Claire’s talk will focus on the achievements of “Our Upland Commons Project” which was a £3 million 25-partner project helping to secure the future of upland commons in the Yorkshire Dales and other areas. Commoning involves a group of farmers having “commoners rights” to graze their animals on a shared piece of land without fences or boundaries between them. The sheep don’t need fences, through flock memory passed down through the generations they stay on their patch of the common, known as a heft. The heritage of commons isn’t just about commoners and livestock, it’s about some of the UK’s most spectacular landscapes, its most biodiversity, geology and its history of settlement and industry. It is also about the natural systems which shape and support our everyday lives.

Upper Wharfedale Field Society, Ornithology Group visit to North Cave Wetlands.

The Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group was established in 2015 along with many other regional groups across England and Scotland. The group consists of the gamekeepers from a collection of rural estates within the Yorkshire Dales. In this talk, members of the Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group will take us through the ups and downs of life as a gamekeeper. The talk will cover topics such as habitat management and creation, predator control and explain some of the fantastic conservation projects the group are involved in. These include Curlew head starting, Merlin and Osprey monitoring and many other activities.