The Urban Birder Swoops into the Land Trusts green spaces

National land management charity the Land Trust has welcomed renowned naturalist David Lindo to a whirlwind tour of its parks and green spaces: shining a spotlight on how brownfield land can be transformed into inspiring, thriving nature havens.

With the Land Trust’s track record of transforming brownfield land and green infrastructure into green open spaces, such as parks and natures reserves to benefit local people and wildlife, David was keen to see first-hand the results of these transformations into thriving natural open spaces.

David Lindo, known as The Urban Birder is a broadcaster, writer, naturalist and public speaker among other talents. He led this year’s National Bird Campaign and has a clear passion for engaging people with wildlife, particularly in urban areas.

This led the Land Trust and Lindo to identify common ground in their missions and to find out more over the course of a two-day tour of green spaces in Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

Ian Kendall, Estates Manager from the Land Trust took David to a selection of its parks, including Rabbit Ings Country Park, Frickley Country Trails, Phoenix Park and Kiveton Community Woodland in South Yorkshire and Avenue Washlands Nature Reserve in Derbyshire, to showcase these former collieries and coke works sites, which are now natural green spaces, enjoyed by local people and home to a large variety of wildlife.

David particularly enjoyed meeting the rangers and was impressed with the level of commitment by the Land Trust, the rangers and volunteers in creating and maintaining these important sites. He said: “My site visits with the Land Trust were truly an eye opener. I saw some amazing birds but more than that, I saw great examples of land that had been reclaimed for the local community and made into urban wildlife oases.

The Land Trust’s long term vision is to improve the quality of people’s lives by creating, improving and maintaining sustainable, high quality green spaces that deliver environmental, social and economic benefits.

Ian Kendall said: “An important part of our work is to engage people with nature and having spent time with David exploring our sites, it is clear that there is a synergy with both our and David’s goals. We are looking forward to building on this experience and working more closely with David in the future.”

Urban Birder, David Lindo at the Avenue Washlands

Urban Birder David Lindo at Land Trust site Kiverton