A Cumbrian charity is celebrating a decade of large-scale volunteering events.
Friends of the Lake District are toasting 10 years of Fell Care Days – its large-scale joint volunteering events.
The very first event – Helvellyn Fell Care Day – began on a blistering hot sunny day at the end of September 2011.
Organised by landscape charity Friends of the Lake District, the event saw 120 volunteers and 50 schoolchildren take part in a full day of conservation work on and around Helvellyn.
More than 20 organisations took part – including volunteer groups from the Lake District National Park, Friends of the Lake District, Fix the Fells, Natural England, the Dry Stone Walling Association, United Utilities, Natural England, undertaking a huge range of tasks including rebuilding dry stone walls, repairing woodland paths, clearing drains to prevent erosion on upland paths, litter picks, making bird boxes and a willow squirrel hide.
It was the first of a decade of large-scale volunteering events – since then there have been 20 Fell Care Days in total, all over Cumbria – and the idea is still going strong, despite an enforced break last year due to the pandemic.
Since then more than 2,700 volunteers have taken part in Fell Care Days, completing 193 separate tasks completing 1,872 days’ work in the fells.
Just some of their achievements to date include:
- 50,133 m2 of woodland work including coppicing, clearing non-native regeneration and tree planting,
- 2,760 native trees planted (oak, birch, hawthorn, dogwood, alder, aspen, willow and rowan).
- Over 215m dry stone walling,
- Over 360km of path creation and maintenance,
- 47 Fix the Fells drain runs clearing drains to prevent erosion on upland paths,
- red grouse, red squirrel, fungi, dormouse surveys, invertebrate and river surveys,
- invasive rhododendron clearance,
- 19 litter picks – 7 canoeing, 1 diving and 11 shore-based,
- 100m hedge laid,
- 97 bird and bat boxes put up,
- 4 bridges built,
- 5,700 native snowdrops, daffodils and bluebell bulbs planted,
- 1,000 hay meadow plug plants planted
- And 4,244 pieces of cake have been donated (and eaten) to fuel the volunteers!
Fell Care Days have featured in many reports on TV and radio over the last decade.
The Fell Care Days have raised the profile of the immense amount of work that goes into taking care of the fells not only by volunteers but also by the organisations managing the landscape.
Friends of the Lake District’s Dark Skies Officer Jack Ellerby had the original idea for the mass volunteer days to highlight the huge role that volunteering plays in conserving and managing the fells.
He said: “’Fell Care Days are about connecting people to look after their local landscape. Volunteers, whether residents, business employees or visitors, putting something back, gaining a sense of achievement and celebrating the beauty and diversity of the Lake District valleys. A positive, collective legacy of landscape enhancement – long may they continue.’
Joanne Backshall, programme manager for Fix the Fells, said: “Fell Care Days have been a great success, encouraging many people to play their part in looking after the Lake District Fells.
“They have enabled visitors and locals to learn more about what is needed to care for the Fells and why. We’re delighted to have been involved in these events which have seen hundreds of volunteers helping to maintain the upland path network across the Lakes for all to enjoy now and into the future.”
The next Fell Care Day will be at Haweswater on November 5. If you’d like to take part see more information at https://www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/fell-care-days or sign up to the newsletter to stay in touch: https://www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/newsletter-signup
