SDF has supported a wide range of projects that contribute to conserving and enhancing the rare and special wildlife of the National Park. A case study and some other recent examples feature below.
Squirrels get the X Factor
Red squirrels are settling into a new role as TV stars thanks to SDF funding. The Wensleydale Red Squirrel Group received a grant of £2,008 to set up a video camera that focuses on a squirrel feeder near a house in Appersett Ghyll that is owned by one of the Group's volunteers.The equipment records live video footage and sends it via the internet to a special 32” monitor in the free area of the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes. Visitors are able to watch footage of the squirrels feeding in their natural environment. National Park Rangers and Dales Volunteers helped with the installation and now supervise the project’s long-term management.
Other completed projects
- Species control days & promotional/educational/surveying materials Lune Rivers Trust (£8,000)
- Production costs - film about sites of special scientific interest in the National Park (£4,000)
- Rivers 2 U flood management awareness project, the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust (£5,000)
- Meadow Connections a 3 day festival celebrating hay meadows in Settle, 2017 (£4,960)
- Survey report to assess a 5 year reduction in livestock at Nethergill Farm, Buckden (£1,136)
- A heritage and nature conservation project in the graveyard at All Saints Church in Orton (£4,815)
- Installation of a Larinier fish pass for a community hydro scheme at Broad Raine, Killington (£16,000)
- First aid kit for injured raptors from the National Park led by Ryedale Wildlife Rehabilitation (£147)
- Surveys and monitoring of red squirrels by Garsdale Red Squirrel Group (£4,580)
- Improvements to existing paths, Embsay Nature Reserve (£975)
- Save our Swifts community project raising awareness of bird conservation in Sedbergh (£4,760)
- Installation of two beehives in the apiary at Hudswell Community Pub (£825)
And in the pipeline...
- Hand tools to deliver a 5 year programme of conservation activity days by volunteers at 12 Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves in the National Park (£1,913)
