Attenborough: Time running out to save nature-filled estate

Conservationist backs £30m appeal

- By Emily Beament

SIR David Attenborough is championing a bid by conservationists to raise £30million to secure a vast upland estate in Northumberland for nature before it is too late.

They are trying to buy the Rothbury Estate, a 15-square-mile tract of former grouse moor, woodland, farmland, streams and river.

Plans include boosting wildlife, restoring bogs and championing eco-friendly farming. The appeal has raised around £8.5million in donations ranging from £5 to £5million.

But the race is now on to secure the remaining two thirds by next September's deadline.

It is the largest block of land to be put on sale in England in decades, and sits in the heart of what naturalists say could be a 40-mile wild corridor of protected landscapes, nature reserves and wildlife-focused estates, stretching from the coast to the Scottish border.