Northumberland nature reserve receives £400,000 lottery grant to protect and revive threatened habitats

The project, based at Druridge Bay, has been awarded a grant of £415,800 from The National Lottery Heritage Lottery Fund for the second phase of the scheme.

Elaine More, Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s development manager said: “I am delighted that the hard work of the Catch My Drift Team from the development phase has been successful.

"I am also overwhelmed by the support from volunteers and members of the public in helping to shape what the project should do, and how we address some of the issues that we face.

“Covid 19 has demonstrated how important the natural environment is for people and their need to take time out with nature.

"Our work at East Chevington will ensure that local residents and visitors have a reserve full of wildlife all year round where they can switch off, relax and reflect.”

Catch my Drift’ is a nod to the reserve’s history as it was once the East Chevington Drift Mine (1882 - 1962) and East Chevington Opencast Coal Site from 1982 - 1994.

The 185-hectare site passed to Northumberland Wildlife Trust in 2003 and now contains lakes, ponds, reed beds, woodland, pasture and arable farming that are homes to nationally significant species such as marsh harrier, red squirrels and great crested news.

It is also important to the local communities who use the site as an area for walking and access to the beach, with an estimated 10,000 visitors each year.

During the development phase of the project between April 2019 and March 2020, the Catch My Drift team worked with consultants to determine solutions to the problems it had on site and appointed a project assistant to liaise with local community groups and share ideas with the public.

The second phase of the project, taking place over three years, will protect and revive threatened habitats and providing refuge for different species on the site.

It will also make access improvements to give everyone the opportunity to experience nature.

New information panels will be installed along with four improved existing hides

The team, led by Sophie Webster, Catch My Drift project officer and Anthony Johnston, reserves officer (Druridge Bay) will continue to carry out improvements for wildlife with volunteers, plus run a variety of events and activities on natural heritage.

The water management measures put in place at the end of opencast restoration are no longer functional making it difficult to have any positive management effect on the established reedbed.

The project will introduce new structures to enable water levels to be controlled allowing better management of the existing 16ha of reedbed and re-profiling of the lake edges to create a mixture of reed, ditches and pools.

Improvement works will continue by creating 20ha of new meadows on the site.

The new grazing regimes introduced on the 10ha of the site’s pasture will continue as will the 8ha of semi-improved grasslands that were untouched by coal mining activity.

The team will also carry out thinning in five hectares of plantation.

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