Countryside Management Association News

Alston, part of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) will benefit from a share of a £3m windfall.

The cash is to be spent on wildlife and community projects over the next three years as part of the Living North Pennines initiative.

Living North Pennines projects will be predominantly concentrated in the upper reaches of the AONB, covered by the Tees, Derwent and South Tyne rivers.

Some will be spent on the Bentyfield Mine above Garrigill and residents in Alston Moor will be asked to take part in North Pennines Stories.

A series of horse rides will be developed to explore some of the historic routes that were used for moving lead from mines to nearby towns.

'Places to Live, Places to Work' will help conserve four historical structures in the AONB including the mine near Garrigill.

Local schools will also be involved and teachers will be encouraged to take their lessons outdoors, and new broadleaf woodlands will be planted to boost existing small woods.

Almost £2m for the programme, which will start later this year, has been donated by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Living North Pennines is led by the North Pennines AONB Partnership with support from the lottery, the Environment Agency, Northumbrian Water, English Heritage, the SITA Trust, Natural England, the Forestry Commission and local county councils.

The latest Breeding Birds Survey, published recently, shows that sightings of turtle doves have declined by 61 per cent since the 1990s.

The British Trust for Ornithology, says that the bird has disappeared from the South-West and the North of England and has become increasingly hard to find in its arable stronghold of East Anglia.

The decline is mainly due to changing agricultural practices, which have led to the scarcity of once-common weeds, such as fumitory, on which the doves depend for food during the breeding season. Also the
Common Agricultural Policy has led to widespread disappearance of their nesting habitat - tall overgrown hedges and areas of scrub on farmland.

The doves are also hunted as they migrate from Africa and have suffered from habitat changes as the Sahara spreads southwards into their winter territory

The Coventry City Council Parks Service Rangers have organised an event as part of a world film premier for the 'Thin Green Line', a documentary made by an Australian Park ranger about rangers working around the world ( as featured in the Spring 2007 issue of 'Ranger', The magazine of the Countryside Management Association). All proceeds from the premier are going to the International Rangers Federation. The premier is being held in Coventry at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum at 7pm - 10pm on Tues 31 July 2007. Tickets cost £2. The event is open to all, but booking is essential as the venue has a limited capacity. Please contact me, Michelle Bennett on 02476785508 or michelle.bennett@coventry.gov.uk to book tickets.
See www.thingreenline.info for more information about this amazing world premier!