At the end of 2021, we secured a grant from the Nature Network Fund (NNF), administered by the National Lottery Heritage Fund from the Welsh Government, looking at ensuring resilient ecological networks. Our funding was just over £380k with another £170k secured through a partnership application with the Wye Valley AONB.  

Through this project, we are carrying out capital works across many of our protected Nature Reserves, from a new car park at Springdale to ecological monitoring work at Bridewell Common, including Water Vole and habitat botanical baselines grid mapping. We are also planting a new Orchard planting at Ty Mawr and purchasing much-needed equipment, such as a new quad bike and electric chainsaws.  

The NNF funding runs until March 2023, and our team of Nature Recovery Officers have been very busy working through this project, which allowed us to improve public access safely and help us to manage these sites in even better more efficient ways for wildlife.  

Getting our nature reserves into better condition and enabling us to carry out monitoring work is key to tackling the nature crisis. The Wildlife Trusts’ ambition is to restore 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030. The NNF funding helps increase habitats for wildlife such as managing scrub encroaching at Shirenewton Meadows and invasive non-native species (INNS) control at Piercefield Woods, so our native flora and fauna can thrive. 

Our funding was part of an overall grant of £2,746,600 awarded from the Welsh Government’s NNF in partnership with the National Lottery’s Heritage Fund. And we were one of the five Wildlife Trusts in Wales – namely; us, North Wales, Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and South and West Wales – who are carrying out vital work to improve the condition of our protected sites around Wales. These are unique places where rare and threatened species and habitats are protected and allowed to thrive.