Wildlife charity dreaming of a wilder Whitelee this Christmas

Over half the site is blanket bog, a huge store of carbon and water, vital to mitigate future climate change and reduce potential flooding downstream in the rivers Rede and Tyne.

The reserve is home to a variety of plants including sphagnum mosses, cloudberry, bog asphodel and cotton grasses.

On the lower slopes the heather moorland attracts birds such as red grouse, and birds of prey including merlin, buzzard, peregrine falcon and hen harrier.

With the essential help of its volunteers, the Trust also be repairing the peatland, enhancing meadows, planting more trees, and improving the wildflower meadows. What’s more, it will start the new year trialling the use of NoFence electric collars on its resident Flexigraze conservation grazing cattle.

Organising and delivering such ambitious plans come at a cost, so this this year the Trust’s Big Give Christmas appeal aims to raise the £17.600 needed to work with contractors and volunteers to help the 15km site reach its full potential as a spectacular haven for wildlife for future generations to enjoy.

Between midday on Tuesday 3rd December and Tuesday 10th December any donation made to the Big Give Christmas Appeal will be doubled thanks to generous Northumberland Wildlife Trust donors and the Reed Foundation. One donation, double the impact.

Anybody wishing to donate during the Big Give appeal week can do so by visiting https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a056900002TPVThAAP

Find out more about Whitelee on the Trust’s website at www.nwt.org.uk/nature-reserves/whitelee-moor

The Big Give is the UK's number online match funding platform, specialising in bringing charities, philanthropists, and the public together to multiply their impact.

Since 2008, £301,574,699 has been raised for over 17,895 charity projects.