England's National Nature Reserves

National Nature Reserves

National Nature Reserves (NNRs) protect and manage our country’s most important places for nature. From Lindisfarne in Northumberland, to the Lizard in Cornwall this series of 241 sites, managed for nature ae not only precious, but as colourful and diverse as the wildlife that call them home. These ancient and unique places are wildlife-rich and play a vital role in securing our country’s amazing wildlife and geology.

Set up as outdoor laboratories to enhance our understanding of the natural world, today they have a wider role in helping us find answers to increasing biodiversity loss across the country and help tackle some of the threats to our ancient landscapes such as recreational pressure, invasive species and climate change.

Nearly every type of vegetation is found in England’s NNRs, from coastal salt-marshes, dunes and cliffs to downlands, meadows and the variety of our native woodlands. Many NNRs contain nationally important populations and help protect rare and threatened species too. They are at the heart of the nation’s Nature Recovery Network.

This website

Having had the privilege of working in conservation for forty years mostly in the management of NNRs, I finally retired from my position as Site Manager of the Stiperstones and Downton Gorge NNRs in January 2026. Over my career I have helped actively manage 20 NNRs (mostly in England) and visited and advised on many more.

The “England’s National Nature Reserves” website is dedicated to raising awareness of what are arguably our most important sites for nature conservation in England. At present the only site where information on the English sites can be found in one place is the governments .Gov site. This is useful for brief information and is referred to particularly for access information, which is not covered in this website.

The motivation for creating this site is to raise awareness of the importance of this series of nature reserves for the conservation and management of the many habitats and species that can be found in this remarkably varied country. It only covers England as the other countries that make up the UK have more detailed websites of their own.

credits – blog etc

Subscribe to my blog: when I visit each of the NNRs I aim to write a short blog with photos. Please subscribe so that you get notified when this happens – no spam just the occasional bit of news.