The Greensand Trust has been awarded a UK Shared Prosperity Fund grant to work with an artist to raise awareness of Greensand Country’s woodland and what is threatening them.

One of the most distinctive features of Bedfordshire's Greensand Country is woodland, with many ancient woodlands dotted across the Greensand Ridge. Greensand Country contains half of the county's woodland. These woodlands are under threat from deer who eat young trees and woodland plants such bluebells. They prevent a thick understory from growing which means some songbirds are losing suitable nesting sites.

Once upon a time there were only roe and red deer in the UK. A hundred years ago, there were only a few deer in the countryside but now roe and red have been joined by sika, fallow, muntjac and Chinese water deer and they number in the millions. Wolves, lynx and bears disappeared a long time ago so there is nothing eating the deer to keep the numbers down. People need to step in to address the imbalance.

The project will work with Rachael Presky, an artist and illustrator based in Leighton Buzzard who will create an information piece on Greensand Country’s threatened woodlands. Rachael commented: 

This is an interesting and challenging commission to work on. Using illustration and animation to get across nuanced messages around how woodlands are managed in Greensand Country will hopefully open up the subject to new audiences.  

Project Manager Daniel Bowles added:

We are delighted to be working with Rachael Presky on this project. Her artistic input will be a completely new way of how we approach the subject and the creative outputs will be a great resource for The Greensand Trust and Greensand Country Landscape Partnership in the future. 

This project has received £7,427 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The fund is administered by the Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation on behalf of Central Bedfordshire Council. 

  

Notes:

• The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. It is positioned as the UK replacement of the European Structural and Investment Programme (ESIF).
• The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus