AN area of great historical and ecological importance is to become the focus of a series of wide-ranging projects.

An area of land known as The Carrs, around the eastern edge of the Vale of Pickering, contains one of the earliest human settlements in the country.

The area includes Star Carr, which was home to Mesolithic settlers 8,500 years ago, who were dependent on the wetland area, which once spanned from Filey to Hambleton, for their food and water.

Now The Carrs play a valuable role in food production and flood protection for communities downstream and the peat soil locks carbon into the land.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, together with Scarborough Borough Council and the East Riding and North Yorkshire Waterways Partnership, has putting together a funding bid for a series of projects that should benefit residents and wildlife. If the bid is successful the projects will allow local communities to learn more about the area and actively get involved in developing ideas and improving the local landscape, heritage and biodiversity.

One of these projects will involve encouraging threatened wildlife such as lapwings, dragonflies and brown trout to re-colonise the area.

The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is asking people to take part in an online survey about their opinions of the area. The survey can be found on the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s website; http://www.ywt.org.uk/CarrsConsultation . Anyone unable to access the survey online can call project officer Harriet Linfoot on 01482-441013.