[F]ourteen young people from Carlisle will learn more about wildlife and how to look after it thanks to a £9,500 grant awarded to Cumbria Wildlife Trust from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Cumbria’s nature charity will work with young people from Carlisle Youth Zone to help them discover and explore Wreay Woods Nature Reserve, at Wreay near Carlisle. The young people will visit the nature reserve several times to learn more about its wildlife, its natural heritage and the role natural heritage plays in our day-to-day lives. They will also help to improve the woodland by repairing boardwalks that were washed away in the floods and plant native trees.
The young people will celebrate the heritage that they have discovered by creatively sharing their learning with other young people at Carlisle Youth Zone, as well as with friends and family, through film, photography, poetry, games or any other creative way that inspires them.
Helen Duxbury, Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Development Manager, says: “Wreay Woods Nature Reserve is wonderfully diverse steep-sided woodland that
follows the course of the River Petteril just outside Carlisle. The huge diversity of flora there suggests that a woodland has been present here for hundreds of years and there is much to explore through the seasons.
“This nature reserve was badly affected by the Carlisle floods at the end of 2015, when much of the visitor paths and interpretation were washed away. Thanks to lottery players, this project will not only help young people to discover Carlisle’s natural heritage but will also help us repair the visitor infrastructure that will contribute to efforts to reopen the footpath to the visiting public.”
Murray Winters, Carlisle Youth Zone’s Chief Executive, says: “We are delighted to be working with Cumbria Wildlife Trust and delighted also that some of the young people we work with will get the chance to be involved. It’s particularly apt that they will be working to restore damage caused by the floods of 2015 after what the same floods managed to inflict on their Youth Zone.”