Over on the Western side of the Yorkshire Dales National Park are Yorkshire’s Three Peaks.

Whernside is the largest, Pen-y-ghent the smallest - and in the middle there is Ingleborough.

The land around Ingleborough is big, open and breath-taking. In some places, the great limestone pavement looks more like the surface of the moon than the earth, and only increases your feeling of being in a truly wild landscape.

But the reality is that this land is not as wild as it should be. It has been influenced by people for centuries, and you can see that influence all around. Since the Second World War, increased numbers of sheep, encouraged by government and subsidies, have had an impact on the natural vegetation.

While sheep numbers have decreased in recent decades, the results are still clear: the stark, grey limestone pavement dotted with just a few trees should be lush, green and filled with flora and fauna.

The efforts of Natural England’s Ingleborough National Nature Reserve (NNR) team have shown what’s possible: with reduced sheep grazing and light-touch cattle grazing, trees and shrubs take hold, wildflowers start to flourish, and wildlife increases.

York Press:

Where are all the trees? ingleborough today. Picture: Celia Afande 

Here at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust we want to bring the wildness back to Ingleborough - and the exciting Wild Ingleborough project will start to do just that.

Covering an area from the river valleys up towards the mountain summit, the project will see the restoration of peatlands and the expansion of native woodland and scrub, helping to tackle the climate emergency.

The project will initially cover 1,200 hectares and will be one of the first examples in England of re-establishing the natural tree line, from broadleaf woodland to dwarf shrub, heather moorland and lichen heathlands.

The project will connect existing nature reserves in the area, creating a bigger, more joined up space for wildlife. In some places, vegetation will regenerate naturally, while in others, areas of woodland will be connected through tree planting. Local people have been employed to create the new project team and they have been busy planting around 40 hectares of new native woodland, with half created by planting 30,000 trees and the other half through natural regeneration.

The Wild Ingleborough Project is made up of a variety of different partners including Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (who are leading the project), Natural England, United Bank of Carbon, Leeds University, Woodland Trust and WWF-UK. The partners bring together a strong team with a broad range of expertise, local knowledge and resources.

By aiding nature’s recovery, this project hopes to protect and restore wildlife-friendly habitats, home to precious animal species including black grouse, red squirrels, cuckoos and curlews - of which there are currently only two pairs within the Ingleborough project area. The project will also focus on plants such as juniper - most of which around Ingleborough has suffered from disease - as well as bird’s-eye primrose, globeflower and many species of orchids.

Since starting work earlier this year, the new project team have been really busy

Project assistant Abbi Woof grew up on a Yorkshire Dales sheep farm. “I started my career volunteering for the Yorkshire Dales National Park as a young ranger, which lead to an apprenticeship as I finished school," she said. "I gained valuable skills, and now I’m in this job doing what I enjoy.”

Fellow project assistant Dwayne Martindale also lives locally. He said: “When I heard about the Wild Ingleborough project I knew I had to be a part of it, as it encapsulated everything I love about nature, the Dales, and working towards something that will truly make a lasting impact on the flora, fauna and people who call this magnificent landscapehome.”

The benefits of this project are huge – for wildlife and people, and in showing how nature’s recovery can help tackle the climate emergency.

In just a few weeks, representatives from across the world are meeting in Glasgow for COP26, to make plans on how to tackle climate change across the globe. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has declared a climate and wildlife emergency, and wants to see 30 per cent of land and sea protected and connected for nature’s recovery by 2030. The climate and ecological emergencies are intrinsically linked, and it is only by championing large-scale natural climate solutions like Wild Ingleborough that we can hope to achieve these goals.

  • Jono Leadley is the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's project manager for Wild Ingleborough.