What’s new?
26 November 2007
Ancient Woodland safeguarded for the future
Funding enables The Trust to purchase the wood for people and wildlife
The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough are now the proud owners of Southwick Wood near Oundle.
This important woodland site and its wildlife are now safeguarded for future generations to enjoy, following its purchase by The Trust. The woodland will be managed as a nature reserve for important ancient woodland flora such as bluebells, wild service trees and birds like the woodcock. The nature reserve is open to the public and has a network of pathways to explore the woodland and discover it’s fantastic wildlife.
In addition to the purchase of Southwick Wood, the Wildlife Trust has also purchased a small area of farmland linking the reserve to the neighbouring Wildlife Trust nature reserve of Short Wood. In the near future, the plan is to recreate woodland to link the two currently isolated nature reserves.
The Wildlife Trust hopes to create a Living Landscape in the Rockingham Forest, creating places for people close to where they live: bringing people to nature, but more importantly bringing nature to people. The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts’ aim is to create large areas of wildlife-friendly landscape across the UK, reconnecting the landscape, to enable species to adapt to climate change, restoring the natural functions of ecosystems and enhancing wild spaces, to benefit the well-being of our growing population.
The project has been funded by a £181,000 grant awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), with additional support of £24,600, funded by River Nene Regional Park, through it’s GI Environmental Grant Scheme.
Paul Evans, senior reserves officer for The Wildlife Trust in Northamptonshire, said, “This is a really important step on securing the future of wildlife in Southwick Wood and the surrounding Rockingham Forest. It marks the start of a long process to fulfil our vision of linking up our nature reserves in the area, which aims to break the cycle of habitats and species becoming isolated in a landscape, and enables them to survive over a larger area and adapt to changing conditions”.
For more information, please get in touch.