Nature to get major boost in the Dales

National Trust raising cash to restore habitat

THREATENED SPECIES including the red squirrel and black grouse are set to benefit from a major fundraising campaign launched by the National Trust to restore large areas of the Yorkshire Dales back to their natural state.

Over the next 12 months the Trust hopes to raise £250,000 for its ambitious conservation project to ensure the treasured Dales landscape is a diverse place where nature can thrive.

It says centuries of heavy grazing and woodland clearance have left the land bare and uniform, with fewer habitats for birds, small mammals and others to flourish while work also needs to be done to combat flooding and to repair blanket bogs.

Some threatened species desperately need help – birds such as twite, ring ouzel and black grouse, alongside the plant juniper, the northern brown argus butterfly and one of the UK’s rarest native species, the red squirrel.

Martin Davies, National Trust Yorkshire Dales general manager, said: “This is a great opportunity to retain the best of the area and improve it by creating a more natural habitat for birds and animals.

“Nature just needs a bit of help to get things going.”

Cash raised from the appeal will be centred on Fountains and Darnbrook Fells, Horse Head Moor and the wider Upper Wharfedale estate to support the sur-

Nature just needs a bit of help to get things going Martin Davies, National Trust

vival of these species and their habitat in the Dales.

The National Trust will be working together with its hill farming tenants, who themselves have for many years now been working to change the way they manage the landscape.

The work will involve establishing major areas of native trees and shrubs, repairing blanket bogs, restoring more natural drainage systems to the rivers and hillsides and working with tenant farmers to look into and support different farming models.

The work will include producing taller vegetation with patchy tree and shrub cover that will be of real benefit to the ring ouzel, while taller grassland and areas of scrub will help the northern brown argus butterfly, which is already starting to recover in the Dales. Work will also help a red squirrel reserve close to the land the trust protects.

“Increased tree cover, healthier blanket bogs, improved river systems and a much more diverse countryside will give a richer and more stable flora and fauna, will store carbon (reducing greenhouse gases), significantly reduce the scale of floods, provide more consistent water flow during droughts – and provide a more attractive landscape for visitors and businesses,” a trust spokeswoman said.