Cumbria Wildlife Trust will soon have its very first seed bank to be linked with the national Millennium Seed Bank. We have received £56,692 from Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust and the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, to build the seed bank at Gosling Sike and purchase specialist equipment to collect, dry and store rare and threatened seeds from local sites around the county.

Seed samples will then be sent to the Millennium Seed Bank as part of their UK Threatened Flora Project, adding to their UK conservation collections and providing a resource for conservation and research. Some seeds will also be stored on-site here in Cumbria, to be nurtured and planted out, helping to restore nature-depleted sites. 

Adam McGinley, Horticulture Manager at Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s northern base, Gosling Sike near Houghton, said:

“We’re very grateful to Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust and the Green Recovery Challenge Fund for this generous funding, which will enable us to do some very exciting work here in Cumbria, as well as nationally, to support nature’s recovery. And local people can get involved! Volunteering opportunities will include seed collecting, processing (drying, cleaning and storing), cataloguing, growing and planting out.

“This seed bank at Gosling Sike, in partnership with Kew, will be the first of its kind in the county. We’ll collect specific rare and threatened local seeds as part of Kew’s UK Threatened Flora Project, for storage in the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB), which conserves over 2.4 billion seeds from almost 40,000 species from across the world. I recently went out to Whitbarrow (one of Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves) with one of our volunteers and was excited to collect the seeds of the hoary rock-rose, a nationally scare plant and the first on a list of 10 rare species from Kew’s priority list. Staff from Kew are providing us with scientific advice, technical services and training to enable us to set up our seed bank here in Cumbria.

“Kew is keen to support local seed conservation facilities to increase the availability of a diverse range of high quality, UK native-origin seed for research and conservation activities. 

Thanks to this grant, we’re now able to set up one of these specialist hubs here at Gosling Sike, to increase both the quality and quantity of seeds that we collect.”

As well as being sent to the Millennium Seed Bank, some seed will be grown on-site in the Gosling Sike nursery, to be planted out to improve and protect the local environment here in Cumbria. This will make public spaces, nature reserves and roadside verges much richer in biodiversity. These plants will be grown in polytunnels, thanks to previous funding from Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust.

Adam explains why it’s important to save rare and threatened plants, such as frog orchid, fly orchid, field gentian and spotted cat’s-ear:

“Over the last 75 years across England we’ve lost 97% of our flower-rich meadows, 50% of our hedgerows, and 60% of flowering plants are in decline. And stats show that losses in Cumbria reflect this national picture. To combat this, we’ll work with local communities, landowners and partners to act for nature’s recovery, by allowing people to be involved in our seed collection, growing activities and supporting habitat restoration efforts across the county, through the supply of specialist and local plants.

“The growing of local plants and flowers is hugely important for nature restoration as it ensures the plants are better adapted to the local soil and climate. Increasing available habitat for wildlife is key for tackling the problem of biodiversity loss.”

Over the next 18 months we plan to deliver over 150 hectares of habitat restoration, including through locally-grown plants.

The seed bank is not open to the public for drop-in visits but may be open for special events and tours later in the year. Sign up to our newsletter to keep up-to-date with our latest news and events.