DORSET businesses are being asked to give a leg up to an usual sponsorship deal – by paying for stork nesting towers.

The charity behind the wildlife project believes that if four proposed nesting towers are put in place, storks will return.

Apart from a small colony in the South East of the country, the graceful creatures have disappeared from much of the UK - despite once being common.

The Countryside Regeneration Trust has recently been given planning consent by Dorset Council for a restoration project at the 92-acre Bere Marsh Farm, north of Blandford.

The plans are for the stork towers and to rebuild a two-storey mill and other dilapidated farm buildings to be used as visitor and education centres and a café.

The CRT wants to erect four separate towers to encourage white stork to breed – the towers to cost £1,500 each.

They will be built on floodplain fields near the River Stour, which experts say is an ideal site for storks to settle. The towers themselves consist of a telegraph pole with a galvanised steel basket.

Head of development at the trust, Hayley Neal, said: “Any local business willing to sponsor a £1,500 tower will receive its name and logo on the tower and will be included in any ongoing publicity as the projects develops.

"Plus of course, they will be contributing to the fight to increase biodiversity in the British countryside.”

“This is very much a field of dreams project where, like in the film, we have faith that if we build the ‘ballpark’ they will come…The white stork is such an emblematic species that to have them nesting in Dorset really would be incredible.

“We are looking for sponsors who want to share this dream and help us create the right environment for the white storks to arrive, she added.”

Businesses interested in backing the stork tower project should contact Hayley on h.neal@thecrt.co.uk or call on 01223 651215.

The Countryside Regeneration Trust (CRT) is steward to 2,000 acres of land across 18 properties in England. Established in 1993, it is dedicated to regenerating and protecting the countryside and its wildlife. For 30 years, is said to have proved how farming with nature in mind has increased biodiversity and sustainable food production for the benefit of all.

The CRT’s aim is for conservation improvements to be carried out alongside practical farming and land management, and to spread these aims by example and education. Bringing together tenant farmers, CRT friends and volunteers, the CRT describes itself as is  community of voices dedicated to nature-led farming.  

I