HOW Dartmoor?s wild land has changed over the years and the future for natural wild forests, people and animals will be explored in a new programme of walks and talks.
With the help of a grant from the Royal Society for Nature Conservation?s SEED programme and from the South West Foundation, a programme of five educational guided walks on Dartmoor has been designed.
Leigh Smith, the environmental education officer for local charity Moor Trees, has designed the walks to help give a better understanding of Dartmoor?s ecological past and future.
The Sunday walks all start from Brimpts Farm, at Dartmeet and will be spent discovering wild places, beasts and some of our wild senses!
To complement the walks there will be five evening talks, including specially constructed slides of Dartmoor 50,000 years ago.
The first of the free talks takes place at the Ockment Centre, Okehampton, tomorrow (Friday) at 7pm.
The next talk will be on Friday, April 16 at 7pm at Endacott House, Chagford. After further talks in South Brent and Buckfastleigh, the final talk in the series will take place at Grimstone Manor, Horrabridge, in May.
Mr Smith said the combination of walks and talks was designed to be thought provoking and informative, in order to stimulate discussion and interest in the future of Dartmoor?s natural habitats and biodiversity.
He said: ?Little has been put forward in the public arena of the gradual loss of Dartmoor?s wild and natural landscape, wildlife, insects and plant life over such a large timescale.
?The community of Dartmoor does not have access to alternative information other than that which is offered by current environmental conservation practices.?
A Wild Dartmoor Safari is a collaboration between Moor Trees and Rod Lawrence, a local naturalist with more than 20 years? experience.
Adam Griffin, Moor Trees co-founder, will be working alongside Rod to bring a Moor Trees perspective to the performances and to be there on the walks to answer questions.
The five walks will be over uneven terrain which will unfortunately rule out wheelchair users. However, a sign language interpreter will be available for one walk and one talk. All five talks will be held in venues which are accessible to wheelchair users.
The talk dates and venues are:
l March 12 ? Ockment Centre, Okehampton
l April 16 ? Endacott House, Chagford
l May 18 ? Grimstone Manor, Horrabridge.
All walks start at Brimpts Farm, Dartmeet, at 11am on March 14, April 18, May 2, May 16, May 23.
For more information please contact Leigh Smith, Moor Trees environmental education officer, 01364 631217 or MoortreesEnvEd@aol. com or visit the Moor Trees website http://www.moortrees.org">www.moortrees.org