has abstract
| - Founded in 1967, Earth Trust is an environmental charity (not-for-profit organisation) which was originally known as the Northmoor Trust for Countryside Conservation. Earth Trust was initially established by the British engineer Sir Martin Wood to promote environmental conservation through land management, education, and land science. It is a registered charity under English law. Since 1982 Earth Trust has been providing and championing accessible natural green spaces and running inspiring, award-winning programmes to help connect people with nature and the environment. Earth Trust inspire people to address climate, biodiversity and wellbeing with the power of natural green spaces. Earth Trust is the owner and manager of the largest freely accessible natural green space landscape in Oxfordshire - the iconic Wittenham Clumps: 500 hectares of woodland, farmland, wildflower meadows and wetlands. Earth Trust also care for a growing number of smaller community reserves - special places for both nature and people within urban areas and towns. These places receive 200,000+ visits each year. Earth Trust use the places they manage to demonstrate nature based solutions and engage people with the natural world in order to influence for more accessible and better green spaces. As well as managing and promoting accessible natural green spaces for everyone, Earth Trust also operate a working farm. Along with their Farm Step tenants, Earth Trust are one of Oxfordshire's mid-sized producers of legumes, grains and wildflowers, beef, lamb, Goat's cheese and honey. Earth Trust have 500 hectares of mixed use farmland, demonstrating the links between environment, wildlife, landscape and growing food. Earth Trust encourages and supports the production, distribution and eating of good quality, local, healthy food. Land management, skills and the means needed to produce and distribute food locally, minimising transport and waste are all important ingredients. Earth Trust continue to explore and develop methods to show that farming practices can be environmentally friendly and economically sustainable. In 2000 Earth Trust took on the management of three community meadows: Wallingford Castle Meadows and Riverside Meadows in Wallingford, and Mowbray Fields in Didcot. In 2009, Earth Trust came into a management position of Thrupp Lake, located in Radley. A beautiful wetland site, it is one of England’s top bird sites and was protected through an agreement with RWE npower (who own the site) and the local community. In 2010 Earth Trust acquired 500 acres of farmland adjacent to Little Wittenham Wood and the River Thames. Their River of Life project created new wetland habitats on the riverbank and means there’s now a continuous area of high quality wildlife habitat from the Thames basin up to the top of the Wittenham Clumps – an area covering 150ha. Earth Trust's land at Little Wittenham now extends to 1,200 acres and includes woodland, research plantation, wildlife meadows, wetland and mixed farmland. In 2014 Earth Trust started managing Abbey Fishponds in Abingdon. Tucked away in a residential area of the town, Abbey Fishponds is a small nature reserve loved by locals and teeming with wetland wildlife. The reserve is around 7ha and despite being completely enclosed by housing, is a haven for wildlife, walkers and local explorers. Volunteers have always played at important part in the Earth Trust and in 2016 their hard work was rewarded with the prestigious Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the MBE for volunteer groups. 2017 saw Earth Trust take the first step in their Gateway project when South Oxfordshire District Council Planning Committee granted approval for their proposal to improve the Earth Trust Centre. This will enable Earth Trust to establish a new gateway with the facilities that visitors need to access the countryside. Work started in 2019 with archaeological investigations. The newest Earth Trust building, Earth Lab is a cutting-edge sustainable building and winner of the “Most Innovative and Sustainable Initiative” at the 2021 OxPropFest awards. More than a building, Earth Lab is a living demonstration of human interactions with the natural environment through its design, materials and functional choices. Following on from the success of River of Life, the River of Life II project has created several new wetland habitats along the River Thames and River Thame and transformed a total 46,000m2 of wetland (the size of six football pitches). The ponds and backwaters were developed in 2021 and provide important habitats for people and wildlife to enjoy as well as wetlands which help to alleviate floods and absorb carbon. You can spot herons, kingfishers or even otters, as well as plenty of fish. You can also see wildflowers in the meadows in spring and summer, and visiting migrant birds at the wetlands in the winter. Earth Trust hosts a full programme of events each year, including countryside management courses, taster workshops and family festivals. They are best known for their Lambing Weekends in spring, which were attended by over 8,000 people in 2016. (en)
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