Apex Supports Cheshire Wildlife Haven

Throughout 2022 for every photocopier sold Apex will donate to Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s Saltersford Farm Appeal, helping to restore a 50-acre site of intensively farmed land into a mosaic of meadows, woodland and ponds.

Located near Holmes Chapel, Cheshire the land has previously been farmed for maize and silage and except for a small area woodland is currently of little benefit to wildlife. Years of ploughing and fertilising have also eroded the soil and sent harmful chemical and nutrients into the River Dane.

CWT’s restoration project will transform the area into a flagship nature reserve. Supporting locally extremely threatened plants and animals, their plans include creating wildflower meadows, planting trees, and forming wetland areas.  Swettenham Valley Nature Reserve is less than a mile from Saltersford Farm so the regeneration of this land will also create a corridor for plants and animals to move freely through the valley.

Using local wildflower seed will help native species to flourish, making it a home for a variety of bees and insects.  14 of the 57 resident UK butterfly species are found nearby at Swettenham Valley Nature Reserve and the new meadows will provide more food and shelter for them.

All the trees will be from the North-West to maintain local genetics.  CWT will join up the small patches of trees that are already there to provide a new home and hunting ground for woodland wildlife such as tawny owls.

The wetlands will attract vulnerable nesting birds such as curlew and lapwings and improvements to the watercourse will support dippers and kingfishers.

Costing £467,000, CWT secured a loan of £400,000 and fundraised over £67,000 to buy the land.  It now has 2 years to pay the loan back, as well as find the additional £200,000 that it’s estimated is required to create and manage the land for the first five years.

Chris Hutchings, Managing Director of Apex comments,

“Now more than ever, it is vital that we all do our part to support the planet and the environment.  The work that Cheshire Wildlife Trust do is crucial, and we champion them all the way! Apex are proud to support this important initiative”.

Debbie Snelson, Commercial Manager of Apex added,

“I feel incredibly lucky to have been brought up on a Cheshire farm surrounded by wildlife.  I spent many a school holiday just ‘being outside’.   Clambering over a 5 bar gate to get from one field to another on a summer evening walk, getting lost in my own thoughts sat making daisy chains, carefully selecting flowers to decorate mud pies, and hunting for dock leaves to nurse a nettle sting!  As a child, being surrounded by nature was just the norm and I never really appreciated the physical and mental benefits it gave me – not to mention the air to gives us to breathe!!

Over the years I’ve seen land get eaten up by houses, the birdsong is getting less, insect numbers are in decline, species are dying out.  Our planet is so precious.  We need to help it survive and thrive!  And that’s why I’m big advocate of the work Cheshire Wildlife Trust do and love the fact Apex is supporting their Saltersford Farm Appeal this year”.

If you’d like to find out more about the Saltersford Farm Appeal and the rest of the work Cheshire Wildlife Trust do, and of course support this appeal visit www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk