From emphasising the importance of keeping dogs under control and taking home dog poo if there are no public waste bins to staying on marked footpaths, even if they’re muddy, to protect flowers, grasses and wildlife and not feeding its Flexigraze livestock, the wildlife charity is urging everybody to do their bit to help protect the natural environment.

Fly tipping is still proving to be a problem with the wildlife charity, especially on its Druridge Bay reserves, together with visitors trampling down fences and leaving gates open allowing livestock to escape which is what happened last year when highland cattle escaped into the Druridge Bay Country Park and took three days to be rounded up.

In addition, as the illegal hare-coursing season approaches when individuals involved in the activity travel around the countryside cutting down fences to allow quick access across fields, the Trust is urging people to be vigilant and report such suspicious activity to the Police via 111.

Duncan Hutt, Northumberland Wildlife Trust Director of Conservation says: “We want people of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy the invaluable health and wellbeing benefits that nature offers on our reserve, but we do want them to give them the respect they deserve.

“Although the pandemic has changed people’s relationships with nature, over the past eighteen months, we have seen a huge increase in littering and fly tipping on or reserves which has to be cleared away by our volunteers who already have a huge backlog of practical conservation tasks to tackle.”