A CRAVEN based charity that helps people with a range of mental health and social issues by carrying out meaningful tasks in the outdoors and in farming has been busy creating a new wildlife corridor along the banks of a beck near Austwick.

The Bee More Project has also secured a new home site in the Yorkshire Dales National Park after losing its previous home, at Tarn Moor, on the outskirts of Skipton, last year.

Over five days in March, a small group of project beneficiaries, including people with mental ill health, with learning difficulties, and the long term unemployed, created a new wildlife corridor and habitat along the banks of Wharfe Beck between Austwick and Wharfe.

The planting had been made possible thanks to the donation of more than 400 saplings of native broadleaved trees from the Woodland Trust, and also funding from the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust Roger Stott Fund, the Craven Trust, the Greggs Foundation and the Police Mutual.

The group planted the small new wood and a 180 metre long hedge, all of which will continue to be maintained by the Bee More Project as one of its meaningful activities in which people will benefit for many years to come.

Simon Croker, project manager and Bee More charity trustee, said it had been a successful five days which had benefitted not only those doing the work, but also the countryside, for both residents and visitors.

“Those involved in the planting reported a sense of improved wellbeing while learning new skills. They also made new friends and said they wished to join future opportunities provided by the project during the current season,” he said.

The charity grew out of a project set up by bee keepers on land behind the Craven Heifer Pub, Grassington Road. It was taken over by the Bee More Project in 2015 and grew, developing partnerships within social care farming. Last year, it was told by landowners, the Tarn Moor Trust that its tenancy was not going to be renewed, and it left the site at the end of October.

But, at the start of this month, the project has now secured a new site near Threshfield.

Mr Croker said the just under an acre of land needed a lot of tidying up, but had great potential. “There is a lot of strimming to be done and rebuilding of walls, but that is all part of the project,” he said. “We also intend over the coming season to develop it for small scale livestock rearing, habitat creation, dry stone walling, fruit and vegetable growing, as well as a new home base.”

There is also a possibility that the project will team up with the Grassington Hub and develop a ‘Men in Sheds’ project. Men in Sheds, originally started in Australia in the 1990s, helps older men - and women - who may be suffering from social isolation get together by sharing skills.

A number of activity days, when people can drop in and learn more about the project, are planned for the summer. Meanwhile, anyone who would like to learn more, or get involved, either as a supporter, or project user, can contact Simon on 07850941465.

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