Summary
A guided visit to Kingsdale Head, a 608-hectare upland restoration project in the Yorkshire Dales, showcasing peatland, woodland and scrub recovery alongside low-density cattle grazing. Explore early restoration interventions, ecological baselining and monitoring, and discuss the practical challenges and successes of funding and delivering landscape-scale recovery.
Description
We will meet at the farm for an introduction to the site followed by a guided walk through the Kingsdale Head. The route will take us up through steep and wet parts of the site, giving participants a close look at the range of interventions across this landscape. Along the way, we will discuss the project’s peatland restoration work, including hydrological interventions, techniques used, as well as different approaches to the reintroduction of trees and scrub on other parts of the site to support natural regeneration.
The visit will also explore some species reintroductions, the ecological baselines and monitoring used to guide decision-making, and the funding and partnership working that underpin this landscape-scale work. We will have the opportunity to see how extensive upland cattle grazing is being used as a management tool, including the application of Nofence GPS collars to support low-impact, flexible grazing across the site. There is a good chance we may encounter the cattle during the walk.
This visit hopefully offers a look at how large-scale upland restoration is being delivered in practice, combining ecological restoration, funding challenges and partnership working.
Jamie McEwan manages the restoration work at Kingsdale Head, is involved practically as well as developing the site and managing the business for a 600-hectare upland site. Jamie has a strong interest in how water, vegetation and grazing interact and applies this on site at Kingsdale where he focuses on Blanket bog recovery, woodland and scrub establishment, and practical grazing management using Nofence GPS collars. His background includes a range of landscape-scale habitat projects working for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, combining fieldwork, monitoring and partnership working.
