Project/Applicant Name: Fairburn Tips for nature and people

County: West Yorkshire

Grant Received: £357,000

Thanks to funding from Biffa Award, land for some of the UK’s rarest wildlife has been secured.

The Coal Tips at Fairburn Ings Nature Reserve was once the largest colliery spoil heap in Europe covering an area of 105 hectares. Today it is home to a fabulous array of rare habitats and wildlife including bitterns, otters, cuckoos, roe deer, brown hares and an abundance of butterflies and bees.

Fairburn Ings offers a network of over five miles of accessible footpaths and welcomes an annual 60,000 visitors of all ages and abilities to get close to nature. Visitors to the Roy Taylor Trail, named after the inspirational conservationist, can hope to see green woodpeckers, hear the eerie booming of the elusive bittern and catch a glimpse of spoonbills which have been one of Fairburn’s star species since making the reserve their second UK breeding site in 2017.