Projects Updates:

01/12/2009 15:19: Horse power boosts Pennine effort

The latest recruit in the drive to maintain and improve the dramatic landscape of the North Pennines started work in September.

Ouragan the heavy horse joined the team at the Pow Hill Country Park near Edmundbyers in County Durham, helping to clear conifers to make way for native broadleaf woodland.

The work is part of the North Pennines AONB Partnership's Living North Pennines woodland project which brings together agencies, council and funders to create biodiverse woodland habitat. £174,229 funding for this project was donated by SITA Trust.

Ouragan, a French Percheron heavy horse will be assisting in extracting timber over the site’s rough terrain while ensuring the damage to surrounding plant life is kept to a minimum. Specialist woodsman Chris Wadsworth, who works with Ouragan, explains: ‘Ouragan is still a young horse but he works very sweetly despite his name which means Hurricane in French’.

Once clearance work is complete members of the general public will be able to assist in replanting the woodland.