ON Michael Master (58-62), chairman of the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours.

The MBE was awarded to Mr Master for his services to wildlife and conservation in Hertfordshire and Middlesex.

Mr Master has been a trustee of the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust since 2006 and became chairman in 2009. His role as chairman is to manage the board of trustees and ensure that the trust complies with all charity regulations and does what it is meant to in terms of wildlife and conservation.

Since becoming chairman, Mr Master has steered the Trust to increase their conservation and engagement programmes. Recent years have seen nature reserves being created and significant increase in working in the wider countryside with farmers, golf courses, gravel extraction sites to ensure sites are as wildlife friendly as possible. There has also been an increase in membership and a strong public profile and media presence now exists. He has driven through a new investment strategy to ensure that the trust can use its finances to generate additional income helping to purchase and run new land for conservation.

This has raised the Trust’s profile to major land owners and developers, helping to secure the acquisition of Amwell Nature Reserve in Great Amwell, Ware, which is now one of the most important sites for birds and dragonflies in the South East.

In 2013, the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust took on the hosting of the Herts Environmental Records Centre and brought about a step change in voluntary recording and sharing of records essential to the future of wildlife conservation.

Mr Master has been pivotal in developing a partnership with Tarmac, with whom the trust works closely with at a number of nature reserves.

Mr Master was unaware he was to be honoured until he had an unexpected phone call just before Christmas. He said: “It was out of the blue. I had no idea it was coming until I had a call from the Cabinet Office just before Christmas.” When he told his family he said, “they were all delighted, as I am”.

Lesley Davies, chief executive of the Trust, said: “We are overjoyed and proud that Mike Masters has been awarded an MBE for his services to wildlife and conservation in Hertfordshire and Middlesex. Mike has been Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust’s chairman for over 10 years and has been passionate about and committed to protecting wildlife much longer than that. Action is urgently needed to give our local wildlife and wildlife places a positive future and Mike has been instrumental in ensuring that the trust has a leading voice in wildlife conservation in our area. A well-deserved reward for his dedication.”