Wild North Trust
Who are they?
Wild North Trust aims to promote the conservation, protection, and improvement of natural environments in Northern England – including the promotion of biological diversity. This charity also aims to educate the public on conservation, protection, and improvement of the environment.
Ultimately, Wild North Trust aims to raise money to buy land in poor condition, then let nature take the lead in repairing that land through rewilding. Land considered by Wild North Trust to be in poor condition includes land at risk of soil erosion, pollution, or low biodiversity.
The focus of Wild North Trust is upland areas, where peat moors are suffering the impact of soil compaction, burning, and overgrazing. Peat moors slow the rate of water run-off and store carbon by acting like sponges, thanks to layers of sphagnum mosses.
What do they do?
In line with their aims to conserve, protect, and improve natural environments, Wild North Trust advises on management of land which creates a more diverse ecosystem.
These land management strategies could include:
- Halting actions that cause peat to dry out and wash away, by introducing key species to help reverse the process. For example, beavers build dams across waterways that develop pools full of nutrients for plants and wildlife.
- Encouraging plants, like heather and bog rosemary, to thrive on wet peatlands to attract species, such as emperor moths, which become sources of food for other species, e.g. short-eared owls.
- Temporarily moving grazing animals off peatland areas, to allow the seedlings of trees to grow. Then, reintroduce species which create a disturbance in the ground, opening up areas to be colonised by new plants and insects to the area.
How we’ve helped Wild North Trust
We’ve donated £10,000 to Wild North Trust, in support of their incredible work, as part of our ‘Tails’ of UK Wildlife campaign.
Our ‘Tails’ of UK Wildlife campaign aims to showcase how small actions can have a big impact towards creating a wilder future. So, the efforts made by Wild North Trust to inspire a new generation to nurture nature illustrates the importance of acting now for a healthier world tomorrow. Here’s an example of the work Wild North Trust did to rewild a section of grounds belonging to a Salford primary school:
“We rewilded about a third of an acre in total, by placing a natural looking barrier to prevent mowers going over the grass and allow it to grow and set seed (the barrier is a willow fence, which will hopefully grow into a living fence). We dug an area for a small pond and fenced it safely using post and wire and a small gate, we left logs and habitat piles, and added small sticks of young willow, to grow into trees.”
Following the completion of their rewilding project, Wild North Trust returned to the site three months later and recorded all the species living there, which included:
- Grasses – e.g. meadow foxtail and Timothy grass.
- Plants – e.g. meadow buttercup and sorrel.
- Birds – e.g. wren and chiffchaff.
- Insects – e.g. orange tip butterfly and blue tailed damselfly.
Feeling inspired to get involved in caring for nature? Visit our articles about simple swaps to make at home for the environment and supporting biodiversity around waterways to discover the steps you can take towards a nature-friendly future!