environments, such as how many riverfly larvae are alive in our streams, and what is the level of water quality.

‘Our most recent project is ambitious and far reaching - we call it "Reawakening the Lizard." It outlines how we can improve our landscape for nature recovery through fourteen different projects. We aim to involve everyone who lives here, as well as others who visit and love this place. We act on people’s ideas, and we welcome everyone to join in. We encourage people to envisage a landscape which is richer in nature than it is now, and to come together with others to work out ways we can achieve success.

‘Success is making everyone realise they can do something for wildlife, and of course, ultimately to halt the decline of nature and see wildlife increase, right here where we live.’ For us in LizPenFoE, the event was in one way the end of an era, as it was the last of our many presentations since the award’s inauguration in 2003.

However, as Diana so aptly put it: ‘We are truly delighted that from now on the trophy will be awarded jointly through Groundswell and Friends of the Earth, and that Groundswell are taking on the responsibility of publicising and organising the annual event. It feels like the future is in safe hands.’

The Cornish oak trophy, turned by a local craftsman over 20 years ago, has recently been updated to add a second plinth for the names of future winners. This work was donated by local sculptor Peter Boex, and has made the trophy heavier and more stable. Maggie’s choice of local business for her voucher was The Bookshop in trophy and her voucher. Helston.

Thank you to Diana for her excellent ‘few words’, summarising the award’s history and our reasons for making the final presentation to Maggie. As Diana said: ‘It feels like we are all inter-connected through the various organisations we represent, and with our desire to do whatever we can to make a difference to the land, sea and air we share with all living creatures. The Wildlife Groundswell concept chimes well with FoE’s mantra: “Think Global, Act Local”.’

We in FoE look forward to collaborating with Wildlife Groundswell to ensure the future of the John Mackay Award and have contributed £500 to the award expenses for the coming decade. It means we still have the resources to fund suitable local projects from John’s bequest, such as the Gateway Project drinking fountain.