The National Trust has surpassed its initial £500,000 target for its Dunwich Heath Wildfire Appeal, the charity has announced.
Last month, a major fire broke out on the RSPB Minsmere nature reserve before spreading to Dunwich Heath in Suffolk, which the National Trust looks after.
The National Trust subsequently launched an emergency public appeal, calling on people to help restore the destroyed heathland.
On Friday, the charity said in a social media post that it had reached its initial fundraising target “in just one week”.
“Your generosity has been extraordinary, it’ll help us recover this precious landscape and make it more resilient for the future,” it said.
“Any donations beyond our initial target will now help support the response to wildfires at other places in our care, such as the Peak District, Mourne Mountains and on the Isle of Wight, ensuring we can protect more of the landscapes that need us most.”
Two years of ‘intensive work’
National Trust’s director-general Hilary McGrady estimated that the charity would need “at least £500,000 for the initial response and two years of intensive work to set the site on track to recovery”.
“In the decade that follows, we’ll turn Dunwich into a place that’s not only great for nature and for people again, but also resilient to the changing climate,” she told Civil Society.
“The work will involve everything from making the site safe and surveys to understand the full impact of the fire, to active habitat restoration, which may include reseeding, and creating a nature-rich network of species and vegetation across the landscape.
“We’ll also need to make new visitor routes and facilities and repair any damage to buildings, to make sure people can enjoy this special landscape.”
Government urged to act
On Friday, the National Trust launched a petition calling on the government to act after hundreds of wildfires have broken out in the UK over the past few weeks.
The petition, which had garnered over 8,000 signatures at the time of writing, asks the government to make climate resilience a national mission, invest in nature as essential infrastructure and support fire and rescue services with funding.
The National Trust said “ministers must take immediate action to better protect wildlife, landscapes and communities in the face of more frequent heatwaves, drought and record-breaking temperatures”.
McGrady added: “Dunwich Heath is just the latest alarm call telling us that things must change. I’ve visited the landscape many times – it’s usually a haze of purple teeming with wildlife.
“The scale of the damage caused by a single blaze is shocking and without the actions of all those who helped, it could have been even worse.”
