A NATIONAL park conservation trust is celebrating after being awarded £200,000 which will allow it continue with work to reintroduce woodlands and wildflowers, and to encourage more people to enjoy the great outdoors.

The Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) has confirmed the £200,000 payout from the People’s Postcode Lottery, which will allow the trust to develop new projects that support landscape, environment and communities in the Yorkshire Dales, as well as to continue long-running projects.

Sarah Pettifer from the trust said: “We are delighted with this new round of funding.

“We are currently developing new projects which are still in the pipeline but we can also continue with schemes such as the woodland restoration project and wildflower meadow scheme which have proved to be very successful.

“We have already planted 1.2m trees since 1997 as part of the project to re-introduce native woodland to the Yorkshire Dales after generations of more intensive farming meant they were cut down.

“We have also been working with farmers to restore hay meadows, filling them with wild flowers. These fields used to be known as hospital fields because the plants contained so many nutrients they were good for sick sheep or cattle.”

Other projects include bringing inner city children for a day out in the Dales, or encouraging people to lead a more healthy lifestyle by getting out in the countryside.

David Sharrod, YDMT Director, said: “The fantastic support of players of People’s Postcode Lottery enables us to continue making a difference in the Yorkshire Dales now and for future generations, through projects like our rural apprenticeship scheme which we hope to expand this year to provide life-changing opportunities to more local young people.

“There is always much more work to be done and I’d like to say a huge thank you to all players for their ongoing support, which has totalled an incredible £871,181 over the last seven years.”