Cumbria is simply stunning, with its mountains, moors, lakes, sweeping coastlines and wildflower meadows. Our wildlife is also wonderfully diverse, with many rare native British species making a home here, including Red Squirrels, Ospreys, Water Voles and the Natterjack Toad, to name just a few.

This marvelous variety is what makes our county so special, and our Wildlife and Wilderness projects protect and manage the landscape in which these creatures live. Conservation projects in this theme include nature reserve sponsorship, caring for trees and woodlands and funding the re-introduction of endangered animals and plants.

Current projects include:

Dubb Moss Nature Reserve

Dubbs Moss is a naturally damp hollow surrounded by farmland. The western part of the reserve is covered by birch woodland. The shade cast by these trees, combined with the wet ground, gives ideal conditions for mosses and ferns to flourish. Male fern, hard fern and narrow buckler fern and the mosses Thuidium tamariscinum and Polytrichum commune are amongst the commonest. The fen grassland is home to taller plants such as yellow iris, meadowsweet, valerian, angelica, common spotted orchid and evil's-bit scabious.

This variety of habitats makes the reserve interesting for birds. Most of the common species of tit can be seen in the woods, and the rarer willow tit also breeds here. Warblers including whitethroat, blackcap, chiffchaff, willow, garden grasshopper and sedge warbler, return each year from Africa to breed. In winter, flocks of fieldfares and redwings feed on the hawthorn berries. Roe deer are seen on the reserve quite frequently.

Water Vole Project

The Water Vole is known to have suffered a huge decline in population size and distribution throughout the 1980s and 90s, making it one of Britain's most threatened mammals. Changes in land-use and riverside management, coupled with the threat of predation from the introduced American Mink, have been the main causes of the population crash.

From the fragmented water vole survey work that has already been undertaken in the northwest it appears that a healthy population of water vole may still exist within the area. The steep sided drainage channels of the Lancashire and Manchester mosslands have proved difficult for mink to penetrate, with mink also reluctant to colonise areas of the canal network that flow through urban conurbations. However, although the population remains intact presently, support is needed to ensure this remains the case.

Businesses Supporting this Theme

1 Park Road
Ben Fold Properties

Low Wood Hotel
Storrs Gate House
The Boundary