Cornwall Wildlife Trust awarded £265k grant

Helman Tor is the Cornwall Wildlife Trust's largest nature reserve

A project aiming to restore land and marine habitats in mid Cornwall has been granted £265,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

It would fund Cornwall Wildlife Trust's new project named Tor to Shore which was focusing on rewilding and conservation, the trust said.

The trust added that, if the scheme was successful, it could lead to more than £3m of further funding.

Trust chief executive Matt Walpole said staff were "thrilled" at the funding and it was working show how such projects could "create bigger, better, more connected landscapes and seascapes" which could be "transformative for nature recovery."

Tor to Shore builds on work carried out by trust over the past 18 months, staff said.

Helman Tor, the trust’s largest nature reserve, historically has been managed by what it called "human-led" conservation activities.

However, the trust said it had started rewilding the reserve over the past 12 months.

Tamworth pigs and English Longhorn cattle now roam and graze amongst wet woodland and heathland, and two beavers arrived at the site in February.

Staff said the charity was planning on applying for a wild release licence for beavers at Helman Tor.

St Austell Bay is home to extensive maerl beds

The Tor to Shore project also covers St Austell Bay, which is home to one of the UK’s largest subtidal seagrass beds and extensive maerl beds.

The trust said protecting maerl - a hard, calcified seaweed that forms over long periods of time - was a priority, particularly since it has been classified as an “irreplaceable habitat” by Natural England.

"We look forward to working with the team to progress their plans to apply for a full grant at a later date," said a spokesperson at the National Lottery Heritage Fund.