National Trust
Beautiful properties in beautiful places
The National Trust is Europe’s biggest conservation organisation and manages extensive properties of high wildlife interest across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These include 12% of the UK’s remaining chalk and limestone grasslands, 1,100km of coastline, 6,000 hectares of ancient woodland and 25% of the nation’s historic parks.
The National Trust protects an unrivalled wealth of the UK’s wildlife including bats, butterflies, rare birds and plants, and of all the rare species listed in the UK Biodiversity Plan, nearly half occur on National Trust land.
David Bullock, Head of Nature Conservation for the National Trust explains that “the extent of the National Trust’s landholding and conservation responsibilities means that the Trust is in a unique position to look at nature conservation on the widest possible scale. We are one of the few organisations that can give an overall reflection of the state of the UK’s Wildlife. Our wildlife is struggling to cope with increasingly rapid change and is under increasing pressure from habitat loss, inappropriate grazing, invasive species, pollution, availability of water and the growing impact of climate change. Our management and responses to the problems wildlife face means looking beyond land ownership boundaries and working in partnership to consider the needs of habitats and wildlife as part of a whole landscape.
SITA Trust’s Enriching Nature programme has enabled some fantastic projects to happen over the last 2 years and has provided the National Trust with invaluable funding to manage and protect wildlife. As the National Trust is a registered charity and receives no direct state grant or subsidy for its core work, we are dependent on the support of partners such as the SITA Trust to enable us to carry out vital nature conservation projects”.
Dr Stuart Warrington, Nature Conservation Adviser from the East of England region, explains how SITA Enriching Nature funding has helped with an important bat project at Ickworth, Suffolk:
"SITA Trust funding of £15,000 has enabled a detailed bat survey to take place at Ickworth in 2007, with a special focus on the nationally rare Barbastelle bat which had been detected at Ickworth. Several roost sites for bats have been discovered across the 700 ha Ickworth estate, and another rare species, the Leisler's Bat, was found. The money has also been used to pay for three bat detectors for use by the public in guided bat walks and for new interpretation about the bats at Ickworth to be put in place in 2008".
SITA have also funded another extremely important Bat Project in Dorset called ‘Bats in the Landscape’:
“Through a 3 year landscape scale project, made possible with SITA Enriching Nature funding, we have located feeding areas and new roosts for greater horseshoe bats, which are on the edge of their British range in the south of England. We have gained greater understanding of how natural and historic manmade features shapes their habitat use. Through ringing and tracking we have discovered how far bats travel between roosts, (further than thought for one bat that travelled around 100miles!), how many bats use the network of different roosts in Purbeck, and what key feeding areas are essential during the Spring.
It has not only focussed on the greater horse shoe, but other rare bats such as Bechstein's have been studied. Several tree roosts have been located through the project for this elusive species and several woodlands in the area have new records for this species and others including the rare Barbastelle.
"The 3 year Project will culminate in a Landscape scale Purbeck bat management plan that conservation bodies and landowners will be able to use to ensure bats and their roosts are protected now and for the future. A number of volunteers and the public have gained first hand experience of seeing rare bats through the project in helping with the research or attending bat walks and talks, which has greatly increased public awareness about the importance of bats in Purbeck"( Angela Peters, Ecologist at Purbeck).
David Armstrong, from the Wardening team at Ebworth, talks about another key project funded through the Enriching Nature programme involving Wood-Pasture, which is an important habitat on the UKBAP and an important habitat within the role of the National Trust:
“Over the past few years it had been identified that not only did we have a fabulous area of ancient beech trees on our property at Haresfield near Stroud, but that it was of interest for its associated invertebrate fauna. The SITA funding has enabled us to commission a specialist invertebrate survey this summer, and this has confirmed that it is of considerable importance with 30 species considered to be of conservation importance found, including 6 species of Red Data Book or equivalent status. These include beetles, gnats, flies and craneflies The larger trees have also been measured, tagged and mapped. Funding will also enable us to carry out management that will hopefully ensure a continuity of suitable habitat for the invertebrates and ensure a supply of future veteran trees.”
Glen Redman, the Countryside Manager for South Downs East describes how SITA Trust funding has helped with Scrub Management on the Scarp Slope at Blackcap
“The scarp slope is a Site of Special Scientific Interest on account of its chalk grassland habitat; the rich downland plant community and the invertebrates associated with it. Natural England has assessed the condition of the site as being 'unfavourable recovering'. It is Natural England's target to achieve favourable condition by 2010. This project is a major step towards achieving that aim.
We have been awarded a grant of £25,000 from SITA Trust spread over three years. This grant is being spent on a specialised contractor to clear scrub in particular areas as directed by the site manager (me). The amount of scrub to be cleared is estimated at being about 15%. The purpose of this clearance is to open up the grassland, reduce fragmentation and to increase sustainability of the plant and invertebrate communities. Also to improve access for grazing animals so that that the sward can be more easily maintained by grazing. The site is also public access area, so breaking up the thick scrub will allow better access for people to enjoy.”
The combination of the ancient trees and built structures in the National Trust’s care, together with the vast range of feeding sites on its land, makes the National Trust the single most important landowner for the conservation of bats, another group of mammals declining across Europe.
The National Trust would like to thank the SITA Trust for their valuable funding support and we hope to continue to work together on further projects in the future.
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