What’s new?
Magical Folly Wood welcomes visitors with new facilities
Discovering the magical trees and mosses of Flitwick Moor and Folly Wood has become much easier following the completion of a £14,138 project to improve facilities for visitors.
Funded by Biffaward, the improvements include:
- Better footpaths to enable easy access through the reserve;
- Three new information boards with maps;
- Resurfaced car park.
The Wildlife Trust’s Reserves Manager, Graham Bellamy said: “Folly Wood is a magical nature reserve and second only in southern England to the New Forest National Park in terms of the number of beautiful mosses.
“With spring flowers, improved facilities for visitors and many birds to watch and listen to, now is a great time to visit the nature reserve.”
The improvements to the nature reserve were celebrated recently with a guided walk attended by local Wildlife Trust members, businesses, volunteers who had been involved in project work, along with a Trustee of the Wildlife Trust and a representative from Natural England.
Folly Wood is part of the Wildlife Trust’s Flitwick Moor nature reserve, near Flitwick, and was bought by the Trust in 2007 following a successful fundraising appeal.
Further information about the Trust’s nature reserves is available at www.wildlifebcnp.org/reserves
About Biffaward
In 1997, Biffa Waste Services agreed to donate landfill tax credits to the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) to administer under the fund name Biffaward. Grants made from the fund currently amount to £100 million, supporting many worthwhile projects.
Biffa Waste Services Limited is one of the largest single suppliers of waste management services in the UK. It collects, treats, recovers and disposes of municipal, commercial and industrial waste nationwide. It is ultimately owned by a private equity consortium comprising Montagu Private Equity, Global Infrastructure Partners, Uberior Co-Investments Limited and other co-investors.
The landfill tax came into operation in 1996. Its purpose is to reflect the impact of landfill on the environment and also to help achieve the targets for more sustainable waste management. The tax, levied on the tonnage of all material disposed of in landfill sites and collected by Biffa on behalf of HM Revenue and Customs, aims to encourage recycling and reduce waste by raising the cost of disposal.
The regulations allow landfill site operators to direct approximately 6% of the tax they have collected towards approved environmental projects. However, any approved project can only receive 90% of its desired funding from the landfill tax. The remainder must come direct from the landfill site operator or from a third party organisation or company.
www.biffaward.org