Abstract
Ennerdale is located in the Lake District National Park, north-west England. The valley has been managed as coniferous plantation forest since the 1920s by the Forestry Commission. Since 2002, however, the Forestry Commission has been a partner (along with the National Trust and United Utilities) in the Wild Ennerdale (WE) initiative. The vision of WE is ‘to allow the evolution of Ennerdale as a wild valley for the benefit of people, relying more on natural processes to shape its landscape and ecology’. This chapter considers the relationship between WE and the cultural landscape of the Ennerdale valley, and has identified disparities between the WE view of engagement and participation and corresponding feelings of alienation, dispossession and dislocation expressed by some respondents. The chapter presents an argument for stronger links between the wilding project and the local community, and in doing so highlights many of the tensions and complexities found in wilding programs globally. We argue for a much greater appreciation of the role (rural) communities have played, and continue to play, in shaping the local landscape. Recognition of this role is important in terms of delivering sustainable wilding projects in the future.
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Notes
- 1.
Editors’ Note: The concept of wilding as applied to a cultural landscape does not comfortably fit the notion of “ecological restoration” in the sense of minimum human intervention. But it does represent an attempt to restore to a previous, pre-industrial state that is considered more natural. In our view, this only illustrates that restoration is a social choice informed but not determined by ecological reality.
- 2.
Electoral wards are the base unit of UK administrative geography.
- 3.
The Forestry Commission is the government department responsible for the protection and expansion of Britain’s forests and woodlands. Founded in 1919, they are the largest land manager in Britain, with an estate covering some 258,000 ha.
- 4.
The National Trust is a charity established in 1895 by three Victorian philanthropists – Miss Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley. Concerned about the impact of uncontrolled development and industrialisation, they set up the Trust to act as a guardian for the nation in the acquisition and protection of threatened coastline, countryside and buildings. The Trust now protects over 300 historic houses and gardens, 49 industrial monuments and mills, and a range of open air properties including forests, woods, fens, beaches, downs, moorland, islands, archaeological remains and nature reserves, all of which are open to the public. The Trust has 3.5 million members and 52,000 volunteers. During 2007, 15 million people visited Trust pay for entry properties, while an estimated 50 million visited open air properties (National Trust 2008).
- 5.
United Utilities (UU) is the UK’s largest listed water company. They are a FTSE 100 company with a turnover of £2 billion. Alongside owning and operating the water network in north west England, UU are also a major landowner in the region of England, with 58,000 ha of catchment land. Nearly half of the land is in three National Parks, and nearly one third is designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).
- 6.
The views expressed in the study are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency.
- 7.
Twenty-five people attended, this included representatives of the Parish council, local business owners and tourism providers, local residents and ‘incomers’ to the valley. This was an open meeting, all members of the community were invited and it had been publicized locally by the Parish Council.
- 8.
We use the term public goods to refer broadly to resources from which all may benefit, regardless of whether they have helped provide the good. Public goods are also distinguished by the fact that they are non-rival in that one person’s use of the good does not diminish its availability to another person (Kollock 1998).
- 9.
There is no statutory UK definition for the uplands. In an agricultural context the term is generally used to refer to areas above the upper limits of enclosed farmland containing dry and wet dwarf shrub heath species and rough grassland, where management is predominantly through sheep grazing.
- 10.
The recent decision by DEFRA to roll the existing Hill Farm Allowance (HFA) over for a further 3 years is, however, being viewed as a positive move by the National Farmers Union. NFU uplands spokesman Will Cockbain (2006) states that ‘the fact that in 2010 we will move to an uplands entry level scheme is also important as it means all farmers in the uplands will be eligible and can be rewarded for the hugely important role they play in the delivery of public goods.’
- 11.
In reality the ‘upland community’ comprises a number of diverse groups, with different sets of interests and varying capacities to voice those interests.
- 12.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the Ennerdale valley has been subject to low intensity farming since the Bronze Age (WEP 2006) though the present-day farming landscape is largely the product of evolution since the Norse colonization of Cumbria around AD 900. Oxford Archaeology Unit (2003) state that the post-medieval period saw the increasingly intensive pastoral exploitation of the valley sides (in common with other upland areas), adding that the increasing numbers of sheep on the fell inevitably had a considerable impact upon the vegetation, preventing the proliferation of heather moors. The practice of transhumance (summer grazing of stock on the common fell land) continued into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries but was often first documented in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (Oxford Archaeology Unit (2003) provide a detailed historical account of human settlement, agriculture & land use in the valley).
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Convery, I., Dutson, T. (2012). Wild Ennerdale: A Cultural Landscape. In: Stanturf, J., Lamb, D., Madsen, P. (eds) Forest Landscape Restoration. World Forests, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5326-6_12
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