Volunteers at Bere Marsh Farm in Dorset have made boxes for barn owls, which will be installed at Brays Farm in Surrey. Read more
Thanks to generous donations from the public, we've made 20 wildlife boxes for dormice for several of our Countryside Regeneration Trust properties. Read more
Christmas is a wonderful time of year for getting together with our loved ones and giving a present to those who are special to us. This Christmas, how about giving the socks and bathset a miss and choose something that will make a real difference and benefit us all.
This year, you can give the countryside a special gift too, by making a donation to one of our 12 appeals; choose something that is important to your friend, family or teammate to donate to and we will send you a gift certificate for them. From helping hedgehogs and dormice, to buying equipment to help our wonderful volunteers and conservationists to support wildlife on our farms.
And of course, you do not have to only donate for someone else, we would love you to donate for yourself too, choosing something that really appeals to you.
Throughout next year, we’ll share updates about the impact your donations have made.
Thank you for your support and Merry Christmas!
Endangered hazel dormice have lost so much woodland habitat in the UK that they struggle to find safe places to live and reproduce. We want to build specially designed boxes to place on our farms, which will provide shelter from predators and have a lid that allows us to monitor them. Your donation will help us to buy the materials for our volunteers to build these boxes. Read more
Volunteers are fundamental to the work we do at the CRT. They carry out vital conservation work such as planting trees and hedges, creating and maintaining ponds, clearing scrub and invasive species, and erecting nest boxes. We are thrilled that more people are joining our volunteering programme. Your donation will enable us to buy more equipment to aid their work, such as loppers and bow saws. Read more
Farmland birds struggle to find food in the colder months, when there are fewer natural sources of seeds and grains. Your donation will help us to buy supplementary bird seed on seven of our farms, helping some of the country’s most endangered bird species to get through the winter. Read more
Analysing soil health on our farms will provide vital evidence on the impact of our farming practices on this complex and hidden habitat, and allow us to measure soil carbon. In 2024 we want to implement a soil monitoring programme on at least five of our farms. Your donation will help fund the costs of soil sample analysis, enabling informed decision making on how best to manage our land. Read more
Hedgehogs are disappearing fast as they lose more and more suitable habitat, making it hard for them to create a safe home and to move around safely to find food. Your donation will enable us to buy the materials needed for our volunteers to build carefully designed hedgehog houses Read more
Bere Marsh Farm in Dorset is an important part of the local community, with an incredible volunteer team and many visitors walking through the farm on the Dorset Trailway. Your donation will help us to buy and install a defibrillator on the farm, which could make a life-saving difference if someone suffers a sudden cardiac emergency. Read more
Our pollinators are in crisis, but we can make a huge difference by restoring native wildflowers to the countryside. Wildlflower meadows are home to countless species of wild plants, butterflies, beetles and other buglife, but sadly this is now a very rare habitat in the UK. Your donation will help us to re-flower our farms and improve the plant diversity in our meadows. Read more
Bats play a vital part in our ecosystem and we’re incredibly lucky to have several species on our farms. Monitoring their numbers and wellbeing tells us a lot about the general health of the environment. With your help, we will buy 15 bat detectors to use on evening bat walks, giving both our monitoring team and farm visitors the chance to learn more about them. Read more
On Bere Marsh Farm in Dorset, our volunteers have created a ‘withy’ bed of willow trees. The willows’ branches will be harvested and used for weaving workshops on the farm. They’ll also be sold for craft activities and to thatchers for use in traditional roof construction. Your donation will help us to plant another 3,000 wands of willow, providing an income for the farm, a source of traditional material for the local community, and habitat for a wide range of wildlife. Read more
Moths are an important part of their ecosystem and are an indicator species, which means by monitoring them we can tell a lot about the health of the environment. But recording their presence can be difficult as they are nocturnal. Your donation will help us to buy a battery-powered moth trap containing a light that attracts the moths into a tube, where they are kept safe until the morning when they can be examined and safely released. Read more
Slow worms play an important role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem by feeding on pests and helping nutrient cycling and soil aeration. We are delighted to have this species on Bere Marsh Farm in Dorset and would like to monitor how they are faring in more detail. Your donation will help us to place 20 reptile refuges on the farm, which will provide slow worms with shelter from predators and make it easier for our trained reptile monitors to detect and record them. Read more
The Barn Owl Trust reports that around 75 per cent of known barn owl nests in the UK are now in boxes, because their natural nesting sites in agricultural buildings or holes in trees have become scarcer. A pair of barn owls used to nest on Brays Farm in Surrey, but after a drought a few years ago they haven’t bred on the farm since. Your donation will enable us to buy the materials for our volunteers to build nest boxes, which will hopefully encourage barn owls to breed on Brays Farm once again Read more