About Muddy Fork
Muddy Fork (previously EcoMinds) was established in 2010 by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust at their Idle Valley nature reserve, one of 130 Ecominds projects, funded by Mind with a Big Lottery Fund grant.
In 2012 BBC Countryfile featured the Idle Valley Ecominds project to showcase green therapy.
In 2013 Bill Oddie OBE visited Idle Valley, spending several hours chatting with the Ecominds group and looking around the garden. Having experienced severe depression over a number of years, “I am amazed,” he said, “that during my many visits to hospitals and GP practices over the years nobody ever mentioned doing something like this”.
In the same year Mind published a case study on the Idle Valley project: Case Study: Idle Valley Ecominds – Creating a person-centred service and strengthening participant decision making.
Various awards and accoldaes were received between 2010 and 2015 commending the work that the Ecominds project did to support our local community.
In 2016 the project was regretfully closed by Notts Wildlife Trust after a long struggle to sustain funding. Thankfully several of the volunteers at Ecominds decided to set up as an independent Charity to continue the great work started by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Muddy Fork was created. The Wildlife Trust kindly agreed to the use of their land as a base for the Charity.
Over the past 7 years since the evolution into Muddy Fork the Charity has continued to support the local community and has helped 100’s of people. The Charity has been recognised with several external accolades , most recently in 2023 make the shortlist for “Green Project” of the year at the BBC “make a difference” awards and also “Charity of the Year” with the local Craggs Radio.
We rely fully on grants and donations along with the commitment of our numerous and dedicated volunteer team. Our day to day leader in the Muddy Fork Garden is Rose Thorpe who is supported by Peter Atkins.