Some great news. LUCT has just been awarded a multi-thousand pound grant from the Postcode Lottery Fund to create a nursery specialising in the growing of bog-loving plants.
The money will go towards the erection of ‘wet beds’ and protective fencing in a corner of Flask Lake. Once they are up and running we will be producing well over 600 plants in the first year from seed of local native provenance, ready to be transplantedto other parts of the reserve. It is all part of our “Fabulous Fen” project which aims to recreate “boggy” habitat in the Vale of Mowbray. From detail historical evidence, we know it was here in abundance in the Middle Ages; it is our intention to bring rich habitat back and with it the animals and birds which thrive among locally native sedges and other fen pants. Total cost of the project is around £5,500 of which Postcode lottery is generously giving us more than £4,000.
The Postcode Local Trust is a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People's Postcode Lottery. You can learn more about the organisation and how it helps energetic charities like LUCT by going to www.postcodelocaltrust.org.uk
You may remember last autumn we sourced a number of bog-loving plants at Kilgram close to the River Ure at Jervaulx and volunteers spent two days harvesting the seed of such species as meadowsweet, angelica and great fen sedge. It is as a result of those efforts that we now have the raw material to begin this exciting new project - plus the money from the Postcode Lottery.