Wednesday 27 June 2012

Volunteering at Prestwick Carr with Carillion and the Northumberland Wildlife Trust

A couple of Fridays ago I popped in to Prestwick Carr, which is just east of Ponteland to see the work being done by the Northumberland Wildlife Trust, in partnership with Carillion, whose staff all gave up a day to help out. Prestwick Carr is a key wildlife and natural site, which forms part of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Living Landscape project. The plan is to crerate a series of dams to the various waterways that exist on the project to help retain carbon, and keep the site in perfect condition.

As can be seen from the pictures the team from Carillion got very wet but were clearly really enthusastic about helping their local environment. For my part, I was really pleased to see companies like Carillion getting involved in their local community. This site matters particularly as the dams that were being put in reduce the potential for flash flooding and improving Prestwick Carr's water storage facility. This is crucial to the people of Ponteland, because the water that drains off Prestwick Carr will affect the levels in the River Pont, and any flood concerns in the town. Rewetting the site also creates a valuable carbon store helping to reduce the level of CO2 in the atmosphere and improves the site for wildlife. My thanks to everyone who got involved, and full credit to the Northumberland Wildlife Trust who are doing a great job.