Ullswater Fell Care Day

On 27 September, a mass volunteering effort around Ullswater saw 210 people from 19 organisations come together to give more than 1000 hours of their time to conservation activities in the valley in just one day.

Organised by Friends of the Lake District's Flora of the Fells project, the Fell Care Day saw volunteers take part in a range of tasks. Together with our Rangers the volunteers made massive improvements around Aira Force in such a short amount of time. School children from Patterdale and Penruddock cut lots of scrub and low limbs amongst the trees in the arboretum, tidying it up and making way for people to explore the magnificent Conifers. They also helped to built a red squirrel hide from willow, learned about water and conservation and planted 1000 native daffodil bulbs in the Glade.

They also made 30 new bird boxes and ten bat boxes to be used to encourage roosting birds and bats around the area and also put up squirrel and bird feeders which were donated to us by a local company called The Birds Bistro.

Here a group of students from Newton Rigg College managed to rebuild 40yds of footpath above High Force.

 Below our farm tenant from Glencoyne "Sam Hodgson" helps a team rebuild a dry stone wall above Glencoyne wood.

Overall the day was a huge success; highlighting the huge role that volunteering plays in conserving and managing the fells. More than 19 organizations took part, including volunteer groups from Friends of the Lake District, Fix the Fells, the Lake District National Park, the National Trust, Penrith and District Red Squirrel Group and visiting schoolchildren from the Ullswater Outward Bound Trust.

Sue Manson, Flora of the Fells Project Officer said: 'The Fell Care Day was awesome - a conservation Glastonbury with so many individuals, groups and organisations contributing their time so freely! The volunteer army achieved so much in one day they really felt they'd put something back into caring for the Ullswater valley.'

We are now gearing up for another Fell Care Day, scheduled to take place at St Catherine's in Windermere on Thursday 25 October.