A project to manage and improve green spaces and nature reserves in Amber Valley has been hailed a success by those involved.
‘Wild about Nature’, a two-year partnership project between Amber Valley Borough Council, Groundwork Derby and Derbyshire and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, received funding of £61,000 from Natural England to pay for staff time, contractors and materials to help manage 14 sites in the area, including local nature reserves and other green spaces owned by the Council.
The project has now come to an end, but over the two years has restored over 19 hectares of natural habitats across the Borough.
“This work involved working with contractors to install fencing on sites to enable grazing to occur, removal of scrub, monitoring of key species and the creation of meadows using a combination of wildflower seed harvested from nearby ‘meadow donor’ sites and native seed suppliers” explained Tim Brooks from Groundwork Derby and Derbyshire.
“Over the two years we’ve held a number of events at these sites, including dragonfly walks, moth nights, local history walks, Christmas wreath making, Dawn Chorus walks, hedge-laying, coppicing, charcoal making and much more. Several members of the Friends of Red River in Loscoe also gained their protected species licence to enable them to survey their population of Great Crested Newt. 450 children and young people have also been involved through environmental education activities in school time or through extra-curricular activities.”
Sharon Thomas, Landscape Development Manager at Amber Valley Borough Council said, “This funding provided a fantastic opportunity for us to help preserve a number of important habitats for wildlife and valuable open spaces that can be enjoyed by the public. The funding has also enabled a number of site leaflets and information boards to be developed. These have been designed in conjunction with the Friends groups of those sites, with the leaflets being distributed in the local areas.
“In all over 700 people have been involved in the project in some way, either working on sites or attending events held on them, with volunteers contributing over £7,000 worth of time to the project over the two years.”
The good news is that the work will continue as funding from the SITA ‘Enriching Nature’ programme through the Landfill Communities Tax Fund has now been secured for the project. This will allow us to continue with the physical management and monitoring of the key grassland habitats.
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For further information please contact Lisa Garnham, PR and Communications Manager at Amber Valley Borough Council, on 01773 841655.
