A Herefordshire couple are leading efforts to stop a “hugely popular” ancient woodland nature reserve from falling into private hands.

Ross-on-Wye residents Jess and Jody Shaw who have recently moved to the area with their baby son say they want to keep the 4.5-hectare Merrivale Wood immediately south of the town publicly accessible by setting up a community group to buy and maintain it.

Current owner Herefordshire Wildlife Trust (HWT) has posted a sign at the wood saying the sale “is part of a review of our landholdings to ensure that our limited resources are targeted at conservation and nature recovery priorities across Herefordshire”.

The wood is listed at a guide price of £90,000 with estate agents Sutherlands, which describes it as “hugely popular with the residents of the town” and offering “a fantastic opportunity to make the woodland a special visitor attraction”.

It adds: “We understand as part of the sale the woodland will be delisted as a Local Nature Reserve and thereafter public access will no longer be mandatory other than the existing public footpath.”

Launched by the Shaws on October 19, a GoFundMe webpage ( gofundme.com/f/save-merrivale-wood ) has so far raised £1,140 from 21 donations. Hitting the asking price by the by October 30 deadline is “unlikely”, the page acknowledges.

“But if we can demonstrate to trust that we can generate funds over a period of time, and show them the benefit of maintaining the wood for community use, they will hopefully consider our application,” it says.

Independent town councillor Daniel Lister said in a video supporting the fundraising campaign: “It’s ambitious I know, but wouldn’t it be great to get it into community ownership and keep the woodland open for everyone to carry on using?”

He added: “Under a private sale, they could stop the public walking through it – that would be a devastation.”

A HWT spokesperson said managing almost 60 wildlife sites “is an increasing challenge” so it is focussing on “larger, better connected nature reserves”.

Merrivale Wood is “very expensive” to maintain but has some protection as an ancient woodland, they said, adding the trust “aims to sell to a buyer who shares our values and who would ideally maintain the land as a nature reserve”.

“We have spoken with representatives from the local community and welcome their plans to submit a proposal, which our board look forward to considering.”

According to the Herefordshire Wildlife Trust Merrivale Wood is part of a much larger area of ancient woodland and clearly falls into two vegetation types; the western two-thirds is dominated by oak and ash, while that eastern section is quite distinct with many old ash, wild cherry and sycamore trees.

The wood provides valuable habitats for a range of woodland birds, including blackcap and marsh tit. Most of the common woodland butterflies are to be found here in summer along open glades and woodland margins.