Ways to give;
- Via our GoFundMe page to donate to the New Hide fund
- Leave LWT a gift in your Will – more information here.
- Reading Community Lottery Each ticket enters a weekly draw for cash prizes up to £25,000 and a monthly superdraw (no extra purchase) for a special prize which varies, previous prises include; holidays, vouchers, fruit & veg for a year.
- Bank transfer to: Lavells Wetland Trust, HSBC, Newcastle/Tyne City Branch, 110 Grey Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 6JG, Sort code: 40-34-18; account number: 64675509 (please add the reference “Your name LWT”)
- Send a cheque to The Treasurer, Lavells Wetland Trust, c/o Dinton Pastures Countryside Service, Davis Street, Hurst, Reading, RG10 0TH
Why we need Donations and Gifts
LWT is a charity managed entirely by volunteers, run on annual subscriptions and receives no funding from the borough council and the majority of the conservation work is done across Sandford and Lavell’s via volunteer work parties in cooperation and permission with Dinton Pastures Countryside Service. whose resources are not guaranteed in the future, meaning we need funds to buy and maintenance our own tools.
As the new owners of Lea Farm Lake (LFL) we are in the process of fencing the whole perimeter, so we can look at cattle grazing from 2022 as part our full scale management plan of the new wetland habitats funded by Network Rail. On top if this, we carry out a multitude of other tasks over a typical year, these include:
- year-round feeding for tits, finches and other birds
- cutting and managing Phragmites reed-beds
- maintenance and repair of hides, paths and fences
- maintaining Sand Martin wall
- maintaining Tern rafts
- cutting back vegetation to keep attracting wildfowl and waders
- scrub and tree management and planting new shrubs
A vision for our wetland habitats
We do apply for grant funding from time to time, we were successful in applying to Thames Water in 2017 for a habitat improvement project carried out over a year. We received £15,250 to improve Lavell’s Tern scrape, excavate new reed beds, create a wet grass meadow and install new fencing, viewing screens and a solar powered irrigation pump for the scrape – the first of its kind in Berkshire. In summer 2020 used the grant from Network Rail for £42,200 to provide large new Phragmites reed beds and extensive marshlands around the NE bay and East Shore of Lea Farm Lake. After this LWT must bear the cost of future maintenance.
State of the art new hide
We are now well underway with our fund raising so that we can build another fantastic, subscription hide overlooking the brilliant new habitats at LFL, where we’ve created islets and islands to attract breeding Little-ringed Plover, Redshank, Lapwing and Oystercatcher, along with many passage species and many more wintering dabbling and grazing ducks like Teal and Wigeon, over 200 Snipe and annual Jack Snipe.
We think the hide is going to cost around of £28,000, of which we have £23,000 so far, the rest needs to be funded by donations and if you can help, please visit our GoFundMe now.
The dreams
We have other dreams too – our own parking, extending our conservation land further along the Loddon Valley, a visitor centre perhaps.
The road to fulfilling these will have many challenges. By his gift of Lea Farm Lake to us, Ron Bryant showed that all we need to do is tell people about our dreams and those that want to share them will step forward. Be part of Berkshire’s best wetland nature reserve and talk to us about any ideas you have to fund raise info@lavells.org.uk