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Project
origins
The Lorton Meadows initiative was developed to enable a
greater range of people to explore their local wildlife and to get
involved in biodiversity conservation. The Lorton Meadows farm includes
a SSSI and SNCI. Previously under threat of development it was purchased
by Dorset Wildlife Trust with HLF funding. Conversion of a barn
into a Wildlife Centre, with help from a private financier, has
helped make the new reserve attractive to visitors and more useful
for groups from all walks of life.
Action
for biodiversity
Lorton Meadows extends a corridor of semi natural habitat from a
neighbouring coastal country park. This gives an opportunity for
wildlife to move inland, allowing for changes resulting from climate
change.
The traditional management practices that have been returned to
the site have benefited many BAP priority habitats. Lowland meadows
have been brought under appropriate grazing and hay cutting management,
hedges have been layed, a new pond has been dug and existing ponds
restored, trees have been pollarded and ditches reinstated.
Relationships
to sustainable development
Work at Lorton has made a significant contribution to achieving
Dorset Biodiversity Strategy targets, both physical targets relating
to priority habitats, and the generic targets, such as involving
new audiences in conservation, so vital to sustaining biodiversity
long term.
Education, both formal and informal, has been at the heart of the
initiative. Volunteers from a broad range of backgrounds, including
those with little work experience, unemployed and young offenders,
have learnt new skills.
The new reserve has provided opportunities for people often excluded
from ‘traditional’ conservation work. People from youth
groups, young offenders groups and disabled institutes, as well
as local schools have been involved in a range of activities from
design and practical work to research and recording change. The
reserve also helps many people, particularly those of retirement
age, to maintain a good level of fitness, thus contributing to the
health and wellbeing of the local area.
Now that this urban fringe site is being looked after, it is well
used by local people and school groups and fly tipping and car dumping
have decreased. The local council is also beginning to see the site
as an asset rather than a problem area, making its support and protection
in the future more likely.
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