Following on from the reported success of their Helvellyn mass volunteering event in September Friends of the Lake District is running its first ever Fell Care Day at Ennerdale on Tuesday 18 October.

The landscape conservation charity is organizing the Ennerdale event through its Flora of the Fells project in order to highlight the huge role that volunteering plays in conserving and managing the fells. More than 12 organizations and eighty volunteers will be taking part; it's not too late to join them.

The day will involve lots of practical conservation activities and awareness raising about all the benefits the fells provide. It will also highlight wildlife, tranquility and how the land is managed to produce good quality drinking water. As the site of an ambitious ongoing re-wilding project, Ennerdale seems a suitable location for such an event. For those who are new to the area it's also got some of Cumbria's finest hills (see this UKH route card for instance).

Volunteers will be undertaking a range of tasks around Ennerdale including planting hundreds of native junipers, footpath drainage repair work, some walling, and surveying red grouse.

Volunteer groups from Friends of the Lake District, Wild Ennerdale, the National Trust, Natural England, Fix the Fells, the Lake District National Park and others will be taking part, as will school pupils and students from a local college.

Sue Manson, Flora of the Fells Project Officer said:

'If our Helvellyn Fell Care Day is anything to go by, Ennerdale promises to be a great day in celebration of the Lake District Fells, all they provide for us and the immense volunteer effort that goes into helping to conserve them. 2011 is the European Year of Volunteering and the 60th birthday of the Lake District National Park, so we're very pleased to be able to celebrate with so many people and organizations taking part in this great day caring for the fells. We've got volunteers of all ages coming along and it's not too late to join in what promises to be a really good day'.

For more information, or to volunteer contact Sue Manson on 01539 733187 or by email