Blog: Miterdale through the seasons
APRIL: Winter into Spring...
Over the last month, the usual peace and tranquillity in Miterdale has been temporarily interrupted by two separate chainsaw contractors who have been working hard to remove large non-native Sitka Spruce trees from an area below Great Bank. This has already revealed a developing Birch woodland with some good Holly understory; now flooded with sunlight! This has also given us a steady supply of timber that we can use for fenceposts and rails in the future – Thanks to the Coppice Coop and Rob!
We started 2025 with 6000 sapling tree (Thanks to The Woodland Trust!) including: Oak, Hazel, Hawthorn, Rowan, Aspen, Birch, Alder, Blackthorn, Elder, Guelder Rose, Dog Rose and Willow. With a big push from some good people through March, we have now got them all in the ground in both the lowland areas and upper reaches of Miterdale – a big thanks to all those who helped with the planting!
We now have a small window to protect these newly planted trees from grazing animals – particularly sheep! With lambing time upon us, the great ‘gather’ of Miterdale and Eskdale common will clear out all the sheep in our exclosure areas and allow us some time to close off all of the gaps in our fences without trapping any sheep in!
Alongside the many many practical jobs to do, the months ahead will involve lots of ecological monitoring, such as breeding bird surveys, adder surveys, butterflies, squirrel monitoring and much more! We also have some more school visits from St Bega’s, Gosforth Primary and Waberthwaite School which always provide a fun days out!
JANUARY: Autumn into Winter...
Our first couple of months were spent walking the Miterdale valley – surveying fence and wall lines for their condition and mapping the presence of non native regeneration (mainly conifer and rhodedendron).
Since then it's been a time of transition in Miterdale – we’ve tried to hit the ground running, building an understanding of the valley and what it may need, planning the next years work, moving from autumn colour into the pale light of winter. We’ve been enjoying visualising what the valley might look like after 10, 20, 30 years of nature recovery; a landscape full of native broadleaf woodland, mosaic scrub and grassland, montane scrub on the crags, and abundant wildflowers.
We’ve been drawing up the biggest fencing and felling jobs to be done by professionals – and starting to tackle the rest ourselves. We’re so grateful to all our volunteers who joined us in 2024 – sawing Sitka spruce, winching rhododendron and planting trees!
We’re now also looking towards the spring and the rest of the year by developing our monitoring plan – to further our understanding of the species present in the valley, monitor success of initiatives like tree planting, and allow us to make well informed decisions over the next few years
OCTOBER: Nature Rich Miterdale - The first few weeks...
Standing in the valley bottom of Miterdale in the first week of September, Katherine and I scan the towering stands of windblown conifers; the understory interrupted with glints of illuminous greens and dots of white that can only be Rhododendron and sheep.
The sense of anticipation of starting our new roles in the Nature Rich Miterdale project is suddenly replaced by a concoction of excitement and overawing. The possibilities for nature recovery here is palpable and its position in west Cumbria heightens its strategic importance as a connecting corridor route between existing conservation efforts from Ennerdale to the Duddon valley. The opportunities for engaging and involving the local community in this valuable project adds to our excitement. But at this moment on our first day, glaring back at us is the sheer scale of what needs to be achieved for this project to be successful.
Where to begin? In the words of Johnny Cash, we walk the line. With approximately 30km of boundary fences that separate our project area from open areas of common and farmed land, we spend our first month surveying the current condition of these lines on the map. The results reveal there's plenty to do... A large amount of the fences have collapsed due to their age and many have had several tonnes of North American timber crashing on top of them. This has allowed a lot of sheep ingress over the years and has resulted in previous attempts at replanting clear felled areas unsuccessful. With a good understanding of which boundaries to repair first, and with the help of the local farm, we are beginning to deposit materials around the valley where we need them.
Getting involved
As well as getting to know the valley and its boundaries, we have been initiating relationships with local groups, schools and organisations to help promote our ambitions in Miterdale and to foster an engagement with anybody who would like to be involved. With the support of the National Trust, we held our first volunteer work party at Rough How on the 16th of October. We removed 8 tonne-bags worth of degraded and rotten tree tubes out of bogs (where they shouldn’t be!) and removed over 40 Sitka spruce trees that had inconveniently regenerated. Thank you to Francesca and Jon for helping to organise the day and a big shoutout to the volunteers who attended, making the first of many more enjoyable days of restoration work.
j.hatton@leeds.ac.uk
k.m.andrews@leeds.ac.uk