Skip to main content

Wild Ingleborough

Wild Ingleborough: a vision for the future

A partnership formed between Natural England’s Ingleborough National Nature Reserve team, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, The University of LeedsUBoC, The Woodland Trust, and WWF to further the restoration of wildlife habitats around Ingleborough in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The Wild Ingleborough partnership aims to undertake landscape-scale restoration of wildlife from the valley floor to the top of the mountain. This will aid nature’s recovery in this part of North Yorkshire by supporting low intensity farming and helping wildlife to be more resilient in the face of the climate  emergency and other pressures.

A view towards Ingleborough.

The team has worked with local people and visitors to the Dales from the outset to involve them in the development of the project, seeking to support a thriving local economy, based on restorative farming to enhance local biodiversity, and nature tourism. The Ingleborough landscape was already inspirational and visited by many people - this project seeks to support responsible access and enable people to explore the natural environment and get closer to nature.

Working with neighbouring landowners, farmers and communities, the partners share skills and knowledge in land management and connect existing nature reserves to create a larger area of land that is managed in a way that allows wildlife to thrive. Large-scale habitat restoration will benefit wildlife but also people, through carbon capture, flood reduction, job creation and improving both water quality and soil health.

Some areas will see woodland creation through planting native trees and in other areas the vegetation will be allowed to regenerate naturally. Grazing animals, especially cattle, will be used to create a patchwork of different habitats and with time, scattered trees and shrubs may grow on the upper slopes of the mountain.

The lessons learnt from the project will inform the design of future policy that will help sustain resilient rural communities. The importance of working with local people will be crucial as we explore different options for a positive vision of our landscapes, with people, climate and nature at its heart.

Find out more about volunteering with the Wild Ingleborough project here.