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Nature Rich Miterdale: The first few weeks... by Jack Hatton

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.