National Landscape Annual Conference

Delivering Change for our National Landscape

Date: Thursday 19th June 2025

Location: Beau Desert Golf Club

2025 marks the start of our new five year management plan for Cannock Chase National Landscape, setting out how we are addressing key challenges and our ambitions to do more for Nature, Climate, People and Place. It is fitting, therefore, that this year’s conference will focus on how we make the Plan happen. So we invite you to join with us and our contributors and other delegates to explore how we can work together, collaboratively, creatively and more inclusively to turn our ambitions into reality. There will also be opportunities to celebrate our successes over the previous 12 months.

More information on the conference agenda will be available in due course.

Information on Past Conferences

Cannock Chase National Landscape Annual Conference 25th April 2024

Theme: Nature Recovery

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent councils are working on the preparation of a Local Nature Recovery Strategy and we are beginning the process of reviewing the AONB Management Plan. Nature recovery will be central to our vision for the Chase for the next 5 years. The conference allowed us to reflect on the state of nature in the National Landscape; what we mean by nature recovery; and how we can work in partnership to deliver a better future for nature.

Programme and Biographies of speakers on the day

Presentations

Poetry Reading, Legacy by Cherry Doyle
Review of the Year, National Landscape Team
Protected Landscapes for Nature Recovery, Alan Law, Chief Officer for Strategy, Natural England
Staffordshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy, Meeka Tomey-Alleyne, Nature Recovery Project Manager, Staffordshire County Council
Recovering Nature on Cannock Chase and our contribution to 30by 30 Ian Marshall, Team Leader, Cannock Chase National Landscape
Using modelling to inform citizen science approach to mapping and conserving adders on Cannock Chase, Dr Angela Julian and Emma Gardner, Amphibian and Reptile Group UK
Timber, People and Wildlife Milly Robinson, District Ecologist, Forestry England
Connecting Cannock Chase corridors (and other grazing initiatives) Jeff Sim, Head of Nature Reserves, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust
Wood pasture restoration project, Shugborough Estate Jamie Burnett, Area Ranger, National Trust Shugborough
Purple Horizons: Building Partnerships for nature recovery between Cannock Chase and Sutton Park Chloe Hardman, Natural England Project Manager for Purple Horizons
Scaling Ambition: Working within the first Super National Nature Reserve – Purbeck Heaths NNR Tom Clarke, National Trust Dorset National Landscape

Cannock Chase AONB Annual Conference 8th March 2023
The Annual Cannock Chase AONB Conference took place in person on Wednesday 8th March at Brocton Hall Golf Club. The theme for the 2023 Conference was: The Chase Through Time – legacy, lessons and what happens next.
Cannock Chase has been shaped through the interactions between people and landscape over millennia, and its historic environment and culture is fundamental to its natural beauty, unique character and sense of place. The Chase Through Time project (2016-18) aimed to shine a light on 2,000 years of human activity on Cannock Chase and how our ancestors managed and worked their environment. The conference looked back at this project and its legacy and share thoughts for the future conservation and enhancement of the historic environment on Cannock Chase.
Headline speaker was Shane Kelleher, County Archaeologist at Staffordshire County Council. Please see presentation below.

Chase Through Time AONB Conference 2023

File size: 10.39 MB

All other presentations available from the day can be found by clicking on the links below:-

Review of the Year – Ian Marshall, Cannock Chase AONB

Understanding the Past

Lens on the Past – Trevor Warburton, AONB volunteer

Apples on the Chase – Colin Evans, AONB volunteer

Telling Our Story

Brindley Village – Linda Barratt, Brindley Village Legacy Group

Chase Heritage Trail – Katie McBey, Cannock Chase Council and Louise Rose Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles

Caring for our heritage

HS2 environmental enhancement projects – Sam Caraway, Trent Sow Parklands and Cannock Chase AONB HS2 Group

Castle Ring – Peter Scholes, Cannock Chase Council

Thank you to all speakers who provided a fantastic and enthusiastic insight into their projects.

You can view the recordings from 2022 conference where the theme was ‘Changing perceptions and behaviours’ here:

Morning session

Afternoon session