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6 hours ago
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In past decades the focus has been on protecting beautiful landscapes such as the Lake District, trying to save the crumbling coast or breathing life into historic country houses.
Now the National Trust is marking its 130th anniversary by unveiling “moonshot” plans to address what it regards as the current national need – the climate and nature crises.
The conservation charity has launched proposals to create 250,000 hectares (617,500 acres) of nature-rich landscape – equivalent to one-and-a-half times the size of Greater London – on its own land and off it in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
To underline the scale of the plans, it said this would be 10 times the amount of landscape, such as peatlands, meadows, wetlands, woodlands and salt marsh, it has restored over the last decade.
If successful, the National Trust said, it would improve the health of enough soil to provide habitat for 1 billion earthworms.
The charity’s director general, Hilary McGrady, said a “monumental effort” was needed. “For 130 years, the National Trust has responded to the crises and challenges of the time. Today, nature is declining before our eyes and climate change is threatening homes and habitats on a colossal scale. We will ramp up our work to restore nature, both on our own land and beyond our boundaries,” she said.
Harry Bowell, the trust’s director of land and nature, described the 250,000a target as a “moonshot” and “audacious”, but said: “It is also one we think is practically achievable because of the mapping we’ve done, because of the work that we’ve done over the last 10 years and some of the emerging relationships and partnerships which we can bring to bear.”
Some of the work will take place on trust properties, and it will make new acquisitions, but key to its work will be cooperating with other environmental organisations, farmers, communities and individuals who have land that can be improved.
The idea is not to protect small patches of land but to create larger tracts of landscape. Bowell gave the example of the trust’s recent acquisition of 78ha (193 acres) of disused farmland at Lunt, in Merseyside. More than 90,000 trees will be planted to connect a mosaic of nature-rich landscapes together and become part of the Mersey Forest network.
Another example is in the Shropshire hills, where there are two sites managed by the trust and other organisations, such as Natural England and the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, meaning there are good breeding areas for birds, such as the threatened curlew. But the sites are 10 miles apart so it is difficult for the birds and their chicks to thrive.
Bowell said: “We’re beginning to work with the farming community in that landscape to help them think about how they might farm in a more nature-rich way to make that landscape more connected.”
The trust said it would continue to protect and enhance important buildings.
Work is getting under way on a £17m project to transform the Bath Assembly Rooms, which were described as a “most noble and elegant” dancing venue when they were opened in 1771.
A new visitor experience will include the installation of projectors and lighting to create the scene of a Georgian ball, the sort of event the local author Jane Austen may have attended.
Work on the assembly rooms will not be complete until 2027 but on 11 January a new installation by the sculptor Luke Jerram, a 7-metre (23ft) model of the sun called Helios, will be unveiled.
The charity is also taking over the management of its first site in Coventry, working in partnership with the Historic Coventry Trust to care for Charterhouse, a 14th century former monastery in the heart of the city, which is to be developed as a community hub.
In Lancashire, it is spending £1.2m on restoring the roof of the 420-year-old Great Barn at Gawthorpe Hall, which has been used for everything from agricultural storage to an indoor training area for Burnley Football Club.
Other anniversary initiatives include inviting people to “adopt” plots of lands at nature “super sites”, such as Killerton, in Devon; the Peak District; Eryri (Snowdonia), in north Wales, and Divis and the Black Mountain, in Northern Ireland.
It is launching a partnership with the mental health charity Mind to help address unequal access to nature and the mental health crisis, and is introducing, for the first time, National Trust ambassadors, including the classicist, author and broadcaster Mary Beard and the historian, broadcaster and film-maker David Olusoga.
