Woodland Trust Northern Ireland buys ancient land in Co Down
The conservation charity has purchased 386 acres of the Mourne Park estate which has been in private ownership for over 500 years amid plans to restore it
09:22, 24 MAY 2021
Whitewater River in Mourne Park
Nearly 400 acres of ancient woodland could be open to the public for free by next year after it was bought by the Woodland Trust Northern Ireland. Mourne Park, which is set at the southern side of the Mournes just beyond Kilkeel, Co Down, has been in private ownership for more than 500 hundred years.
But thanks to funding from DAERA, Garfield Weston Foundation and gifts in wills, the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity has taken ownership and management of 156 hectares (386 acres) of the estate with ambitions to restore ancient woodland.
May 21 2021
Manchester is tackling climate change with the launch of a new zero carbon programme, so everyone can take action, ahead of the international climate conference COP26 taking place in Glasgow this November.
The climate change initiatives are outlined in a report that will be presented to Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee of Manchester City Council on Thursday May 27.
The Climate Change Partnership is working with community groups, young people and businesses to ensure that together we reduce carbon by 50 per cent until 2025 keeping on track to become a zero carbon city by 2038 at the latest.
The report found that the city has achieved an overall reduction in carbon emissions of 40 per cent between 2005 and 2019, which is in line with meeting the 41 per cent target in 2021. There are areas needed for continual improvement, particularly in how we heat our homes, ground transport and aviation where progress is being made to reduce carbon
STAFF at Bewdley Museum are just days away from launching a major new art exhibition of national significance. For the first time ever the museum will be displaying works from national collections to tell the story of The Macdonald Sisters. The exhibition opens on Monday 17 May, celebrating the four sisters Alice, Georgiana, Agnes and Louisa Macdonald. Born into an unremarkable Victorian family, they went on to forge connections with some of the most celebrated artists and thinkers of their time including William Morris, Ford Maddox Brown and John Ruskin. Alice was mother to Rudyard Kipling; Georgiana married the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones; Louisa was the mother of Bewdley’s own three-time prime Minister Stanley Baldwin; and Agnes married Edward Poynter, artist and President of the Royal Academy.
The courtyard at The Story Museum The museum will be reopening with limited ticket numbers, and social distancing in place at all events and exhibitions. As Covid-19 restrictions are further eased, more tickets will be released to allow the museum to welcome visitors in greater numbers. Time for Bed story sessions at the museum Picture: Andrew Walmsley The museum’s £6m campaign to transform the site into a major new centre for stories has welcomed a number of significant grants, including support from Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Wolfson Foundation, the Foyle Foundation, with investment from the Arts Impact Fund through Nesta Arts & Culture Finance and donations from generous individuals.
The coir logs and stone, brought to site by helicopter, are being used to block erosion channels. Brash – a mixture of cut heather, cotton grass and other peatland plants – is being spread over bare areas of peat to re-seed it and protect it from eroding further. Much precious peat has been washed off the moor in recent decades. On parts of Fleet Moss, channels four metres deep have appeared. This means four thousand years of history have in effect been swept away, as peat is formed by sphagnum mosses at a rate of one metre depth every thousand years. Work on the ground has now been paused for the ground nesting bird season but it will begin again in July, before the three-year project comes to an end in December.