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Wildlife trust receives half a million in funding

Peter Creed It's a sunny day in Bernwood Meadows, the sky is a pale blue with clouds, the green meadow is flecked with white and deep purple flowers and there are trees and bushes in the distance, surrounding a white wooden fencePeter Creed
Bernwood Meadows in Buckinghamshire is an area looked after by the trust which will benefit from funding

A wildlife trust has been granted more than half a million pounds for a project to "restore nature".

The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) received the money from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

It will be used to improve the landscape in the region connecting Bernwood, Otmoor and the River Ray, across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

The trust said it was part of a wider plan to eventually gain more than £3.5m of funding, in partnership with 11 other organisations.

The groups will be joining forces for the Reconnecting Bernwood, Otmoor and the Ray project.

A statement from the organisation said the project "aims to enable long-term landscape and species recovery in the region for the benefit of nature, heritage and people".

It said the area in question had "immense potential" for nature recovery, but the landscape was under "intense pressure from inappropriate development, historic intensive agricultural practices and climate change".

Jon Hawkins/Surrey Hills Photography The curlew is mid flight, hovering over long grass which is flecked with white daisies in a meadow. The bird's markings are brown and white flecks and stripes, with a long thin beak.Jon Hawkins/Surrey Hills Photography
Part of the funding will help habitat management for threatened species like curlews

Charlotte Newberry, from the trust, said: "This funding will allow us to continue to inspire excitement for nature in landowners and communities, listen to underserved voices and foster the existing sense of pride in the area to drive nature's recovery."

The organisation will run a two-year development phase to plan habitat management for threatened species like curlews.

The Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Natural Environment Partnership (NEP) supported the funding bid.

Nicola Thomas, from the NEP, said it was "fantastic" the project would be developed further.

She added: "We look forward to the nature recovery, community, heritage, greenspace and landscape benefits that will result right across the area."

BBOWT will be working with organisations including the Butterfly Conservation, Earthwatch Europe, Ministry of Defence, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Wild Oxfordshire.

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