More than 20,000 trees have been planted by the National Trust across some of its sites in-and-around Greater Manchester as part of the charity’s ‘biggest ever nature conservation’ project in the area.
Alongside the trees, four kilometres of hedgerows have been planted or improved, nearly 40 hectares of native grassland and meadow have been created or improved, and roughly four kilometres have been created or improved. The sites receiving the helping hand include family favourites like Quarry Bank, Alderley Edge, Lyme Park, and Dunham Massey.
The charity says that wildlife is already flocking back to their habitats, with egrets spotted in areas they’ve never been seen before. There’s also been more work to protect Lyme Park from flooding, which was badly damaged by waters in 2019.
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“In under 12 months our rangers, volunteers, and partners have given Cheshire and Greater Manchester a much-needed nature boost,” Eleanor Underhill, the Trust’s assistant director in the north west, said. “By creating corridors for native wildlife and planting tens of thousands of trees, we’re looking far into the future to create landscape-scale change around places like Quarry Bank and Lyme Park.
“And by using natural flood management techniques, we’re working with nature to build our resilience to flooding and help to protect our local communities too. Working through some really challenging conditions this winter, this has been a truly monumental effort that will make Cheshire a greener, healthier, and more beautiful place for hundreds of years to come.”
Much of the focus of the work has been to create ‘joined up’ habitats for wildlife, so they can flourish, the charity added. At Quarry Bank, rangers are said to be hopeful that the project will see the return of brightly-coloured yellowhammers to the site, which are currently on the UK ‘red list’ for birds of conservation concern.
And, at the newly-created wetland areas at Dunham Massey and Alderley Edge, rangers are already seeing wildlife moving in, with egrets now being spotted in areas they’ve never been seen before in Cheshire. Those wetlands also play a role in managing flooding, which devastated Lyme Park in summer 2019, causing £250,000 worth of damage.
