Cumbria Wildlife Trust has been awarded £56,692 to create a seed bank for rare and threatened seeds.
The funding has been received from Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust and the Green Recovery Challenge Fund to build the seed bank at Gosling Sike and to purchase specialist equipment to collect, dry and store the seeds from sites around the county.
The seed bank will be the trust’s first to be linked with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew’s national Millennium Seed Bank and seed samples will be sent to the bank as part of their UK Threatened Flora Project, adding to their UK conservation collections.
Some seeds will also be stored on-site in Cumbria, to help restore nature-depleted sites.
Adam McGinley, horticulture manager at Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s northern base, Gosling Sike near Houghton, said: “We’re very grateful for this generous funding, which will enable us to do some very exciting work here in Cumbria, as well as nationally, to support nature’s recovery. Local people can also get involved! Volunteering opportunities will include seed collecting, processing (drying, cleaning and storing), cataloguing, growing and planting out.
“I recently went out to Whitbarrow, one of Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves, with one of our volunteers and was excited to collect the seeds of the hoary rock-rose, a nationally scare plant and the first on a list of 10 rare species from Kew’s priority list. Staff from Kew are providing us with scientific advice, technical services and training to enable us to set up our seed bank here in Cumbria.
“Kew is keen to support local seed conservation facilities to increase the availability of a diverse range of high quality, UK native-origin seed for research and conservation activities. Thanks to this grant, we’re now able to set up one of these specialist hubs here at Gosling Sike, to increase both the quality and quantity of seeds that we collect.”
“Some seeds will also be grown on-site in the Gosling Sike nursery, to be planted out to improve and protect the environment in Cumbria. This will make public spaces, nature reserves and roadside verges much richer in biodiversity. These plants will be grown in polytunnels, thanks to the funding.”
Talking about why it is important to save rare and threatened plants, Adam said: “Over the last 75 years across England we’ve lost 97 per cent of our flower-rich meadows, 50 per cent of our hedgerows, and 60 per cent of flowering plants are in decline. And stats show that losses in Cumbria reflect this national picture.
“To combat this, we’ll work with local communities, landowners and partners to act for nature’s recovery, by allowing people to be involved in our seed collection, growing activities and supporting habitat restoration efforts across the county, through the supply of specialist and local plants.
“The growing of local plants and flowers is hugely important for nature restoration as it ensures the plants are better adapted to the local soil and climate. Increasing available habitat for wildlife is key for tackling the problem of biodiversity loss.”
Over the next 18 months Cumbria Wildlife Trust plans to deliver over 150 hectares of habitat restoration, including through locally-grown plants.
