Saltersford Farm Appeal

Saltersford Farm Appeal

£74,305 of £67,000 goal

Thanks to our generous supporters, we raised the £67,000 needed to secure the 50-acre plot of land at Saltersford Farm, near Holmes Chapel.  We are so grateful for everybody’s donations and incredible support.  

We’re just at the beginning of many years of work to bring wildlife back to this intensively- farmed landscape. We want to create wildflower meadows, plant trees and create wetland areas here. However it will take time and money.

The total cost of buying the land is £467,000.  In the next two years, we need to pay back the £400,000 loan we received from a charitable trust to help us buy the land.

We also need to raise the funds to deliver our ambitious restoration plans. Over the next five years, we expect it will cost around £200,000 to create and manage new habitats here – that’s £40,000 each year.

We are looking at several different ways to raise the money but we still need your help.  To help bring wildlife back to Saltersford Farm, please donate today.

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Our plans

Imagine a wildlife-rich meadow, the scent of wildflowers perfuming the hazy air where butterflies drift by day and owls quarter by night. A pristine river winds its way through the landscape, home to jewel-coloured dragonflies and even the flash of a kingfisher. We can make this a reality in the Dane Valley.

Although there are already a few small patches of trees here, they are isolated. Our plan is to join them up to create homes for woodland wildlife like tawny owls and other woodland birds.

We also want to dig new ponds within wetland areas that will attract curlew and lapwings.   New species-rich grassland will provide homes to a variety of bees, butterflies and other insects as well as small mammals and birds.

Saltersford Farm is less than one mile from our Swettenham Valley Nature Reserve so buying this land will help create a corridor for plants and animals to move freely through the valley.  

Let's bring wildlife back.

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Our plans for Saltersford Farm.

Bring wildlife back to the Dane Valley

trees

Donate £18

£18 could plant a native tree
Common blue butterfly

Donate £34

£34 could harvest local wildflower seed to create species-rich meadow
Meadow restoring c. Claire Huxley

Donate £150

£150 could pay for a Living Landscape Officer for a day to manage the new nature reserve

Bring wildlife back to Saltersford Farm

£

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What will it cost?

It cost £467,000 to buy this land. In 2021, we secured a loan of £400,000 from a charitable trust and we need to raise the funds to pay this loan back within two years. Over the first five years, it will cost an estimated £200,000 to create and manage new woodland, wetland and meadow on the site.

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Our plans

We will create a network of wildlife-rich wildflower meadows and woodlands, intersected by ponds and scrapes, the shallow depressions so vital to vulnerable nesting wading birds such as curlew and lapwing. We will do this over five years, using the latest habitat creation techniques.

Local wildflower seed from our established Pollinating Cheshire meadows throughout the valley will help native species flourish. All trees will be from the North West to maintain local genetics and we’ll plant them mimicking natural woodland regeneration.

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slatersford plans

What species will benefit?

The result will be a flagship nature reserve that supports locally extinct and extremely threatened plants and animals.

- The native trees, as well as storing more carbon, will eventually provide homes and hunting grounds for spectacular species such as tawny owls.

- Improvements to the watercourse will benefit animals such as the critically endangered eel, as well as those that use it for food, such as dynamic dippers and kingfishers.

- 14 of the 57 resident UK butterfly species are found nearby at Swettenham Valley Nature Reserve, including the common blue and small copper. The new meadows will provide more food and shelter for these and other precious grassland species.

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What will my donation be used for?

Now that we’ve secured the land, donations will be used to fund the restoration and management of the land at Saltersford Farm.  Over the next two years, we will also need to work with other partners and supporters to raise the additional funds needed to repay the loan to the charitable trust.

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What's the land like now?

It has been farmed for maize and silage. With the exception of a small area of woodland, it’s of little benefit to wildlife. Years of ploughing and fertilising have eroded the soil and sent harmful chemical and nutrients into the River Dane.

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saltersford farm now

How does this fit into our wider work?

30 by 30 logo

To help combat the nature and climate crises, we’re working hard with others across the region to see 30% of land and sea managed for nature by 2030.  The purchase of this land and planned habitat creation takes us one step closer to this goal.

This 50-acre plot of land sits within the Dane Valley less than a mile from our Swettenham Valley Nature Reserve.  Creating and managing a wildlife haven here will strengthen Cheshire’s nature recovery network.  New habitat at Saltersford Farm will encourage missing wildlife to return and will provide more space for many of our threatened and vulnerable species.

This purchase will be the first of many habitat creation projects across the valley and beyond. Acquiring places devoid of wildlife and restoring them to nature is a key objective in our plan to manage 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.

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