Fell Care Days Back For 2nd Year

© FLD

Landscape charity Friends of the Lake District's Fell Care Day is taking place today at Ullswater. This is the second year they've run the mass volunteer tidy-up event; if you've missed this one there's another at Windermere in October.

Dunmail Raise drain group 2011  © FLD
Dunmail Raise drain group 2011
© FLD

Fell Care Days were first put on last year, when 200 volunteers, 130 schoolchildren and 33 organisations took part in two events at Helvellyn and Ennerdale. Run by the Friends' Flora of the Fells project, they helped highlight the huge amount of time and work which volunteers put in to caring for the Lakeland Fells - and got plenty of useful work done too.

More than 20 groups and organisations will be taking part today, including two schools and 80 volunteers.

Volunteers will be undertaking a variety of activities on and around Ullswater, including footpath repair work right up to Helvellyn's Red Tarn, dry stone walling, a lakeshore litter pick on foot and by canoe, and clearing gorse and drains on a variety of nearby walks. Children from Patterdale and Penruddock schools will be planting native flower bulbs, coppicing, stream dipping, making bat and bird boxes and creating a squirrel hide out of willow near Aira Force waterfall.

Sue Manson, Flora of the Fells Project officer said:

'The Fell Care Day promises to be a great day in celebration of the Lake District Fells, all the benefits they provide and the immense volunteer effort that goes into helping to conserve them. The Fell Care Days are a great chance to get fit and do something fulfilling in an amazing setting. We've got volunteers of all ages coming along.'

Organisations represented include Friends of the Lake District, Lake District National Park Authority, the National Trust, the Ullswater Association, Ullswater College, Eden Rivers Trust and Ullswater Steamers, plus many individuals from Cumbria and visitors from further afield. Glencoyne Farmer Sam Hodgson will be helping with the walling task on the high fells above Glenridding.

If you're reading this then you've probably missed the boat this time round, but there's an opportunity to take part in a second Fell Care Day at Windermere on Thursday 25 October. For more info or to volunteer contact Sue Manson, Flora Events and Communications Officer on 01539 733187 or by email.


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