Winter work around Great Langdale and Troutbeck Park

With the start of the new year, we were back down from our path repair work on the fells and getting stuck into some lower level work around the valleys.

Starting work on the tree cages

Our first job was at Raw Head in Langdale, where we started by erecting tree cages. These were planted up with scrub saplings that when fully grown will provide excellent habitat for breeding birds.

Completed tree cage

We also built a water heck (gate over the beck) and a small section of post and rail fence at Raw Head. This completed a fenced off area next to the beck which would prevent livestock grazing. It'll be planted up with a few wet-loving tree species such as Willow and Alder.

Heck and fence

Once this was finished, we headed a little further up the valley to an area of enclosed land above Middle Fell Farm, which we'd planted up with Juniper about ten years ago.

Juniper in Great Langdale

The top side of the enclosure was in urgent need of repair as it was no longer stock proof, meaning that sheep could get in and graze on the juniper and any other trees that have naturally regenerated. The fence line had been badly damaged by rock falls and moving scree, plus many of the original fence posts had long passed their best-before-date.

Part of the damaged fence line

In areas where the scree was most mobile we replaced the damaged posts with thick strainer posts dug deeply into the scree and tightened into position. These thicker posts should last longer than ordinary fence posts and also withstand more of a battering by any moving stone. We used rails in these areas as they'd be easier to replace than wire fencing when they become damaged.

Repaired post and rail

In areas that are less likely to be damaged by moving rock we used wire fencing and normal sized posts.

Repaired strained wire fencing

There were also multiple sections of fallen dry stone wall.

Damaged section of wall

Some of the larger sections of damaged wall were fenced off and the smaller wall gaps were repaired.

Repaired wall

New wall-top fencing was then added to prevent sheep jumping onto and over the wall.

Repaired wall (from above) with new wall-top fence

Many of the original wall-top fence posts had rotted away so these were also replaced where necessary.

Repairing the wall-top fence on another wet day

The whole section ran for about 500 metres and we managed to stock-proof the whole area. Although it's likely that many of the original wall-top posts are on borrowed time and will need replacing in the next few years.

Fresh section of post and wire fencing

We also spent a few weeks at Troutbeck Park building a wire tree exclosure and some tree cages. Again, this will help improve biodiversity in the area.

Livestock exclosure at Troutbeck Park

The area where we were working was rich in history, with people having been settled there since prehistoric times. Several old charcoal burning platforms were obvious as well as a post-medieval clapper bridge (probably at least as old as the 17th century) that we passed over each day to get to the worksite.

Clapper bridge

Tree planting in Grasmere and peat bog restoration work in Ullswater

It's been a busy few weeks since our last post so here's a taster of what we've been up to.
        

Earlier on, in mid-February, we spent a week tree planting on the slopes of Helm Crag. The work was funded by Natural England. We planted 1800 scrub woodland species over an area of 6 hectares, working alongside other National Trust staff and assisted by some of the Fix the Fells volunteers.

As the trees develop, they will help stabilise the soil and reduce rainwater runoff. They will also provide a valuable habitat for birds, such as Tree Pipit and Yellowhammer, mammals and insects.

You can read in more detail about the work on the Central and East Lakes Rangers blog... here, so here are just a selection photos of the work over a very wintery week.

Having a quick debrief on the first day

Planting out the trees

Looking towards Dunnmail Raise on the last day

Later on in the month we spent a day carrying out some peat bog restoration work up on Matterdale Common with the Ullswater team and staff from Cumbria Wildlife Trust.

Over 70 per cent of peatlands in England are in a damaged state, often due to drainage, overgrazing, forestry or regular burning. This damage prevents the peat remaining waterlogged, causing plants to die off. Without vegetation cover, bare areas of peat are formed which rapidly erode. This damage can be repaired by revegetating and blocking drains to help raise the water table. 

The project has been overseen by Cumbria Wildlife Trust who've used digger contractors to do the main bulk of the work, but as a member of the Cumbria Peat Partnership we were eager to lend a hand with areas that couldn't be done with machinery.

Our main job was to plant heather on the bare areas of peat to help speed up the regeneration process.

 Heather plants ready to be planted out

So we took the trays of heather out into one of the two stock excluded areas on Matterdale Common and planted up in the barest patches.

Planting out the heather 

Areas of peat that have eroded (often as a result of grazing, historical peat cutting and water damage) may form steep banks, known as hags. These hags continue to erode, due to water flow and wind damage, forming large areas of bare peat that plants struggle to survive on.

By reprofiling the banks to an angle of around thirty degrees it gives the heather seedlings a much better chance to flourish. Many of the hags have been removed using the diggers but we were able to get to a few areas that the diggers couldn't reach and to also work on some of the smaller hags.

 Grading one of the peat hags

You can see the area where we were working in the photograph below and also the difference between the grazed and ungrazed areas. The area in the distance was fenced off about 10 years ago allowing heather and other peatland plants to return, this should further improve following the recent work.

Bundles of heather used for blocking drainage

You can learn more about peatland restoration on the Cumbria Wildlife Trust website... here.

Pitching the path at Millbeck Farm

We've recently been working on a section of path next to Millbeck Farm in Great Langdale. The path had some old pitching around the gate but this was in need of replacing and much of the rest of the path had been disturbed during excavations for the new hydro project.

 Before starting work

The repairs were relatively straightforward except for a small section underneath a veteran Yew tree. To cause as little disturbance as possible to the tree we moved some large boulders into position to form the edge of the path. This meant we could raise the path over the roots and not have to dig through them. Luckily there was still a digger on site after the hydro work so we had the rocks in place much more quickly than if we'd had to move them by hand.

 Section under the old Yew

In time as the Yew grows it's likely that we may have to reset some of the stones, so we'll keep a close watch on things.

 Pitching under the Yew

After a couple of weeks we'd replaced the path from beneath the Yew tree and up through the new gate.

 Repairing the path near the gate

We brought in some extra topsoil that was being used for landscaping around the intake of the hydro-electric scheme and put some grass seed down, to give the path a good chance to recover.

 Most of the landscaping completed

After just a few weeks time the new section of path was looking much improved.

Finished path

Hanging a new gate and building tree cages

Over the past few weeks we've continued our lower-level work around Grasmere, Great Langdale, Troutbeck and Windermere. One of our jobs was to replace a gate at the top of Deerbolts Wood near Loughrigg Common. As you can see in the photograph below, the old gate had certainly seen better days. The long-term plan is to have an oak gate at this site to match those at High Close Gardens and help to identify the site as part of the High Close Estate. But with it being such a well used path it needed a temporary fix, so we decided to replace it with a softwood gate.

 Old gate ready to be replaced

The new gate is a massive improvement, even if its only temporary. When the time comes to hang the permanent oak gate, this gate will be re-used elsewhere. As part of our continuing improvements around High Close, we've already started installing new 'High Close Estate' signs in strategic locations. There's been lots of work done over the past couple of years around High Close and if you've never been, it really is worth a visit. You can see a photo gallery of some of the work here... High Close Gardens Restoration

 Newly hung gate

We've also spent a fair amount of time tree-planting and constructing tree cages in conjunction with our farm tenants. The tree cages below were built on one of our tenanted farms near Orrest Head, Windermere. A single native tree is planted in each cage, which is designed mainly to keep cattle from grazing or pushing against the trees, giving them time to properly develop into large standard trees.

 Constructing one of the tree cages

It's nice to think that in a hundred years time the saplings that have been planted in these cages will be a feature of the landscape overlooking Lake Windermere.

Finished tree cage