A RARE and threatened wildlife habitat near Ely has received a lifeline. The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough has been awarded a �9,760 grant for its Chettisham Meadow Forever project. This will fund conse

A RARE and threatened wildlife habitat near Ely has received a lifeline.

The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough has been awarded a �9,760 grant for its Chettisham Meadow Forever project. This will fund conservation management for the next three years at the Meadow. This programme of management will be informed and assessed by ongoing surveying and monitoring, including National Vegetation Classification (NVC) surveys. This will ensure that this historical site remains a beautiful and wildlife-rich feature of the local landscape for generations to come.

The grant was awarded by Donarbon Limited under the Landfill Communities Fund. It follows a successful local appeal by the Wildlife Trust in October last year to purchase the meadow. Members of the public donated more than �12,000. Together with donations of �5,000 from The Wakefield Charitable Trust, �2,000 from The Alan Evans Memorial Trust and �1,000 from the Ely Community Unit Trust, this allowed the Wildlife Trust to buy the meadow late last year.

The award from Donarbon will now enable the Wildlife Trust to restore and conserve Chettisham Meadow for a huge variety of wildlife, from the green-winged orchid to the barn owl.

Last Sunday, the Wildlife Trust welcomed Jane Darlington of the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation, which administers Donarbon's Landfill Communities Fund, to the meadow. She was joined there by some of the local people who had donated to the appeal. Everyone enjoyed the sunlit spectacle of thousands of buttercups, green-winged orchids and a host of other flowers.

Martin Baker, the Wildlife Trust's Conservation Manager for Cambridgeshire said: "Almost all of Britain's meadowland has been lost in less than 100 years, and we must protect the few meadows and pastures that remain. The Chettisham Meadow Forever project is a great example of how the Wildlife Trust - working in partnership with local people, businesses and funders - can achieve so much for our precious local habitats and wildlife, to the benefit of us all."

Wildlife Trust staff will be supported in this management work by local volunteers, who will be given the opportunity to get involved on the ground and learn more about meadow conservation while also gaining a vitally important sense of ownership over their own local nature reserve. If you would like to volunteer, please contact the Trust via its website at: www.wildlifebcnp.org

Pic cap: Some of the donors to the appeal admiring the thousands of buttercups at Chettisham Meadow.

Photo: SUPPLIED