Alder naturally regenerating on the flood plain at Heggs Farm
Potting on Day: 21st June, The Hub @ St Mary’s Church, Arkengarthdale
A reminder that we will be potting on tree seedlings at The Hub, Arkengarthdale on Saturday 21st June between 10:30 and 14:30. Please bring any saplings that are ready (should have a second set of leaves and ideally 4cm). If you have saplings but cannot make the day, please email us and we will try our best to collect from you before the date.
All equipment and lunch will be provided courtesy of the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust who are sponsoring the event. Please book a place by emailing info@sustainableswaledale.org so that we can gauge numbers.
Low Row Open Gardens: 13th July
We will be hosting a stand at the Low Row Institute as part of the Low Row Open Gardens event on 13th July (organised by Charlotte in her new position as Institute chair). Fourteen gardens will be open to the public from 10:30 to 16:00, including Charlotte’s nature friendly garden which will showcase Sustainable Swaledale volunteers’ hedge and tree planting, meadow creation and a wildlife pond.
The Low Row Institute will be the base for operations, with maps, directions, and garden descriptions handed out there for a fee. As well as a display on Sustainable Swaledale activities, there will be a small exhibition and sale of historic photographs of the Low Row area (in support of the church), plus refreshments and a plant stall.
Both The Low Row Institute and Sustainable Swaledale will be the beneficiaries of the event. Please bring cash with you on the day.
Oxford Real Farming Conference is coming to the Yorkshire Dales
ORFC is hosting two days of biodiversity-focused practical workshops at Hill Top Farm, Malham on 23-24 July.
Sessions include a farm tour with Neil Heseltine, exploring how the family’s Belted Galloway herd supports biodiversity through conservation grazing; ethical dairying; whole-farm permaculture design; hay meadow restoration; sustainable leather-making; and more.
Also included in the ticket price are guided walks to local landmarks like Janet’s Foss and Malham Cove, deli-style lunches, and curry night on the farm. Tickets are available to book here.
Visit by Richmond & Northallerton MP: The RT Hon Rishi Sunak
Our local MP visited the Reeth Surgery on 23rd May to find out more about projects run by Sustainable Swaledale. We talked to him about our Together for Trees hedge and tree planting project, and our WingIt project supporting swallows, swifts and martins. He also had a chance to tour our two projects based at the Reeth Surgery: the community veg beds and the tree nursery creche.
Set up with a grant from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority Sustainable Development Fund, the veg beds have been operating since June 2020. Rishi encountered Lovage for the first time and was very impressed with how productive the beds looked, including those looked after by Reeth and Gunnerside school children. The second project he viewed was the tree nursery creche, set up two years ago with support from the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust. After hearing about the project’s aims, and viewing saplings raised from local seed and ready to be planted out this winter (as part of the Together for Trees project); Rishi potted on four bird cherries, grown from seeds collected last autumn. These seedlings will now stay in their root trainers, prior to planting out in winter 2026.
We are grateful to Reeth Surgery and Marie and Mike Brookes for their ongoing permission to use the land around the surgery; to the project funders; and to all the volunteers who have helped to keep the projects running.
Meadow management volunteers wanted
We hope to be able to cut some meadows again this summer. If anyone can help either to make arrangements with landowners; cut the hay using our alpine tractor cutter; turn the hay or rake it into dumpy bags, please let us know. We anticipate cutting during the second half of July and August.
If you have access to a trailer and would be willing to help move the equipment around, we would be keen to get you on board too.
We also have some volunteers able to undertake botanical surveys—let us know if you would like to get involved, or have meadows you would like surveyed.
Current and future projects update
We have had a number of projects come to a natural conclusion this year:
WingIt: The WingIt project, supported by the YDNPA Sustainable Development Fund has reached the end of the funding period having achieved all of its objectives. We are now directing our effort to supporting the lottery funded Homes for House Birds (HHB) project—launched by the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT), Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) and the RSPB—which is enabling communities in the Yorkshire Dales to save four of our iconic house nesting bird species; house martins, house sparrows, starlings and swifts. This includes three of the four species covered by WingIt, and so it didn’t seem sensible to keep the projects operating in parallel. We are still monitoring swift, swallow and martin bird numbers until next year (add your records here); and the live feed to our swallow cams will remain up and running.
One Acre Meadow & Meadow Magic: These projects have come to a natural conclusion due to a change of focus by one funder YDMT, and sponsorship by another, Tees-Swale: Naturally Connected, coming to an end as that scheme winds up. There may be some potential for some future meadow support from YDMT as part of habitat creation under the HHB project in years two and three but nothing concrete as yet.
Tree and hedge planting: Planting will continue this winter with YDMT funding, with 8 sites already signed off. We will also continue with the YDMT Seed to Sapling project with seed collection, seed box construction and seed potting events planned over the autumn and winter, as well as potentially setting up another creche site. We also plan to finish removal of the tree guards at Storthwaite and do some more hedge laying along the Swale Trail.
All existing and previous projects originated with members expressing a particular interest, then taking the lead in scoping out a potential project and seeking funding with help from the committee. If you are passionate about something—be it owls or hedgehogs, bogs or litter picking—and would like to suggest a future project idea, please let the committee know. If you are prepared to give it a go, so are we!
NB There is the potential for funded training for habitat creation under the HHB project, and we have been successful getting funding from other sources in the past.
Secure storage space
As Sustainable Swaledale now has quite an inventory of equipment, we are looking for a central and secure location to store it. If anyone knows of an empty garage or secure barn which the owners might be willing to let us use/rent to us, please let us know. (And a general reminder that if anyone wants to borrow tree planting spades, lump hammers, tree loppers etc, you would be very welcome to do so if they are not in use).
Tree monitoring volunteers wanted
Every year we look at sites that have been previously planted as part of our Together for Trees project, to check that the saplings are doing well, and to note any issues. There are now 40 sites across the two dales, and while some of the older sites get a light touch assessment, sites planted more recently—particularly in our last planting season—need a more thorough check up.
During a general monitoring visit, we check that there are no real signs of disease or distress; that stakes and trees are upright; and that the trees are not being choked by grass or other competing vegetation. Volunteers normally go out in pairs and do several sites located in the same area in a single day.
If you are interested in joining in visits to sites during July and August, please let Joe and Alison know (alisonpiet@gmail.com).
Turning data into action for flood resilience: Ousewem’s story so far
Flood risk is changing. But so is how we manage it.
A short video update from Ousewem shows how local knowledge, science and partnership are shaping new ways to reduce flood risk across the Swale, Ure, Nidd and Upper Ouse catchments.
Hear directly from farmers and land managers in North Yorkshire, learn how flood models are helping identify the most appropriate natural flood management (NFM) solutions, and see how community-based approaches are laying the groundwork for next steps – like monitoring and unlocking green finance.
Whether you are managing land, part of our local group, or simply interested in how communities can adapt to changing climate, this is a quick, informative watch.
Watch the video:
Ousewem’s story so far – https://youtu.be/WPbscgE_7jU
If you’re interested in flood resilience projects or think your land could benefit from fully funded NFM measures, visit www.ousewem.co.uk or email us at ousewem@york.gov.uk.
Upcoming meetings & events
We have two dates for your diary over the summer, with the next evening group meeting on the first Thursday in September.
21st June: Potting on Day at The Hub, Arkengarthdale. Materials, hall hire and lunch etc will be provided by Eva Irving of the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.
13th July: Low Row Open Gardens, organised by Charlotte in her new capacity as Low Row Institute Chair. A number of Sustainable Swaledale members will be opening their gardens and there will be a display at the Institute itself.
4th September: Evening group meeting featuring a talk by Andy Millard from the Yorkshire Naturalists Union. Andy chairs the YNU Executive Committee and is their recorder for aculeate hymenoptera. He is also involved in the running of Leeds Naturalists’ Club (another natural history organisation with Victorian origins), tutors for the Open University in environmental science and, before retirement, lectured in ecology and landscape science at Leeds Beckett University.
Later in September: We will be arranging a tree seed collection event as part of the YDMT Seed to Sapling project. Date tbc.
Content 2 heading
Content 2 text
Content 3 heading
Content 1 text
Core Group Meeting
Our meetings (first Thursday of the month) are online for the time being – please get in touch if you’d like to join us on Zoom.
What else?
[specific/vague info on plans, sign-off]