HAPPY VALLEY
The Trust’s epic project in the Yorkshire Dales is about to get even more ambitious – but we’ll need your help...
THE WOODLAND TRUST’S flagship scheme to turn over an entire North Yorkshire valley to nature has won a £1 million boost – despite the efforts of three troublesome pigs.
We already own more than two square miles of sumptuous upland scenery at Snaizeholme in Wensleydale, and since 2023 we’ve planted more than 800,000 trees in tandem with our project partners at the White Rose Forest. Now two missing pieces of land are in our sights – and if a public appeal is successful, they will add another 25% to our jigsaw of habitats, making the valley our largest English reserve.
“A sympathetic charitable trust has kindly bought all 141 hectares (350 acres) for us – with two years to pay them back,” says the Trust’s Snaizeholme mastermind Alec Pue.
Funds needed to buy two new chunks of land at Snaizeholme.
Trees the Trust has planted on the flanks of the valley since 2023.
Woodland added to the Snaizeholme landscape so far.
“So we first need to secure the extra land, then sensitively manage it to meet our conservation goals.”
The two new blocks are commercial spruce plantations, home to a precious red squirrel colony in one of the creature’s last English strongholds: “Instead of felling them in one go, we’ll gradually replace them with native trees to maintain the canopy, so the reds thrive.”
The deal to purchase the woods was almost scuppered by three not-so-little pigs, owned by a neighbour and fond of snuffling there. “They were undocumented, and that almost upended the sale,” grins Alec. “But it’s sorted now, and we’ll let them stay. Their snouts disturb the soil, helping seeds to germinate, so they are doing their bit!”
Two miles from Hawes and overlooked by the Pennine Way, Snaizeholme is showing the way for landscape-scale conservation – our aerial view (below) picks out some highlights to date.
Says Alec: “As well as planting 290 hectares of woodland around the valley, we are restoring dried-out peatbog, limestone pavement, acid grassland and riverside meadows. I’m excited to see how this latest chapter will deliver even more for nature here.”
» Explore what we’re achieving at Snaizeholme by clicking the buttons on the image below.
Beef Tub beautified
Historic Borders haunt gets the tree treatment
ITS VIEWS ARE magnificent, its history is murderous. The Devil’s Beef Tub is a much-loved Borders beauty spot – a rocky chasm plunging 500ft into the Moffat Hills. It’s the place where Braveheart himself, William Wallace, rallied men to attack the English in 1297, and where reiver clans hid their stolen cattle – hence its name.
Centuries of sheep grazing have nibbled nature down to nothing here, but now the Beef Tub landscape is being transformed with help from the Woodland Trust. We’re investing at least £750,000 in a scheme to return the surrounding hills to vibrant native woodland – 133,000 trees in all.
Years since William Wallace secretly gathered his warriors in the Devil's Beef Tub.
Investment by the Woodland Trust to support tree planting on the surrounding hills.
Native trees now safely in the ground, many planted by community volunteers.
The project is led by Borders Forest Trust (BFT), which cares for 30 square km of country between Tweedsmuir and Moffat. Born of a grassroots desire to see wildlife-rich habitat make a comeback, BFT blazed a trail for community land ownership in Scotland in the 1990s, starting with its scheme in the nearby Carrifran valley.
“Since 2015 we’ve co-funded BFT’s work to get smaller woods scattered across the region,” says the Woodland Trust’s Iain Moss, “but this is our most eyecatching collaboration yet.”
The Trust cash has purchased carbon credits from the new woodland, which we can now sell on to forward-thinking businesses keen to offset their climate footprint. And the revitalised habitat has such rich potential that Iain says we hope to command a price well above the going rate for each tonne of carbon the woods absorb. Planting was completed in March, and BFT’s Nicola Hunt says the goal is to revive part of the vast Ettrick Forest that William Wallace knew.
“I still see black grouse and golden eagles here, but the hills have been bare for generations – you couldn’t conceal cattle in the Beef Tub today! We are retaining its wild grandeur but greening the hills all around. The Woodland Trust’s backing has been vital to get the project off the ground.”
It’s tree central!
£4 million plan to plant new woods across the Midlands
A BOLD VISION to embroider central England with millions more trees has taken a major stride forward. A two-year scoping study for the fledgling Midlands Forest Network has mapped all the land with high potential for planting across 11 counties, in a region with just 7.7% woodland cover. The UK average is 13.5%.
Led by the Woodland Trust and the National Forest, the Defra-funded report proposes joining together 18 existing well-wooded ‘hubs’ – places like Cannock Chase and the Malvern Hills – with ‘spokes’, corridors of countryside ripe for woodland creation.
“It’s a blueprint that can deliver big benefits for people, nature and the economy,” says the Trust’s Toby Bancroft. “Next we want to pilot the idea in a spoke that links Sherwood Forest to the National Forest, taking in the outskirts of both Nottingham and Derby. We’re developing a £4 million bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund to make it happen.”
NETWORK VISION
Square kilometres of land earmarked as high priority for new woodland by the Midlands Forest Network.
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New trees needed in the 28% of urban areas with low canopy cover across the region.
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People who’ll benefit in those neighbourhoods from improved health and wellbeing.
