Glenridding Common and the John Muir Trust

Vital footpath repairs and litter collection

When the John Muir Trust took over the management of the Glenridding Common they identified a number of priorities. As a matter of urgency they have carried out vital footpath repair in partnership with Fix the Fells volunteers and staff. They also employ two local contractors to oversee repairs to the surface and drainage on a 'stitch in time basis'.

Sadly, the Trust has also had to dedicate two-person-days a week to clearing litter, especially that left by irresponsible wild campers at Red Tarn. How about this for a day's litter picking on Helvellyn?

In 2021 our Glenridding Seasonal Ranger helped with increased visitor pressures over the summer. They walked over 378km over the three months of summer, talking to visitors, fixing fire burn patches, scattering inappropriate cairns, picking up 106kg of litter, and conducting 386 visitor surveys - made possible by the National Parks Safer Lakes funding.

Protecting juniper woodland

Glenridding Common is an important site for juniper woodland. Total juniper woodland in the UK is 400ha and Glenridding hosts 5% of this national resource.

In 2014 exclosures were constructed, with the agreement of the commoners, to protect areas of juniper woodland from grazing by sheep. The exclosures were improved by the John Muir Trust team and planted with trees such as aspen, rowan, silver birch and willow, which naturally grow alongside the juniper. Already the vegetation is significantly more dense and is providing an important winter food source for birds, small mammals and a number of moth species.

As Isaac Johnson explains, “trees are [also] immensely important for slowing run-off, storing water and consolidating the ground”. The people of Glenridding remember all too well, from Storm Desmond, what can happen when a landslip occurs, bringing rocks and boulders down the beck to the village.

Downy Willow – a success story

Downy willow should form an important component of the vegetation of the steep Helvellyn Crag that towers above Red Tarn but, largely due to grazing, there were only 23 downy willow plants remaining and unfortunately they were all female so could not reproduce. When the John Muir Trust took over the lease in 2017 they continued with the work started by Natural England to propagate and enhance this remnant population. The Trust committed to ‘repairing’ Helvellyn Crag by re-creating a viable population of downy willow and it is well on the way to doing so. There are now over 1,500 Downy Willow plants, grown from cuttings by staff of the John Muir Trust and Natural England, as well as by volunteer local growers. The willows are growing well and seeding and there is hope that they will self-seed and regenerate, which will be the ultimate success of this project.

Nine local volunteers have been involved in growing 5 rare montane willow species since 2018. Taking cuttings in the spring, willows are propagated from a stock plant and nurtured on throughout the year before being planted out onto high altitude ledges to increase remnant existing populations.

Arctic Alpines from seed

As well as propagating montane willows, the growers are also trying their hand at growing from seed some of the rare Arctic Alpine plants found on the Common, for example Alpine Cinquefoil, Water Avens and Purple Saxifrage.