GLOBETROTTING conservationist Dr David Bellamy has championed major environmental causes in all corners of the globe.
But few will be as dear to him as the small community project he endorsed on his own doorstep yesterday.
Dr Bellamy, who is president of the national Conservation Foundation, joined people from his home village of Hamsterley, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, to celebrate the completion of part of a community garden.
He planted a small cutting from a 2,000-year-old yew tree which is one of 7,000 being planted around the country under a Conservation Foundation initiative.
The garden was one of a number of projects chosen by Hamsterley residents to mark the millennium.
It is being created on land owned by the Methodist Church with funding from the County Durham Environmental Trust under the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme
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