Our Coast, Our Sea - Funding for grassland work comes to an end

23 March 2011

Northumberland Wildlife Trust is continuing to work to restore the County’s whin grasslands.

This important work began following surveys undertaken in both 2006 and 2007 which identified a significant loss and/or deterioration of the County’s unique grassland habitats, since they were originally surveyed in the 1980’s.

The wildlife charity received £144,310 over the past two years which has been spent on clearing scrub and gorse from a number of whin grassland sites in North Northumberland and smaller coastal outcrops of whin sill.

Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s work on the whin grassland which has been ongoing since October 2009 will end at the end of this month (March 2011). The Trust has focussed on tackling encroaching scrub and bracken on a number of whin grassland sites in Northumberland and small coastal outcrops of whin sill. An army of volunteers has spent hundreds of hours cutting and burning gorse or manually bruising bracken on whin sill grassland – no mean feat.

The management of sites has been undertaken on private landholdings and has required a great degree of support and co-operation from landowners.

Following the huge volunteer efforts on the sites, the wildlife charity is working with more landowners and Flexigraze (a North East conservation grazing imitative) to establish grazing regimes involving goats and soay sheep which will benefit the whin sill flora while holding back encroaching gorse scrub.

To mark the end of the two year project, Northumberland Wildlife Trust
has made a short film to highlight the project and the habitat within the County, which can be viewed online via the Trust’s website at www.nwt.org.uk . The film will be distributed to all known whin grassland owners throughout the Region to promote this work and enable further landowner engagement.

Steve Lowe, Head of Conservation at Northumberland Wildlife Trust said: “Although the funding for the two-year project has come to an end, the work will continue but on a reduced scale. The additional knowledge we have gained in the area during the project will enable us to further develop restoration and habitat management methods for this particular grassland type.”