Kent Wildlife Trust Battles Flames to Rescue Wildwood Animals

Kent Wildlife Trust and the Fire Brigade have rushed to the help of Wildwood, the popular Animal Park in the Blean Woods, north of Canterbury.

Over the past week forest fires have broken out, threatened to engulf the popular Wildwood animal park.

Staff of Kent Wildlife Trust, lead by Project Manager Mike Enfield, have been battling to contain forest fires and worked tiressly to bring them under control.

The hot dry winds where fanning the flames and driving the fire ever closer to the Wildwood Animal Park . The fires are breaking out all over the woodland around an area frequented by unauthorised campers, who's camp fires are the most proble cause.

Peter Smith, Chief Executive said:

“I cannot praise Kent Wildlife Trust enough for coming to our rescue. They have organised a huge rescue effort to protect our animals and are spending thousands of pounds putting in a fire break to stop the fires spreading.”

Kent Wildlife Trust and the Fire Brigade now have the fires under control and are hoping for a heavy shower to make sure they do not restart. The Kent based wildlife charity have set up a 24 hour guard to make sure the fires do no more damage.

Dramatic footage of fire fighting efforts by Kent Wildlife Trust was caught on video by Wildwood Trust Boss, Peter Smith, who was shown how to fight the fires by the Trust's lead contactor, John Wincott of Sovereign Forestry Contracting.

Kent Wildlife Trust are embarking on a project to return the woods to native species that will make sure the forest fires do not break out again. The woods were planted with non native pine trees as a tax fiddle in the 1980’s which destroyed much of their wildlife value. Over the coming years more and more wildlife will return to the woods as native trees are re-grow.

The now very safe animals of Wildwood can be seen at the Wildwood Discovery Park, for more information visit the website at www.wildwoodtrust.org or telephone 0871 7820087.

Wildwood is an ideal day out for all the family where you can come 'nose to nose' with British Wildlife. Wildwood offers its members and visitors a truly inspirational way to learn about the natural history of Britain by actually seeing the wildlife that once lived here, like the wolf, beaver, red squirrel, wild boar and many more.

Wildwood is situated close to Canterbury, just off the A291 between Herne Bay and Canterbury. For more information visit our website at www.wildwoodtrust.org or telephone 0871 782008.