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Nick Baker confirmed to open summer Wildlife Festival in Barnstaple

TV wildlife presenter Nick Baker has confirmed he will open this year's Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) Wildlife Festival in June. The event is just one in a series taking place to celebrate the 13th North Devon Festival. The date for the Wildlife Festival has just been announced and plans are well on the way for making this year's event the best ever. This year will be the charity's fifth annual Wildlife Festival. Following a successful spectacle in Plymouth last year the event comes to Barnstaple Town Centre for 2011. The festival will be held on Saturday 4 June between 10am and 4pm. Jo Pullin DWT's event organiser said: "It's great to have Nick Baker on board again. He had a great time last year making nest boxes and talking to families about his wildlife experiences, so he was quick to agree to come up to north Devon. This will be the second time the festival has visited Barnstaple and it will be lovely to see old faces returning along with new people. We have a winning formula which people seem to love!" The charity is currently writing to local wildlife related organisations in the area to see if they would like to attend the event which will be held at The Square, close to the town centre. This year there are plans for a wildlife parade, along with bird watching on the river, and the ever popular attractions of nest box making, face painting and live animals. For more information about the event visit http://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/. Anyone wanting to volunteer or have a stall at the event should contact Jo Pullin on 01392 279244.

Trainee sought to help north Devon conservation project

The Grazing Advice Partnership is offering one person the chance to gain a year's training and learn about conservation grazing through Devon Wildlife Trust's (DWT) Working Wetlands project. The twelve month placement will be involved in the day to day management of the charity's herd of rare breed cattle. This will include stock checking, transportation and liaison with landowners. As well as gaining the chance to carry out tractor driving tasks such as soil aeration, topping and flailing there will be the opportunity to learn other skills such as green hay spreading. The placement is part of the Grazing Links initiative of Working Wetlands, a project that supports landowners to undertake conservation grazing within three target areas of north Devon's Culm Natural Area. It is particularly focused on restoring wildlife rich habitats such as Culm grassland. Mark Elliot DWT's Working Wetlands Project Manager said: "This is a great opportunity for a local person who is perhaps looking to get into the conservation sector to gain hands-on experience through this landscape scale conservation project. They will get to work across the whole 65,000 hectare project area and help make a noticeable difference to local wildlife rich sites." Trainees will receive a tax exempt bursary of £14,000, mentoring support and access to GAP training courses. To apply applicants should visit the Grazing Advice Partnership website: www.grazingadvicepartnership.org.uk/ - Closing date for entries is 21 January.