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Cumbria Wildlife Trust asks public to help buy Skiddaw Forest and create England’s highest nature reserve

Cumbria Wildlife Trust announces the launch of a major public appeal to help buy Skiddaw Forest, including the summit of Skiddaw.

  • 620 acres of lost Atlantic Rainforest will be restored in Cumbria thanks to The Wildlife Trusts’ partnership with Aviva 

  • Skiddaw Forest in the Lake District covers 3,000 acres of currently ungrazed upland  

  • Over 2,200 acres of other habitat will be restored including montane scrub, wildflower grassland, heather moorland and 992 acres of peatbogs 

  • Open public access to this popular fell – including Skiddaw’s summit – will be secured   

  • Internationally important site for nature and geology will be protected forever 

Today, 5th September, Cumbria Wildlife Trust announces the launch of a major public appeal to help buy Skiddaw Forest, including the summit of Skiddaw. The charity aims to restore a huge, lost area of Atlantic rainforest as part of its 100-year vision for bringing back wildlife to the lower slopes of what will be the highest nature reserve in England.  

Thanks to a partnership with Aviva, £5 million has been raised and additional support has been secured from charitable funders towards the asking price. Now the charity needs to rise the final £1.25 million and is appealing to the public to secure the purchase.  

A view of Skiddaw with blooming purple heather

Skiddaw Forest, Lake District. (c) Harry Shepherd

Stephen Trotter, CEO of Cumbria Wildlife Trust, says:  

“This is a unique and exciting opportunity to create England’s highest nature reserve and, working with farmers and the local community, we urgently need to put more wildlife back into a much-loved and spectacular part of Cumbria.  We’re extremely grateful to Aviva and other donors for the contributions already made towards the purchase of Skiddaw Forest.  

“Now we’re asking the public to give whatever they can to help us secure this site and to bring more nature to this very special place. 

“Skiddaw Forest offers a unique opportunity for wildlife and climate resilience at a major scale in the Lake District National Park. We have to reverse the decline of nature in National Parks to help address the impacts of the climate emergency and the wider wildlife crisis.” 

Claudine Blamey, Chief Sustainability Officer, Aviva, says:  

“We’re delighted to see Skiddaw in the Lake District chosen as the latest site in our partnership with The Wildlife Trusts, creating England’s highest nature reserve in such an iconic location. Restoring temperate rainforest, peatlands and other habitats on Skiddaw will help the Lake District become more climate ready and provide communities and visitors the opportunity to experience the wonder of British rainforests for years to come.” 

Mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington, says:  

“As a lover of the Lake District fells, and a keen advocate for the environment and biodiversity, I can’t think of a better organisation to manage Skiddaw Forest than Cumbria Wildlife Trust. Their tireless work has really helped to put wildlife into the consciousness of the public and put nature back onto the map.” 

Writer and television presenter Julia Bradbury, says:  

“This is an amazing opportunity for nature recovery on such a large scale. I’m delighted Cumbria Wildlife Trust can begin restoring precious montane habitats on this iconic Lakeland fell which is still close to my heart in so many ways. Our natural world needs a lot of help and it’s visions like this that can make a tremendous difference. Let’s help keep these wild spaces protected for generations to come.” 

If you’d like to help secure the future of Skiddaw Forest for nature, please visit cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/donate/skiddaw or call Cumbria Wildlife Trust on 01539 816300.    

Notes to editors

Additional quote from Steve Trotter, CEO Cumbria Wildlife Trust: 

“This is a long-term nature recovery project which will develop over a century or more. We’re looking to closely involve visitors, local communities, volunteers, farmers and our many other partners in the programme. This is about taking a sensitive and careful approach to Rainforest recovery; respecting and safeguarding the area’s cultural heritage whilst using native species to promote and enhance the beautiful and wildlife-rich type of broadleaved woodland for which the Lake District is celebrated and loved.   It will also store large amounts of carbon, promote cleaner air and water - and reduce the downstream risk from flooding.   

“The peatbogs of Skiddaw Forest already hold an estimated 1.25 million tonnes of carbon equivalent and by restoring and protecting 1,000 acres, it’s vital that we keep this vast store in the ground and not the atmosphere!” 

About Skiddaw Forest 

Skiddaw Forest in Cumbria is not currently wooded (it’s the old use of the word forest, meaning hunting ground). It’s a vast area of moorland, upland heath and peatland, which includes three Lake District fell summits (Skiddaw, Great Calva and Little Calva). These wildlife habitats are ecologically very valuable and need to be carefully protected.  

The summit of Skiddaw towers over the neighbouring town of Keswick, providing commanding views over Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite Lake, as well as the Newlands and Coledale Fells. An iconic route, with the Cumbrian Way and Bob Graham Round passing through it, the area is enjoyed by many visitors each year. 

Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s vision 

Our vision for Skiddaw Forest includes re-creating 620 acres (c.20% of the site) of native Atlantic Rainforest on part of the slopes thanks to a long-term partnership between The Wildlife Trusts and Aviva. This is a 100-year vision which will see temperate rainforests restored to areas they once grew, in high rainfall western parts of the British Isles. Native trees will grow through natural regeneration from local seed as well as by planting locally-grown saplings. 

We will carefully respect the cultural and historical landscape of Skiddaw Forest and consider introducing appropriate grazing once trees are established, in partnership with local farmers. The land has not been grazed or farmed for several years. 

We will plant a rich diversity of appropriate tree species including sessile oak, birch, rowan, holly, alder, hawthorn, juniper, bird cherry, wych elm, crab apple, blackthorn, aspen, hazel and a number of different types of willow. This will allow a rich tapestry of life to grow in, on and around these trees. Eventually, ferns, liverworts, mosses and lichens will cover the trunks and branches and even the fellside itself. 

Skiddaw Forest also has one of the largest areas of blanket bog in the Lake District. We will restore this important peatland habitat by blocking artificial drains and revegetating bare peat areas. This will prevent the loss of a huge carbon reserve and enhance the wildlife value of the site.   

Aviva partnership 

Please see Aviva’s press release ‘Aviva helps restore rare native British rainforests’ (February 2023) for more information about Aviva’s long-term commitment to nature-based solutions, net-zero ambitions and carbon capture potential of rainforest restoration.  

Atlantic Rainforests 

Temperate rainforests have been lost over hundreds of years and they now cover less than 1% of Britain. The restoration of this precious habitat is part of a wider programme of nature-based projects funded by Aviva to remove carbon from the atmosphere and to help nature recover. As well as being carbon stores, these rainforests support an incredible wealth of wildlife, especially rare and unusual mosses, lichen and fungi.  

Rainforests of the British Isles are temperate rainforests, which means they grow in areas that have high rainfall and humidity, and a low annual variation in temperature. They’re also known as Atlantic woodland or Celtic rainforest. In Cumbria, the main remaining areas of Atlantic rainforests can be found at Borrowdale, Buttermere, Eskdale, Ullswater and Staveley Woodlands.  

Specialist birds such a pied flycatcher and wood warbler thrive in these woodlands, along with redstart, great-spotted and green woodpecker and peregrine falcon. Wet conditions support an abundance of mosses, liverworts, lichens, and ferns – many of which grow on the trees or cover boulders and ravines. The dampness is ideal for fungi, including globally rare species like hazel gloves fungus. 

Rainforests and climate change 

As trees grow, they absorb carbon from the atmosphere which is stored in the soil, roots, trunks, and branches of the tree itself. The epiphytes – the lichens, mosses and ferns covering the trees – also carry out this function, and so British rainforests have huge potential for storing carbon. To achieve the UK’s net-zero ambition, it is estimated that woodland cover needs to increase to at least 17% across the UK by 2050 (it is currently at 13% though, unlike native rainforests, much of this is non-native plantation which does little to benefit nature).  

IUCN Nature-based solutions standard 

A critical component of this scheme for The Wildlife Trusts is that Aviva is investing in a range of benefits from the restoration of British rainforest; including but not limited to carbon. The biodiversity, adaptation and community benefits of these projects are as important and are a central part of the investment which Aviva is making. The Wildlife Trusts helped to pilot the IUCN global standard on nature-based solutions, which aims to ensure that nature-based solutions benefit biodiversity, health and well-being, and climate resilience. These aspects of the project are core to the aims of both Aviva and The Wildlife Trusts and we will be following the standard as part of this project.   

Cumbria Wildlife Trust cares passionately about wildlife and wild places – we’re here to put wildlife back into our land and seascapes to make Cumbria a wilder county with more space for nature. We restore and connect wild places, work with nature to tackle the climate emergency and support people to take local action for wildlife. With a dedicated team of skilled and professional staff working closely with volunteers, partners and thousands of supporters, together we’re creating a wilder future for Cumbria. We are a registered charity, part of a UK-wide grassroots movement made up of 46 individual Wildlife Trusts who all believe that we need nature and nature needs us.  

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