Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust

Leicestershire has an area of 833 square miles (2,160 km²), and a population according to the 2011 census of 980,000. Leicester City Council is a unitary authority, and the rest of the county is administered by Leicestershire County Council at the top level, with seven district councils in the second tier, Blaby, Charnwood, Harborough, Hinckley and Bosworth, Melton, North West Leicestershire and Oadby and Wigston. Rutland is mainly rural, but has two market towns, Oakham, the county town, and Uppingham. The county has an area of 151.5 square miles (392 square kilometres), and the 2011 census showed a population of 37,400.

LRWT manages thirty-three reserves covering almost 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres). Nineteen are designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest, two are national nature reserves, one is a Ramsar internationally important wetland site, one is a Special Protection Area under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds, two are Nature Conservation Review sites, three contain Geological Conservation Review sites, one contains a scheduled monument, one is a local nature reserve and two are owned by the National Trust. The largest is Rutland Water at 393 hectares (970 acres), a major wetland area which is one of the richest reservoirs for wintering wildfowl in the country. The smallest is Bloody Oaks Quarry at 1.3 hectares (3.2 acres), which has species-rich grassland on Jurassic limestone.

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