Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust wins £10,000 Movement for Good award

Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust has won a £10,000 Movement for Good award from Ecclesiastical Insurance Group.

Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust is one of 30 charities chosen by a panel of judges to receive £10,000 as part of specialist insurer Ecclesiastical’s Movement for Good awards, which is giving £1million to good causes this year.

The grant will fund natural flood management (NFM) works in the Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trusts’ Grenoside Woods nature reserve, an extensive site of ancient woodland occupying high ground north of Sheffield. NFM is a method of reducing the danger of flooding in times of heavy rainfall, an increasing risk of climate change. Heavy rain can overwhelm the streams which normally carry away excess water, causing flooding to occur lower down in the valleys.

A series of occasional ponds will be dug which will store excess water in times of heavy rain until the natural water system is able to cope with it. Leaky dams built into the watercourses will hold back excess rainwater and release it more gradually into the streams to prevent them from becoming overwhelmed. NFM is 100% natural, more effective than more intrusive modern methods of flood mitigation and will potentially benefit everyone who lives and works in the valley below.

Wildlife will benefit too. The ponds and dams will provide habitats for amphibians: frogs, toads and newts, and woodland ponds help insect populations to thrive, thus providing food for the abundant bird and bat populations of Greno Woods.

The awards are designed to help charities make a real difference in their communities. More than 1,000 charities applied for the funding and the winning projects were selected against four criteria: impact and effectiveness, sustainability, innovation, and care and compassion.

The funding will support the Greno Woods natural flood management works over the next three years.

Chris Grice, Fundraising Officer for Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust said,

“Thank you to the Movement for Good award fr