New beginnings

I spent a very happy morning walking around Ughill Farm, a few miles outside Sheffield, with another Sheffield Photogaphy Society member and a manager from Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust.
When this hill farm came up for sale a while ago, the Wildlife Trust managed to raise the funds to buy it (about £1.2 million).  It's an important area for ground-nesting birds and for a range of other nature and wildlife species.  The aim is to model "nature friendly farming" there, as part of the Trust's well-established networking with small farmers around here.  It won't be a nature reserve, it'll be a working example of a sustainable approach to land management.  It is criss-crossed by public footpaths, so there will be some public access.
We had a fascinating morning.  As we did a circuit of the farm, around 5 hilly miles in total, there was a wonderful running commentary about its different zones and the conservation options there.  In quite a small area, there's an amazing diversity: areas of acid grassland, areas of overgrown quarry and mine spoil, fields that have previously been fertilised and now need rehab, woodland, pockets of wildflower meadow, streams and springs. It's typical of the fringes of North Sheffield, in which hill farming and small-scale industry have co-existed for hundreds of years.
We're putting together a collaborative arrangement, in which Photo Soc members will help to document the Trust's work as it develops. For now, we're in scoping mode, just getting an initial idea about the options for us and the priorities for the Trust.
It's like an oasis of hope, in the context of all the turmoil going on in the wider world.