Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
Registered Charity Number: 232580
About the charity
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s vision is for a natural world in recovery, where nature-based solutions are tackling the climate crisis.
What our grant will help to fund
The Forest of Dean has the best examples of scarce open heathland habitats in Gloucestershire but they are also one of the hardest habitats to maintain. Working to deliver bigger better and more connected spaces for nature requires natural solutions such as grazing to deliver more with less mechanical intervention. The Park Nature reserve has suffered a decline in grazing over the last decade, but GWT are now leading on restoring heathland habitats here which need grazing to prevent loss of efforts, much of which has been gifted practically by volunteers.
Whilst we have the Highland cattle, Exmoor ponies and Hebridean sheep ready to graze, the fence situation across this 30ha nature reserve is close to collapse. Supporting the costs of replacement ensures we can safely manage these native breeds throughout the year ensuring their welfare and attracting new audiences to the role of conservation grazing in managing important local habitats and the species, such as nightjar and adder, that rely on them.
“Our aim is to deliver 30% increases for wildlife in Glos by 2030, this nature reserve funding has the capacity to secure our habitat improvements with reliable conservation grazing from our Highland Cattle and Exmoor ponies for the next 20 years by helping renew our perimeter fencing.”
Kevin Caster, Land Manager West, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
