Hanson Environment Fund update
In 2004 the Hanson Environment Fund awarded grants totalling £559,993 to 53 projects. The recipients included: £250,000 to create a wheelchair-accessible adventure playground in Mentor Mon; £1,692 to help restore an old orchard in Farnham; and £5,950 to help provide a new wildlife haven for the little ringed plover and other wader species.
In a more recent project, £1,486 was awarded to Essex Wildlife Trust for footpath improvements at the Phyllis Currie nature reserve. The 22-acre site was bequeathed to Essex Wildlife Trust on the death of Phyllis Currie, a local wildlife and nature enthusiast. It is a well used community facility with open glades, a lake and wildflower meadow. The 80m2 footpath was sprayed with tar and then coated with pea shingle to make it more hardwearing and accessible in all weather conditions.
The fund has also granted £25,000 to the RSPB’s Rye Meads nature reserve in Hertfordshire for the supply of around 1,000 rudd into the reserve’s lagoons to provide much needed food for bitterns, one of the UK’s scarcest birds. Fewer than 50 pairs of bitterns breed across England and they need the small fish to survive. The new fishy menu and provision of reed beds to hunt and nest in should encourage the birds to raise young. The project is part of a larger £56,000 EU LIFE–Nature Reed beds for Bitterns and Thames Water-funded project to create a wetland for bitterns and other wildlife.
In a more recent project, £1,486 was awarded to Essex Wildlife Trust for footpath improvements at the Phyllis Currie nature reserve. The 22-acre site was bequeathed to Essex Wildlife Trust on the death of Phyllis Currie, a local wildlife and nature enthusiast. It is a well used community facility with open glades, a lake and wildflower meadow. The 80m2 footpath was sprayed with tar and then coated with pea shingle to make it more hardwearing and accessible in all weather conditions.
The fund has also granted £25,000 to the RSPB’s Rye Meads nature reserve in Hertfordshire for the supply of around 1,000 rudd into the reserve’s lagoons to provide much needed food for bitterns, one of the UK’s scarcest birds. Fewer than 50 pairs of bitterns breed across England and they need the small fish to survive. The new fishy menu and provision of reed beds to hunt and nest in should encourage the birds to raise young. The project is part of a larger £56,000 EU LIFE–Nature Reed beds for Bitterns and Thames Water-funded project to create a wetland for bitterns and other wildlife.
