Bill Makins - Founder & Trustee
Bill Makins is a visionary conservationist. Alongside farming his Norfolk property, Pensthorpe, he created a truly sustainable gravel extraction process creating one of the most bio-diverse nature reserves in England. Bill has been interested in wildfowl and rare species since childhood. In the 1960s he spent time in Kenya learning about stockmanship of both birds and mammals. His passion has taken him the world over. Each destination brought new discoveries as well as rewards. Pygmy Geese and other rare ducks and geese from North America, Chile and Iceland arrived and thrived. Bill has spent his life devoting his experience and enthusiasm to actively promoting the conservation of endangered birds.
Bill’s passion is now firmly focused on the Turtle Dove Trust (Charitable Trust No. 1186288) which he founded in 2019 along with Edward Pope and Chris Knights so as to raise awareness of and garner support for this unique species. Bill intends to prove captive breeding and a highly active release program will be the successful path forward to secure the future of the Turtle Dove here in the United Kingdom. Currently at the Turtle Dove Trust Breeding Centre based in North Suffolk more than 200 captive bred Turtle Doves are forming the basis of the Trust’s foundation breeding stock.
