Member Article

Northumberland Wildlife Trust receive £30k through property developers

Northumberland Wildlife Trust has received almost £30,000 from the Banks Community Fund (through the mining, property and renewable energy developer, the Banks Group) for habitat improvement work on three of its reserves in the Region: Big Waters, Linton Lane and Cresswell Pond.

It is envisaged that much of the work will be undertaken by the Trust’s Estates Team, Trust and local volunteers and local warden groups.

At its Big Waters reserve, on the outskirts of Newcastle, the Trust will carry out a programme of work to benefit the wildlife and provide the means by which visitors can see it.

The immature trees on the site currently have few places for bird nesting so bird boxes are to be installed to assist species such as the tree sparrow and the installation of a new small pond will be of particular use to dragonflies and great-crested newts.

In addition, a programme of work will be undertaken on the site, particularly in light of the discovery of a disease affecting alders, and improvements to the boardwalk providing an easy route onto the site for visitors will also be made.

On the wildlife charity’s Linton Lane reserve, the woodland is now mature enough to require particular management including the thinning and removal of a number of trees and opening up woodland edge habitat, as it is valuable for the wet woodland plant species as well as woodland edge butterflies.

The Trust is keen to undertake sustainable management of the reserve so will be making use of thinned trees to provide path edging and chipping the wood to provide a path surface and will also be installing a new link path between the bridleway and the eastern hide.

Work at the wildlife charity’s Cresswell Pond reserves will start later this year and it is envisaged that a team of staff and volunteers will install a new access point across the footpath to the viewing hide and build a small bridge over the Blakemoor Burn, both of which are required to help move livestock around the site to ensure appropriate levels of grazing. This site is best known for its bird populations such as avocets, sedge warbler and reed bunting who all utilise the fringing reedbeds. Proposed work on the site will also involve some reedbed management to retain this valuable habitat.

The Banks Group is a valuable supporter of Northumberland Wildlife Trust. In addition to being gold corporate members, the Banks Community Fund funded the SENSE (South East Northumberland Sustainable Environments) and SENSE II projects in South East Northumberland for six years.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Bishop .