Wildwood Trust: Time is running out to double your donation for the pine marten!

Double your donation, double the impact!

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You CAN help bring the pine marten back from the brink of extinction!

But time is running out fast!

With less than two days to go until the Big Give Christmas Challenge deadline, time is running out fast to unlock the vital funds we need to give the pine marten the best possible chance of survival in the future. Please donate today to DOUBLE YOUR DONATION and help us do everything we can to give the pine marten a future in Britain.

Double your donation

Wildwood Trust are aiming to raise a total of £10,000 towards our pine marten captive breeding programme, with £5,000 of that target being raised through the Big Give Christmas Challenge. Can you help us unlock the match funds available by making a donation today?

Donate today and help save the pine marten!

Wildwood is very proud of our achievements to date in pine marten conservation, but we urgently need your help to replace Wildwood's facilities for breeding them. The existing breeding enclosures have become severely degraded over time and are desperately in need of a complete rebuild to ensure we can continue this vital work.

Double your donation

Your donation will not only help us to rebuild the enclosures, giving us the opportunity to build on our current knowledge and ensure a continued successful breeding programme. We will also refine the tunnel system and build a range of specially designed nesting boxes which will encourage them to breed.

A camera system will be installed within the tunnels and nest boxes, giving us the unique opportunity of monitoring the pine marten breeding 24 hours a day without causing them any undue, unnecessary stress or disturbance. Our aspiration is to include a research area within the new enclosures to allow ongoing research into the diet of pine marten enabling us to share this information with other conservation organisations in the future.

Double your donation

We will source and introduce new pine martens to those already at Wildwood. A widely varied gene pool is essential to ensure successful breeding of healthy pine marten in captivity and this will make a huge difference to help the pine marten recover their numbers in the long term. Importing new animals can be a very expensive process with high transportation costs and vets bills, so your donation really will help us to do so much more.

The pine martens' recovery in the UK could help to restore the country's natural balance, as with all native species, the pine marten play an important role in the ecosystem. They disperse seeds, lower the risk of diseases by removing carrion and studies have shown that they could also provide a natural way of reducing grey squirrel numbers, which in turn can help red squirrels to re-establish their populations too.

In some areas where pine marten numbers are recovering their former range, grey squirrel numbers have been decreasing, which in turn is allowing recolonisation of woodland by red squirrels. Studies have found that by reintroducing the pine martens, this could provide a natural way of reducing grey squirrel numbers.

It is understood that red squirrels are small and light enough to scamper to the ends of branches out of reach of hungry pine martens, but the heavier greys are slower and spend more time foraging on the woodland floor, where they are easy prey, this means by helping save the pine martens, we will also be helping the red squirrels to re-establish their populations too.

Double your donation

All donations must be processed through the Big Give website to unlock the match funds available, but if you're unable to make a donation online, please call 01227 712111 and we will be happy to help. Alternatively, you can make a donation when you visit the park or post a cheque, but these donations will not be doubled.

Thank you in advance for your continued support and please don't hesitate to email us if you have any questions relating to this appeal.