Thanks to the generosity of the Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, NHSN have been granted a fantastic £1810.00 to fund vital equipment for use at Gosforth Park Nature Reserve. All of which will be used by our dedicated volunteer network to improve the reserve for biodiversity, monitor wildlife populations and ensure the site, and its wildlife, thrive long into the future.
Through their Local Environmental Action Fund (LEAF) the Community Foundation and partners aim to help people to deliver projects that tackle environmental issues in their local area, and make a profound difference to the quality of life of local communities. Particularly in areas of severe economic or environmental hardship. The scheme is focused on projects which can show a demonstrable track record of encouraging communities to get involved in nature, changing behaviour in order to support environmental action, and sharing learning about the environment with others.
The money granted through the LEAF scheme will be used to fund volunteer tools for use in watercourse alternation and woodland management; as well as tree labels, trail cameras and equipment designed to monitor the temperature inside specially-built bat boxes. In addition to native woodland plants and bulbs to be planted in order to help with the regeneration of the sites SSSI woodland. New and improved tools will help volunteers to manage the reserves precious habitat and remove litter; while cameras and bat monitoring equipment will be used to greatly expand NHSN’s existing biological recording plan. Additionally, it is hoped that tree labels will inspire learning by helping visitors to the reserve identify the trees growing around them.
NHSN are incredibly grateful to our existing volunteers who contribute greatly to the management of GPNR, and its hoped that with new tools at their disposal, their great work can be continued for many years to come.
NHSN Director, Clare Freeman writes:
I am delighted that the Community Fund serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland have decided to grant our us funding to improve Gosforth Park for wildlife, and for people. NHSN’s volunteers do a fantastic job keeping the reserve in tip-top shape and with the funds necessary to purchase vital, new equipment available, they will doubtless achieve great results in the future. This grant will make a real difference to Gosforth Park, the people who visit it, and the volunteers who dedicate their time each week, regardless of the weather, to managing and maintaining it.