NEWT (registered charity 1132465) has seven trustees with wide experience of managing nature reserves, and now owns six acres of land at Moorend Spout, purchased in December 2009 with financial assistance from YANSEC. Additional funding was provided by Nailsea Town Council, North Somerset Council and the Bristol Naturalists’ Society. In restoring the biodiversity of this site we receive advice from statutory bodies, including Nailsea Town Council, North Somerset Council, Natural England, The Environment Agency, Internal Drainage Board and Avon Wildlife Trust, and we have over 25 volunteers to help us with this work.
NEWT aims to restore and maintain the wildlife potential and biodiversity of the land at Moorend Spout that it owns. The site is close to both Tickenham and Nailsea, and it is traversed by a well-used public footpath linking the two communities. We have upgraded this footpath by the installation of a boardwalk, enabling access to the site when the ground is very wet. We aim to manage Moorend Spout also for the education and enjoyment of the local community, and we hold yearly Open Days, usually in June, to showcase the reserve's attractions and the work which we do.
We aim to manage the land to transform it from a featureless grazing meadow to a thriving wildlife habitat, and to greatly increase the populations of wildflowers and pollinating insects (which are in huge national decline). The ponds and waterways are known to support a number of Otters and we hope that Water Voles may be encouraged to return to the site.
Two new ponds have been dug in the meadow and are being managed to encourage native flora and fauna, by providing new habitats in both ponds and the wet areas that now surround these. The ponds are fed via syphon from the Land Yeo at the top end of the site. One of the ponds includes a dipping platform.
The site will become an amenity for the community, providing access to the countryside within easy walking distance of Tickenham and Nailsea. It will be used for educational and recreational purposes, and interpretation boards are provided to demonstrate the local wildlife.