Grants News: Our Latest Grants

Sharing some of the uplifting nature restoration projects that DEF has enabled in recent months…

Q4 2024 GRANTS

Washfield Wetland – £18,250

Supporting the start-up costs of the ambitious new wetland site – a collaboration of local farmers and landowners creating a haven for wildlife in Mid Devon, to increase local biodiversity whilst improving river water quality, reducing soil run-off, and reducing flooding at key sites downstream in Tiverton.

Harvest Mouse – £14,000 over 2 years

Building on DEF’s support in 2023-24 season, DEF has committed to a further 2 years of funding for this impotant project. Harvest mice are a national conservation priority species and priority species for the Devon Local Nature Recovery Strategy. This well established, highly regarded project has trialled innovative ways of surveying for harvest mice while working with volunteers and landowners to raise awareness of their habitat requirements.

Devon Ospreys – £10,000

Aiming to return a nesting osprey population to Devon after a 200-year absence by constructing artificial nest platforms in suitable locations across Devon. While re-establishing ospreys to their historical range the project will engage with local communities, landowners, and other stakeholders to raise awareness and gain support.

Swift Boxes – £5,000 initially

A second year of funding for the Devon Birds Swift Boxes project which aims to address the drastic decline in Devon’s swift population numbers over the last 25 years by installing nest boxes and audio lures into village church towers to attract breeding pairs and kickstart new colonies. Our goal is to use the intial £5,000 grant to kickstart a Crowdfunder in early 2025 to be able to award a total of £10,000 to this project.

Biochar Crusher – £5,000

Flete Field Lab uses biochar made from local woodland management waste to ehance soil quality, reduce run-off, and sequester carbon. However, biochar needs to be the right size to be incorporated properly and benefit the soil. There is currently no appropriate mid-scale biochar crusher technology in the UK so FFL will prototype an affordable biochar crusher to benefit their neighbouring farmers and once the model is working, it can be replicated to enable more farmers across Devon and the UK to add nutrients to their soil from locally produced biochar.

A huge thank you to everyone who has generously donated to make these grants possible.

We are currently fundraising for our 2025 Q1 grants round which is shaping up to be our biggest grants round yet!

We appreciate any support you may like to give to enable us to support more vital nature restoration projects through 2025, your support will make a tangible difference to nature on the ground.

 

Images courtesy of Devon Mammal Group, Devon Birds, Flete Field Lab and the Devon Osprey Partnership.