EXMOOR farming, volunteering and the natural environment are set to benefit from extra funding over the next three years.
The funding is part of the response from the Authority to Defra’s eight-point National Park Plan which was considered at a workshop for members in June.
The £100,000 grant is a one-off for the Headwaters of the Exe project involving works to improve water quality, including restoration of footpaths and bridleways near water, to help ensure the continued importance of Exmoor’s rivers.
It is based on the upper reaches of the Exe catchment and mainly funded by South West Water – £424,025 over five years – as part of its Upstream Thinking programme.
This offers an innovative way to improve the quality of drinking water being abstracted from rivers across the South West.
The range of work carried out through the project is broad and also encompasses free advice and capital grants to farmers and woodland owners via advisers from Exmoor National Park and FWAG South West.
The extra funding for the Headwaters of the Exe project will be used to increase the amount available to landowners as capital grants for works to improve water quality.
Thanks to this funding boost, £250,000 will now be available as grant funding to landowners and managers in the upper Exe catchment over the next four years.
The project also supports the control of non-native invasive species through existing partnership projects.
One-off funding of £75,000 has been approved to extend the Get Involved programme to broaden the appeal of what is on offer to potential volunteers for a further three years
A bid to allocate a further £30,000 to the New Audience Fund was also successful.
It offers small grants to support and enable groups that have not been to Exmoor before or have limited opportunities to enjoy what is special about the National Park due to lack of finances.