The Archdeacon of Auckland, the Venerable Rick Simpson was delighted to be invited to officially open a new nature reserve in our Diocese earlier this week.
Three hundred years ago, the Durham Carrs were an area of rich wetland. Stretching from Darlington in the south to the Trimdons in the north, and including towns and villages such as Newton Aycliffe, Bishop Middleham, Sedgefield and Fishburn, the catchment area of the River Skerne would have been home to a wide variety of wildlife including wildfowls, otters, egrets and cranes.
Unfortunately, by the 1970s, the Skerne was identified as Europe’s 7th most polluted river thanks to the disposal of agricultural, mining and industrial waste. As a result, much of the wildlife in the area disappeared.
With £3.5m of funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Durham Wildlife Trust have an ambitious plan to ‘restore, reveal and celebrate life around the River Skerne’ through the ‘Discover Brightwater’ project.
Bishop’s Fen, a 20 hectare site south of Bishop Middleham and east of Newton Aycliffe, is the first phase of their Great North Fen vision. Preserving the site for nature recovery, Durham Wildlife Trust seek to restore wetland and river habitats and hope their work will support the return of a variety of wildlife to the area. It is encouraging to see that steps taken to improve water quality are already yielding promising results, with otter and trout already starting to return to the Skerne.
The Wildlife Trust also plan to combat climate change by sequestering carbon and hope natural flood management principles will provide a long-term sustainable solution.
‘Caring for God’s Creation’ is one of Durham Diocese’s current priorities and thus, the Archdeacon of Auckland, the Venerable Rick Simpson was delighted to be invited to officially open and bless Bishop’s Fen.
Rick, a keen birdwatcher himself, described it as an honour to launch the project. He prayed for the continued work before cutting a willow branch to symbolise the opening of the nature reserve.
He said: “The opening of a new Wildlife Trust nature reserve and a project on the scale of the Great North Fen is so exciting.
“We’re trying to encourage our church communities and schools to understand better our impact on the environment and learn to live in more environmentally-friendly and sustainable ways.”