Nature reserve given cash boost

A Somerset nature reserve has received £50,000 from an environmental trust.

Viridor Credits Somerset has given the money to the Hawk and Owl Trust towards the purchase of 55 hectares of arable land on Shapwick Moor.

The overall aim of the project is to transform the area, which is an established site of Special Scientific Interest, into a haven for wildlife.

Linda Bennett, director of the Hawk and Owl Trust, said the cash would be spent restoring the site to wet grassland.

It will then be managed organically by light grazing, with rare breeds such as Red Devon cattle and Hebridean sheep.

"This will help bring back to the area a wide variety of wildlife, from barn owls and bats to water beetles and wild flowers," she said.

Viridor Credits Somerset is an environmental trust set up by Viridor Waste Management, who operate three landfill sites in the county, to administer cash raised by the government's landfill tax in Somerset, via the Landfill Communities Fund.

The trust is now looking for more causes within a ten-mile radius of the landfill sites at Dimmer, near Castle Cary and Walpole, near Bridgwater, in which to distribute money.