Ashby Castle Rotary Club Support Local Environmental Project

A number of members from Ashby Castle Rotary Club have visited the Leicestershire and Rutland Kelham Bridge nature reserve in Ravenstone in recent times. This has including a guided walk by the reserve officer and volunteers. It soon became clear that security was a problem for the reserve.

There was an ongoing project to safeguard biodiversity by helping to create areas where wildlife could live, breed and feed without human pressure. Metal gates were needed to provide this security by creating a safe area of protection and community connection. Members of the Ashby Castle Rotary Club Environment team believed that this was an important and worthwhile cause to support, particularly with its close proximity to Ashby.

The nature reserve may be relatively young, but it is already bursting with life. It is being taken back by nature with tranquil waters, opportunities for bird watching, including many birds of prey and an opportunity to spot some fantastic wildlife including many species of butterfly, dragonfly and rare mammals. 

To help the Trust achieve it’s aim of procuring some gates to help to protect the Reserve, Ashby Castle Rotary Club decided to support the project with a donation of £1000 towards the cost of the gates. Working alongside others making donations to top this figure up has meant that the project could go ahead and now the gates have been installed.

We were very pleased to attend the grand opening, together with representatives from the other donors and are delighted to see the plaque acknowledging the donation and support from Ashby Castle Rotary Club and others.