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June 2017 - Steyning Downland Scheme - Friends Scheme Launch

June 20th, 2017
Join the Friends of the Steyning Downland Scheme.

We launched our new Friends scheme at our fully-booked fundraising dinner at The Sussex Produce Co. on 30th March. Many of the guests signed up then and there but there is always room for more!

The aim of the Friends is to help develop a steady income for the Steyning Downland Scheme, as funding from Trusts and other funding sources becomes increasingly difficult to find. We’re a registered charity, run almost completely by volunteers, who look after about 165 acres of the South Downs National Park next to Steyning.

Our goal is to restore and maintain the rich natural habitats, such as chalk grassland, with its diverse flora and fauna including orchids, rare butterflies and adders. We also aim to involve local schoolchildren in nature, and we involve hundreds of children each year in habitat management, bushcraft events and other specially run courses on site, not forgetting the well-known Big Picnic event every September.

The Steyning Downland is well known to walkers, dog owners, horse-riders and mountain bikers, being a well-used local resource available to all. However, without the input of SDS volunteers (not to mention the herd of Dexter cows, who clear a good deal of the grass for us!) the area would soon revert to an overgrown and unusable “jungle.”

Continuous funding is essential to keep up the good work. As well as things like buying the tools we need, there are lots of more boring ‘hidden’ costs, like insurance, paying the water bills and mending fences - incredibly, we need about £80 a day, just to keep afloat!

This year, we’re also hoping to provide a children’s play area, restore our pond and work with Steyning Community Orchard to establish a new orchard close to the logs in the Big Picnic field. A longer term aim is to demolish the (hardly visible!) old and dilapidated NTC hut and replace it with a visitor centre cum tool store.

So, whilst not everyone has the time to volunteer, one way in which you can make a valuable contribution to this well-loved local asset is to become a Friend, making a regular small monthly contribution. Just #2 a month, from lots of Friends, really starts to make a big difference.

Our grateful thanks to all our current Friends, and here’s hoping that many more will join them. Visit the SDS web-site at www.steyningdownland.org or contact the Membership secretary, Vernon Hewett on vernonhewett@gmail.com for details.
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