Wildlife Trusts raise £30m to buy and rewild Northumberland estate

The estate, which covers more than 3,800 hectares (nearly 15 sq miles) and is about the size of Athens, was put up for sale two years ago by Max Percy, the Duke of Northumberland's youngest son. It is the largest piece of land in single ownership to come up for sale in England for more than 30 years, and campaigners called buying it "a once-in-a-generation opportunity".

Attenborough, who championed the bid, thanked the public for their help. "The Wildlife Trusts called for your support and you answered in your thousands," he said. "The opportunity to bring the vision of a landscape where nature and people thrive side by side can become a reality. This will be a place where nature, community, farming and heritage can combine to create something very special for generations to come."

The money came from 25,000 members of the public, who gave £17m, plus £5m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and large donations from charitable foundations and philanthropists. The government pledged £1.94m this week.

Mike Pratt, chief executive of Northumberland Wildlife Trust, said he felt "elated" at the success of the campaign and "humbled" by public support, with £17m from the public at the forefront of his mind. The trust hopes that restoring and extending habitats will increase numbers of species already on the estate, such as mountain bumblebees and red squirrels, and hopes water voles can be brought back, pine martens encouraged and more curlew seen.

The eventual hope is that the estate will be the "beating heart" of a 40-mile nature corridor from the coast at Druridge Bay to the Scottish-English border at the Kielderhead and Whitelee Moor national nature reserves. The trust also believes more nature tourism will benefit the town of Rothbury.

Not everyone backed the campaign, with some farmers calling it a "folly". Guy Renner-Thompson, a councillor and chair of Northumberland Conservatives, questioned the government's priorities: "Farmers on the estate have already raised concerns about food production, changes to traditional land management and whether their businesses can remain profitable. Those concerns deserve answers before ministers reach for the chequebook."

Pratt said the trust had been working closely with farmers. "We want to demonstrate that you can have lots of wildlife and still have a productive business model." Sophie Bulgin, the Rothbury project manager, said the enthusiasm of volunteers "has overwhelmed me", with people walking for miles across the estate to install and retrieve eco-acoustic monitors recording small mammals and bats. Earthworm counts are planned in a fortnight and might reveal more about the health of the soil.