Sue's 20 years as wildlife guardian

Sue Lawley began working for the charity back in February 1989 and says she has seen huge shifts in attitudes towards conservation and the environment since.

During her two decades with the trust, Sue has seen membership grow from under 2,000 to over 16,000 and has taken part in a host of projects to safeguard Staffordshire's wild places and creatures.

She helped to set up the Staffordshire Ecological Record – a comprehensive database of all the county's birds, mammals and insects, which is available to the public on-line. She is currently involved in writing a book on Staffordshire's wild plants, which will include full records and maps and is due to be published next year.

Sue, who lives in Stafford, said: "The whole conservation movement has changed a lot in 20 years - people are now far more aware of environmental issues and it is further up the political agenda.

"Back then, the trust would concentrate on conserving small individual sites – which we still do – but everything is done on a larger scale now. We focus on trying to connect habitats by getting farmers to manage their land in a more eco-friendly way, for example."

Sue added: "Over two decades I have seen lots of conservation successes in the county and the techniques we use to restore and create habitat are now more sophisticated. Our otter population has increased because of work to improve water quality and habitat, and we are making lots of progress in creating new wildflower meadows in the east of the county – it's very exciting."

After starting as the trust's sole conservation officer, Sue is now conservation manager and oversees a department of surveyors, environmental planning experts and ecological specialists.

She is based at Staffordshire Wildlife Trust's Wolseley Centre HQ in Wolseley Bridge, between Stafford and Rugeley, and is accompanied to work every day by her trusty springer spaniel Lily, a rescue dog.