Community action/Suffolk

The River Stour Trust is a registered charity and waterway restoration group. It was founded in 1968 to protect and enhance the right of the public to navigate the River Stour, Suffolk, England. It is led by volunteers who are dedicated to its aims and objectives of restoring the navigation from Sudbury to the Sea (a distance of approximately 24.5 miles/37 km).

Since its formation, the Trust has restored Flatford and Dedham Locks, Flatford Barge Dock (in association with the National Trust), rescued an original River Stour lighter, and restored the Quay Basin, Gasworks Cut and 19th century Granary Building, which has become the headquarters for the Trust. In 1997, the Trust opened the new Millennium Lock at Great Cornard (creating through navigation from Sudbury to Great Henny) and in 2007, opened its new Visitor & Education Centre (adjacent to Cornard Lock) to offer facilities for visiting schools, other groups and the local community.

Since 2007, Griff Rhys Jones, the well-known actor, director, writer and producer, has been a Vice President of the River Stour Trust. He says, "I am a strong supporter of the River Stour Trust and everything to do with it. The riverway is so beautiful and unspoilt, especially with the wildlife and water-lilies and bullrushes, it is just terrific. It is a great example of why rivers should be open to people...I salute the River Stour Trust for opening the locks...it is supposed to be a river that traffic travels on.”

Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT) describes itself as the county's "nature charity – the only organisation dedicated wholly to safeguarding Suffolk's wildlife and countryside." It is a registered charity, and its headquarters is at Brooke House in Ashbocking, near Ipswich. It was founded in 1961, and is one of 46 wildlife trusts covering Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As of March 2025, it has 110 employees, 929 volunteers, 28,000 members, and it manages approx. 7,700 acres of land across 50 nature reserves, all of which are open to the public. It had an income of £7.71 million in the year to 31 March 2025.

The Green Light Trust is an environmental and educational charity whose mission is to bring communities and landscapes to life through 'hands-on' learning and the growing of woodlands.

Forest for Our Children was the Trust's first Community-owned WildSpace project. Based near the Trust's headquarters in Lawshall, Forest for Our Children is 9 hectares of land made up of 2 woods in the parish. Crooked Wood was planted in 1993 and Golden Wood between 1994 and 2010.

The Green Light Trust's Community-owned WildSpace Scheme was started in 2001 with a unique funding partnership from B&Q, Forestry Commission and Suffolk County Council. Working in partnership with local communities, Green Light has helped to establish nearly 60 rural and urban projects in 8 counties (including 2 business WildSpaces in Oxford and Cambridge.

Suffolk ( SUF-ək) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement.

The county has an area of 3,798 km² (1,466 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 786,231 in 2024. Ipswich is in the south of the county, and its other principal towns include Lowestoft in the north-east, Haverhill in the south-west, and Bury St Edmunds in the west. For local government purposes Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county with five districts.

The Suffolk coastline, which includes parts of the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape, is a complex habitat, formed by London Clay and crag underlain by chalk and therefore susceptible to erosion. It contains several deep estuaries, including those of the rivers Blyth, Deben, Orwell, Stour, and Alde/Ore; the latter is 25.5 km (15.8 mi) long and separated from the North Sea by Orford Ness, a large spit. Large parts of the coast are backed by heath and wetland habitats, such as Sandlings. The northeast of the county contains part of the Broads, a network of rivers and lakes which is a national park. Inland, the landscape is flat and gently undulating, and contains part of Thetford Forest on the Norfolk border and Dedham Vale National Landscape on the Essex border.

It is also known for its extensive farming and has largely arable land. Newmarket is known for horse racing, and Felixstowe is one of the largest container ports in Europe.