The nature charity is asking for the public’s help to urgently raise the remaining £1m of the £2.5m asking price needed to transform land near Lympstone, close to the Exe Estuary in Devon, with a mixture of planting and letting trees and shrubs grow back naturally.
Areas will also be left as open ground with wood pasture and grassland and it is hoped the project will create conditions for a range of species to colonise, including rare nightjars, threatened bats, hazel dormice (pictured above) and dingy skipper butterflies.
The 54-hectare (134-acre) site could even attract beavers from the nearby River Otter population once streams and waterways have been restored and colonised with native alder, willow and other trees, the charity said.
The area is currently made up of farmland and small pockets of existing broadleaf woodland and bluebells, as well as several streams and old individual trees.
The Woodland Trust says volunteers and local people will be...