Landscapes for Water, an ambitious new programme of moorland restoration and woodland creation across the South Pennines by the National Trust and Yorkshire Water, has been able to break ground, thanks to considerable funding from the White Rose Forest, the Community Forest for North and West Yorkshire.
A first tranche of 45,000 tree tubes and stakes were airlifted from the Buckstones car park onto sites around March Haigh reservoir on 16th November, ready for tree planting of resilient native species in the new year.
This helicopter flight marks the start of the Landscapes for Water programme: a five-year plan that will contribute to restoring the landscapes of the South Pennines. Focusing on large areas of National Trust and Yorkshire Water landholdings across the South Pennines, it aims to protect unique habitats and wildlife, heal climate harm, and deliver flood risk resilience for downstream communities.
The programme will do this by creating native broadleaved woodland, restoring peatlands and installing natural flood management solutions such as leaky dams. Working with tenant farmers and commoners of the moor, together with the community as well as various funding organisations, the programme will deliver for nature, climate and people over the next five years.
In all, 350 hectares of native trees (around 300,000) will be planted around the edges of moorland, mostly in small valleys, called cloughs. These will soak up surface water, prevent flooding further downstream, and protect riverbanks, and help to grow the White Rose Forest in West Yorkshire.
Funding for woodland creation has come from the White Rose Forest via their Trees for Climate grants programme, part of the Government’s Nature for Climate fund. By 2025, the White Rose Forest partnership is aiming to plant seven million trees across North and West Yorkshire, which will help protect and improve the natural environment and local communities.
Guy Thompson, Programme Director for the White Rose Forest, said:
“The Government funding we can provide to all landowners across North and West Yorkshire is helping to plant trees where they are needed the most. Trees and woodland are vital for our environment, biodiversity, economy, industry, and the health and wellbeing of our communities. Trees give us oxygen, store carbon, stabilise the soil and provide essential habitats for wildlife. New woodland carefully placed in a rural river valley will, over time, help reduce flooding in the towns and cities further downstream.”
Jess Yorke, the National Trust’s project lead for the Landscapes for Water programme, said:
“We are very grateful for the support from the White Rose Forest and are thrilled to have been able to begin preparations for tree planting in the March Haigh area.
“The Landscapes for Water programme is ambitious, but we believe landscape scale work like this is vital to protect the unique habitats, wildlife and communities of the South Pennines. We are looking forward to the start of tree planting in the new year and will be reaching out to members of the local community to join us for planting days when this begins.”
Hazel Earnshaw, lead countryside and woodland advisor for Yorkshire Water, said:
“Together, Yorkshire Water and the National Trust are the largest landowners in Yorkshire. We have a responsibility to the people and wildlife that live in our catchments to restore our uplands to turn them back into carbon sinks too.
“Putting nature-based solutions in the ground now means long term benefits to our customers and society, and tree planting forms part of our aim of becoming carbon net zero by 2030. We are proud to be working on this project with the National Trust.”
