Wild Ennerdale - landscape recovery at scale

I led a fascinating walk along the banks of the River Liza in Ennerdale recently and got to experience an environment that felt more like Canada or Scandinavia than the Lake District. Ennerdale is designated a National Nature Reserve and is a huge area of land managed primarily for nature. The Wild Ennerdale project is a partnership between Forestry England, the National Trust, United Utilities and Natural England. Its been going since 2003 and its vision stretches decades into the future. The partnership is driven by a vision, memorandum of agreement and a set of guiding principles that form the core of their work.

Commercial forestry and farming are still are crucial parts of Ennerdale, but are now more integrated and sympathetic towards nature recovery.   The river is  largely un-managed and is the longest stretch of river un-constrained by man in England. This means the river meanders across the valley floor creating a complex network of pools, gravel banks as well as fast and slow channels. In flood conditions the river naturally spills onto wider flood plains, thus slowing the flow and releasing energy. Trees that are blown down in storms fall into the river and are swept downstream and left to decay wherever they end up.

This natural unfettered landscape is fantastic for wildlife, better for flood management and better for water quality.

But far from being 'abandoned', the valley is a great example of how farming and commercial forestry can work alongside nature recovery. The focus is a shift from ‘intensive’ to ‘extensive’ farming with greater nature and public benefits. Sheep still graze parts of the valley (although numbers have been reduced to aid nature recovery) and small herds of  Galloways roam widely across the whole area. Cows are great for nature recovery for a number of reasons - they graze less destructively than sheep so tree saplings and flowers stand a chance of 'getting away'; their hoofs break up the ground and create 'divits' that form perfect places for seeds to germinate; and their dung fertilises the ground.

credit: Scotland Big Picture

While large-scale commercial logging isn't practical, felling and re-planting does still take place. When the non-native Sitka Spruce is felled it is replaced by native species like Scots pine, Sessile oak, Aspen and Silver birch - although at a lower density than the Sitka. Higher up the valley a more open clumpy variable density mix of Juniper, Mountain willow, Rowan, Aspen, Downy birch and Alder are planted. This shifts towards a more resilient and diverse tree’d landscape in terms of species type, age and structure.  As a result, bird populations are improving both in species numbers and breeding areas, bucking the national trend of decline. The image below is a visualisation of what the valley head might look like in the coming years. None of the trees visible on the right of the valley are visible now.

credit: Wild Ennerdale project.

While the carparks are busy and popular with people out for a stroll (enjoying the fully accessible lakeshore paths), higher up the valley, Ennerdale is a wonderful place to spend time and explore. Unless you are bashing on up to Steeple, Pillar or Red Pike I'd encourage you to walk along the river bank: you could easily be in the Rockies!