National lockdown restrictions from 5 November

Roe deer at Heysham Moss by Tom Dullage

Behind the scenes our teams have been working hard to ensure we're complying with all of the new Government guidelines. We know how important access to nature is for you all, especially during these difficult times.

Visiting your local nature

Our reserves will remain open, and we will be offering a takeaway only service in our cafés at Brockholes, Mere Sands Wood and Moss Bank Park. In order to comply with the new rules, our full range of retail items will unfortunately not be available, but we will continue to offer essential items such as logs for sale.

Seaforth Nature Reserve will be closed to the public from Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December, as the port goes into lockdown.

Under the new guidelines, you may visit an outdoor space with your household or support bubble, or on your own with one other person from a different household. In order to keep all of our staff and visitors safe we ask that you only visit us in this way, maintain social distancing at all times and please do not visit if you have any symptoms of COVID-19.

We all need nature right now, and nature needs us. We will do everything we can to stay open safely, but please do keep an eye out for any changes to opening hours as things progress.

Check reserve opening hours

The legs of a couple walking through autumn leaves in a forest

Photo by Ross Hoddinott/2020VISION

Volunteering

We've worked very hard to create a safe and secure environment for the volunteering that we have been able to restart. In light of the new lockdown restrictions our current volunteering will remain in place, but we do ask that volunteers remain in their local areas, travelling no more than 10 miles to join us. The only exception to this are volunteers with specialist skills such as our livestock checkers.

The new restrictions also state that if you are over 60 or clinically vulnerable you could be at higher risk of severe illness from coronavirus; if this applies to you and you would prefer not to volunteer during this time it is totally understandable. Your local Trust contact will be in touch very soon. 

We very much appreciate your support and patience throughout this difficult time and will update you when further guidelines are released.

This does unfortunately mean that any expansion to our volunteering opportunities will now be delayed. We know this will be disappointing news, and if you'd like to help In the meantime there are many ways you can get involved from your home.

Here are some ideas