European Rewilding Network

Wild Ingleborough

Multi-partner landscape-scale conservation

Steve Ryder
Dwayne Martindale
Finn Varney
Tim Thom
Tim Thom
Liz Coates
Liz Coates

Launched in the summer of 2021 Wild Ingleborough is a multi-partner, landscape-scale conservation project creating a wilder future for the Ingleborough area of the Yorkshire Dales National Park in northern England. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world. This is reflected in the Yorkshire Dales, where pockets of native woodland and natural habitat are restricted to isolated fragments. We will work to restore around 1,500 hectares of land owned by Natural England and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, helping wildlife to thrive across the Ingleborough National Nature Reserve and beyond. Working with local communities and land managers across an additional 5,000 hectares through our sister project the Three Dales Landscape Recovery Scheme, Wild Ingleborough will restore land from the valley floor to the mountain top, reconnecting patches of habitat to allow wildlife to move more freely in the landscape.

Specification Description Achievements Exchange
Project: Wild Ingleborough
Region: Ingleborough, North Yorkshire, England
Type of project: Creating space for wilder nature, Fostering the development of nature based economies
Aim and vision: A Wilder Ingleborough with abundant wildlife valued by people at its heart connected to other wilder landscapes through a nature recovery network supported by wildlife friendly farming and regenerative agriculture
Ingleborough will be a wildlife-rich mosaic of blanket bog, heath, scrub, woodlands and flower-rich limestone grasslands providing with waders, black grouse, merlin, short-eared owl, hen harrier, skylarks, redstarts and willow warblers and a sanctuary for large mammals. Woodlands and bogs will store carbon and cattle grazing will provide good returns for farmers. Local people and visitors will enjoy wildlife and volunteers will assist with habitat restoration and monitoring change.
Other activities: Community involved, Eco tourism, Education, Research
Results you aim to accomplish in 10 years from now on: Nature Recovery: 4000ha being restored for wildlife by 2035.
Healthy, connected communities: 300 people actively involved in nature restoration. High community wellbeing scores.
Resilient economy: 50% of adjacent landowners managing for nature. 15 local businesses actively promoting nature and local wildlife.
Inspirational value: Grazing: Botanical species richness, red-listed plants and calcareous grassland indicators increasing on cattle grazed plots since sheep removal. Butterflies 5.3 times higher.<br /> Community: 7000 hours f community volunteering over 2 years planting 122,000 trees. Community days over-subscribed with waiting lists.<br /> Business: Largely funded by private sector showing that businesses see Wild Ingleborough as worth supporting.
Experience you would like to share: How to change culturally ingrained intensive sheep management into rewilded landscapes; the development of ecosystem service credit markets to support rewilding, development of a montane nursery and targeted species recovery programme; effective working with schools and disadvantaged communities; development and maintenance of multi-organisation partnerships to come together to achieve more.
Experience you would like to gain: We have very little wildlife or wild landscapes left in our area and we are starting from scratch. We need to be able to present a positive vision to a resistant community of farmers who haven't experienced a rewilded landscape. It is difficult to do this without concrete examples. The work that Rewilding Europe is doing with communities that are already closely connected to wilder landscapes provides us with models we can showcase to our land managers and perhaps even persuade some of our farmers to meet farmers in other European landscapes. We also believe that you are developing a compelling ecotourism and economic model for rewilded area that we can replicate here over time.
Map
Country
UK, England
Start year
2021
Area type
Forest-grassland mosaic, Mountainous, Wetlands
Natural process
Other
Flagship species
Feral cattle
Wild Ingleborough
Steve Ryder
Dwayne Martindale
Finn Varney
Tim Thom
Tim Thom
Liz Coates
Liz Coates

Launched in the summer of 2021 Wild Ingleborough is a multi-partner, landscape-scale conservation project creating a wilder future for the Ingleborough area of the Yorkshire Dales National Park in northern England. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world. This is reflected in the Yorkshire Dales, where pockets of native woodland and natural habitat are restricted to isolated fragments. We will work to restore around 1,500 hectares of land owned by Natural England and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, helping wildlife to thrive across the Ingleborough National Nature Reserve and beyond. Working with local communities and land managers across an additional 5,000 hectares through our sister project the Three Dales Landscape Recovery Scheme, Wild Ingleborough will restore land from the valley floor to the mountain top, reconnecting patches of habitat to allow wildlife to move more freely in the landscape.

Map
Country
UK, England
Start year
2021
Area type
Forest-grassland mosaic, Mountainous, Wetlands
Natural process
Other
Flagship species
Feral cattle
Specification
Project: Wild Ingleborough
Region: Ingleborough, North Yorkshire, England
Description
Type of project: Creating space for wilder nature, Fostering the development of nature based economies
Aim and vision: A Wilder Ingleborough with abundant wildlife valued by people at its heart connected to other wilder landscapes through a nature recovery network supported by wildlife friendly farming and regenerative agriculture
Ingleborough will be a wildlife-rich mosaic of blanket bog, heath, scrub, woodlands and flower-rich limestone grasslands providing with waders, black grouse, merlin, short-eared owl, hen harrier, skylarks, redstarts and willow warblers and a sanctuary for large mammals. Woodlands and bogs will store carbon and cattle grazing will provide good returns for farmers. Local people and visitors will enjoy wildlife and volunteers will assist with habitat restoration and monitoring change.
Other activities: Community involved, Eco tourism, Education, Research
Achievements
Results you aim to accomplish in 10 years from now on: Nature Recovery: 4000ha being restored for wildlife by 2035.
Healthy, connected communities: 300 people actively involved in nature restoration. High community wellbeing scores.
Resilient economy: 50% of adjacent landowners managing for nature. 15 local businesses actively promoting nature and local wildlife.
Exchange
Inspirational value: Grazing: Botanical species richness, red-listed plants and calcareous grassland indicators increasing on cattle grazed plots since sheep removal. Butterflies 5.3 times higher.<br /> Community: 7000 hours f community volunteering over 2 years planting 122,000 trees. Community days over-subscribed with waiting lists.<br /> Business: Largely funded by private sector showing that businesses see Wild Ingleborough as worth supporting.
Experience you would like to share: How to change culturally ingrained intensive sheep management into rewilded landscapes; the development of ecosystem service credit markets to support rewilding, development of a montane nursery and targeted species recovery programme; effective working with schools and disadvantaged communities; development and maintenance of multi-organisation partnerships to come together to achieve more.
Experience you would like to gain: We have very little wildlife or wild landscapes left in our area and we are starting from scratch. We need to be able to present a positive vision to a resistant community of farmers who haven't experienced a rewilded landscape. It is difficult to do this without concrete examples. The work that Rewilding Europe is doing with communities that are already closely connected to wilder landscapes provides us with models we can showcase to our land managers and perhaps even persuade some of our farmers to meet farmers in other European landscapes. We also believe that you are developing a compelling ecotourism and economic model for rewilded area that we can replicate here over time.
Wild Ingleborough
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