A brand new National Trust has just opened. Sandilands was a six-year project, involving planning, consultation and habit creation, turning a once-abandoned golf course into a 30-hectare nature reserve.
The space, equivalent in size to roughly 42 football pitches, is now a gigantic wetland project, offering new habitats to birds including lapwing, snipe, terns and gulls. It will also offer an important stopover point for migratory species such as black-tailed godwit, spotted redshank and spoonbill.
This new site will sit directly within the existing Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park. It forms part of the East Coast Flyway, one of Europe’s key migration routes. Thousands of birds travelling along the UK’s east cost between the Arctic and northern European breeding grounds.
For this transformation, £2 million was donated by the Mablethorpe Towns Fund investment through Connected Coast, along with £1.5 million from National Highways and £200,000 from the UK Government Shared Prosperity Fund.
“Even before the project was officially complete, nature had begun to return. This year avocets and oystercatchers successfully nested and bred, while little ringed plover chicks were recorded on site for a second consecutive year,” said Katie Scott Area Ranger for the National Trust at Sandilands.”
“Many of the species we'll see at Sandilands are endangered or rare (having a red or amber conservation status), travelling thousands of miles on their extraordinary migrations, and depend on places like this to rest, feed and breed. Creating this new area of wetland to form a part of the Coastal Park will further extend the safe refuges for these birds to recharge and refuel each year, ensuring they can survive and thrive.”
The project’s expansion of the Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park adds to an already impressive 3500 hectare park. Together the network of habitats including beaches, dunes, grazing marshes, salt marshes, coastal lagoons and reed beds, provide important refuge for wildlife in the face of climate and environmental pressures.
To turn the golf course into this key extension of the park, roughly 52,000 cubic metres of earth were moved. That is enough to fill 21 Olympic swimming pools, or Big Ben’s Elizabeth Tower 11 times over.
A hub for a variety of wildlife
The National Trust has spread more than 35,000 native coastal shrubs including sea buckthorn, gorse, goats willow and blackthorn.
“We were very mindful of bird breeding patterns and migratory cycles so the work to transform this special area of coast was very ‘stop-start’ to avoid any disturbance during their vital nesting season,” said Nicola Craven, Coast and Countryside Manager for the Lincolnshire coast at the National Trust.
“We have also faced various challenges over the past couple of years due to the various droughts and record-breaking heat. However, now the work is complete we look forward to the wetlands really starting to transform over the winter period.”
Along with its role as a nature centre, this will also act as a park, with new boardwalks, footpaths and visitor facilities for people to explore.
