Speaker: Ellie Parker
Wednesday 13th November 2024
The Wild Ingleborough Project is a landscape-scale ecosystem restoration project, established in 2020. The project has six main partners (Natural England, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, WWF-UK, University of Leeds, United Bank of Carbon and Woodland Trust) but also receives input from a wide range of individuals and organisations (including the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Ribble Rivers Trust, Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust and the RSPB).
Natural England and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust already owned a patchwork of land to the north and east of the summit of Ingleborough. The project has seen the purchase of additional land to make the land better connected, following the Lawton Principles of ‘Bigger, Better, More joined up’ and aims to allow natural processes to lead the way as much as possible. The project is working to restore around 1,200 hectares of land, connecting land from the valley floor, almost to the mountain top. The ultimate aim is to have cattle roaming freely across the whole area and the reconnected patches of habitat will allow wildlife to move more freely in the landscape. Ellie said the main tool in their belt is conservation grazing, using low stocking densities of appropriate breeds of cattle - Red Poll and Belted Galloway.
Ellie said there have been a lot of lovely surprises already, following the reduction in grazing pressure, such as hillsides with swaths of Mountain Pansy (Viola lutea) and Bird's-eye Primrose (Primula farinosa). Low intensity cattle grazing benefits a range of wildlife including ground nesting birds. Black Grouse have been sighted in the area, but there are no breeding records as yet.
The project aims to conserve and restore a range of habitat types including wood pasture, blanket bog and traditional hay meadow. Work is expected to start this winter on restoration of peatland, following survey work that has already taken place. Although the preference is for natural woodland regeneration, the absence of near-by diverse seed sources has resulted in the process being kick-started with tree planting. There has been a change of policy to over-plant rather than use tree guards, except in areas with particularly high deer numbers.
Local provenance is important, and with that in mind, an upland plant nursery has been established for the propagation of upland plants, including Tea-leaved Willow (Salix phylicifolia), Holly-fern (Polystichum lonchitis) and Spiked Speedwell (Veronica spicata), using local seed sources where possible.
Ellie was thanked for giving such an informative and interesting talk.
For more information see https://www.wildingleborough.com
Text by Susan Simcock