AROUND 45 members of the Brandis Corner Wildlife Group enjoyed an "interesting and thought provoking" talk given by Matt Edworthy, Outreach Officer for the North Devon Nature Improvement Area (NIA) on Saturday, March 2 Bradford and Cookbury Village Hall.

He explained that the area is one of 12 in England to which the Government is giving special financial support, in a three-year project which began in February last year. The project has received an initial £731,367 from DEFRA.

The local NIA is based on the catchment area of the river Torridge, some 72,000 hectares, and is within the North Devon Biosphere Reserve. The overall vision is to restore and recreate habitat shared by partners in the NIA, which are a mix of Government, private and voluntary bodies, with Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) being the lead partner in the (NIA) project.

For the full report, and a round up of the area news and sport, please see this week's edition of the 'Post'.