ENGLISH Heritage has announced two National Lottery grants totalling £100,000 to help protect the region's wildlife after the foot-and-mouth crisis.

The money will be used to encourage people in the North-East to find out more about the wildlife in its nature reserves, as well as helping to conserve it.

The award, from the Heritage Lottery Fund, will be divided between the Natural Links project and the Pastures for People scheme, which protect some of the region's Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

The Natural Links project, which will get £50,000, will encourage residents living around the National Nature Reserve at Moorhouse and Upper Teesdale, in County Durham. People will be recruited as "green guides" and to carry out conservation work.

The Pastures for People scheme is a two-year project which aims to establish links between landowners managing sites rich in rare plants and animals with local farmers who use the land for grazing.

The project will concentrate on areas in east Durham and Cleveland, and one of the main aims is to help protect the future of the Northern Brown Argus butterfly, which is unique to County Durham.

Professor Richard Bailey, chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund's committee for the North-East, said: "We have been very concerned about the devastation that the foot-and-mouth outbreak has brought to rural areas in the North-East over the past year.

"We are keen to use the grants where possible to help re-establish traditional and local farming practices where culling of livestock has had the worst effects on the landscape and environment."