Feb 9-11, 2015, part of the project team had an opportunity to visit UK-based, Vincent Wildlife Trust, for many years working for the protection of the Lesser horseshoe bat. The choice of place to visit, the Usk River valley near Brecon, was not random.

We were able to see one of the most important Lesser horseshoe regions in Wales. In the beautiful scenery of the Welsh valleys and hills, with forests, pastures and infinite network of hedges, there are as much as 5 reserves created by the VWT for the protection of the Lesser horseshoe bats, one of them, Buckland Coach House, hosting a thousand specimens of the species. Thanks to our hosts – Henry Schofield, Conservation Programme Manager and David Jermyn, Reserves Officer of Wales, the study tour was diverse and comprised both excellent indoor presentations and field visits. The most awaited by us, field visits let us realize, how diverse techniques and bat refuge management approaches prove to work with the protection of the species. We were able to visit sites, where the adaptations led to the increase in Summer and Winter bat numbers. These were the buildings in Buckland, Pencelli, FFrwdgrech and two churches: St. Govan’s in Llangovan and Penallt Old Church. All of the sites are VWT reserves. We also visited a farm, where many bat conservation measures were implemented, like wet woodland planting, revitalization and reinstallation of hedges, thus connecting the flight routes and assuring the feeding opportunities. Similar work is scheduled in our project. We consider the tour very useful and fruitful and the welcome was very cordial and warm. We were able to present the to-date achievements of the Life Podkowiec+ project to the VWT staff, including Chief Executive – Natalie Buttriss. Memebers of the Brecknock Bat Group led by Phil Morgan joined the presentations. The Ireland Projects Support Officer in VWT, Ruth Hanniffy took part in the whole visit and shared with us information on the status, problems, and horseshoe bat conservation solutions implemented in Ireland. Our counterparts were very interested in our project. We think that many solutions presented by the VWT are relevant to Poland and may be successfully implemented. In July the VWT staff plans a trip to Poland to discover our activities and achievements of the LIFE PODKOWIEC+ Project.