Member Article

Clean-up begins courtesy of charity lottery players

Following last winter’s storms and flooding which wreaked havoc around the UK, Northumberland Wildlife Trust is making the most of the better weather and carrying out storm damage repairs on a number of its reserves in the region and it’s all been made possible thanks to support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

Trees on the Trust’s Juliet’s Wood reserve in South Northumberland, including a large ash tree which had blown over into the neighbouring field, were able to be cleared using specialist moving equipment made possible thanks to support from the players of the charity lottery; without this equipment, volunteers and estates staff would have spent much longer to achieve the same results.

The fallen trees are now being processed into products such as benches and bird boxes and the remaining timber will be retained as valuable deadwood habitat.

Elsewhere in South Northumberland, access to the Trust’s Briarwood Banks and adjacent Allen Banks reserves was seriously restricted due to extensive footpath damage, as the River Tyne rose to exceptional levels; however, volunteers have been able to improve the drainage and sections of footpaths have been re-routed to reduce damage to rare ground-covering plants.

On the Trust’s Beltingham River Gravels reserve, south of Bardon Mill, lots of wind-blown trees have been cleared.

Closer to Newcastle, the boardwalk at the Trust’s Big Waters reserve situated on the northern edge of the City, was totally lifted off its platform when the bolts snapped caused by all the water flowing underneath it from the ponds and lake.

Now, again thanks to support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery, teams of volunteers have so far been able to replace 70 metres of the 240 metre long boardwalk. This is essential work which needed to be carried out sooner rather than later as there is a threat of the whole structure collapsing; the repair work takes its tolls on the tools being used as re-screwing the bolts into the foundations is very arduous work, but thankfully, this is not causing a headache for Trust staff.

Co-ordinating the repairs, Geoff Dobbins, Northumberland Wildlife Trust Senior Estates Officer said: “Because the weather has been so bad, we have been delayed in getting out there and carrying out the much needed repair work. Thanks to support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery, we have been able to hire in specialist equipment which has saved us much needed time, which means that our spring/summer programme of work on the reserves hasn’t been disrupted too much.”

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