Funding announced for Dales house bird project

Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) is delighted to announce it has been awarded a significant National Lottery Heritage Fund grant to protect four species of our most loved house birds across the Dales.

The grant of £250,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, will enable YDMT to deliver the project ‘Building Homes for Dales House Birds’.

House Martins, House Sparrows, Starlings, and Swifts were once a common sight over UK towns and cities, but drastic declines in breeding populations mean they are now on the UK Red List, and have been lost completely from many areas.

Healthy populations of house nesting birds are still found in Yorkshire Dales settlements, where nooks and crannies in traditional buildings provide nest sites, and the surrounding landscape provides abundant food. The challenge is to ensure these populations remain, as more buildings are insulated and retrofitted to meet net zero goals, and the holes and gaps that once provided nesting sites are lost.

Working in partnership with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and RSPB, this three-year project will bring people together from communities in the Yorkshire Dales with healthy populations of house birds, to create suitable nest sites and enhance feeding areas, so they can continue to thrive.

Michael Devlin CEO of YDMT said: ‘’ We’re thrilled to have received this support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to protect these four iconic species, helping to ensure they remain a key part of the Yorkshire Dales landscape. We are really looking forward to working with our communities, the RSPB and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to help our wildlife.’’

At the heart of this ambitious nature recovery project will be people, not only those from local Dales communities, but also from underrepresented groups living in nearby cities and towns. Events, training and opportunities for longer-term volunteering will provide skills to drive the project forward, as well as a citizen science project to help to inform future conservation actions.

Member Champion for Natural Environment at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Mark Corner, said: “We’re fortunate that a lot of villages and towns in the National Park have good populations of house sparrows, starlings, house martins and swifts – and we want to help keep it that way. We are really looking forward to working with six local communities to help provide more nesting and feeding sites for these birds and to raise awareness about their importance for nature recovery in the National Park. These birds are part of our Nature Recovery Plan and they need our help; they are as integral a part of the National Park as curlew and lapwing.”

Hilary McGuire, RSPB conservation adviser, said: “We are delighted to be working with communities and partner organisations in the Yorkshire Dales to make a difference for these four red-listed species. These birds share our towns, homes and gardens, and we can improve their fortunes by providing nesting sites and managing our gardens and green spaces to attract a wide range of invertebrates which they feed on.  With support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund we are looking forward to encouraging more people to get involved in creating more spaces for local wildlife to thrive.”

Helen Featherstone, Director of England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Protecting and conserving the amazing natural heritage and wildlife in the North of England is a hugely important. It is thanks to National Lottery players that we are able to support the ‘Building Homes for Dales House Birds’ project from Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust. This project will connect people to these four species of birds and play an important role in preserving their populations across the Dales.”

Find out more about the Building Homes for Dales House Birds project at blog.ydmt.org.