New 44-acre nature reserve for former dairy farm

The site is a former dairy farm

A wildlife charity is planning to buy a former dairy farm and allow it to be taken over by nature.

The 44-acre Ebdon Farm near Wick St Lawrence, North Somerset, will be bought by the Avon Wildlife Trust within two years.

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation charity has purchased the farm and has given the Trust two years to raise the funds to buy it.

Biodiversity surveys have started and the site will eventually be only lightly managed to make it as natural as possible, the trust has said.

Shelly Easton, Head of Nature's Recovery at Avon Wildlife Trust said the site is on low-lying land that is difficult to farm so it needed "intensive interventions as a dairy farm which left little room for nature".

She added: "We plan to create a new climate resilient nature reserve which can help tackle the climate and ecological crises, promoting natural processes and healthy ecological functions.

"The land also sits around two kilometres from the coast, making it the ideal location for the Severn estuary's wading birds and wildfowl to roost when the tide is high."

Shelly Easton's team wants to give the farm back to nature

Peter Lord CBE, co-founder of Aardman Animations in Bristol, has also been a major donor to the project, says the Trust.

"I had a delightful visit to Ebdon Farm and this project is a wonderful and inspiring one," he said.

"I admire the team's knowledge and enthusiasm for the site, and I can't wait to see nature return and thrive here."

The Trust is conducting biodiversity surveys

The current phase of the site survey involves setting down rectangles of dark matting at the edge of some of the fields to assess the local reptile population.

"We'll put them out and leave them for a few days," said Jenny Greenwood, the charity's monitoring and mapping manager.

"Then we'll come out and check on them and hopefully the reptiles will then come to us!"