Cumbria Wildlife Trust has secured 3000 acres of land at Skiddaw to create a new nature reserve which will become the highest in England. CWT have a 100 year vision for a wilder Skiddaw Forest restoring over 3,000 acres, including peatlands and wildflower meadows, as well as creating 620 acres of temperate rainforest. This project is hoped to bring benefits for wildlife, biodiversity more broadly, carbon storage and may slow the flow of water and thereby reduce flood risk.  The project will, of course, also provide opportunities for the communities that live and work in the area.

The land purchase was co-funded through a partnership with Aviva and a public appeal and the team at Cumbria Wildlife Trust are keen to engage with the University on topics across the physical and social sciences as well as the humanities. We are at a very early stage of exploring how the Trust and the University could work collaboratively on this project.

In this seminar, Pete Jones (Skiddaw Forest Project Manager at Cumbria Wildlife Trust) will outline the Skiddaw Forest story and vision. There will be time following the seminar for discussion to begin to explore how we can collaborate on this exciting initiative. This will not be the only time that there will be a chance to engage with these ideas: if you can’t make the seminar but wish to register an interest in the idea of a joint project, let us know.