We don’t just want to see the Yorkshire Dales survive, we want them to thrive - Martin Davies

Working with the National Trust in the glorious Yorkshire Dales can be a surprising encounter for some. The Trust is rightly renowned nationally – and across Yorkshire – for being custodians of grand old homes and purveyors of world-famous scones. Long may that continue.

Yet when we find ourselves hundreds of metres above sea level in the Wharfedale uplands restoring peatland or planting thousands of trees, ice cold rain lashing down on us, it can feel like a very different world to the one many National Trust members and visitors are familiar with.

We are fortunate to be caring for some of Yorkshire’s most iconic landscapes in all weathers across 10,000 hectares in the Dales, from Malham Tarn and Buckden Pike to Hudswell Wood at Richmond. That includes 11 sites of special scientific interest, three special areas of conservation, two national nature reserves, one significant wetland site and one special protection area (should anyone need alternative verses for their festive carols this Christmas). The landscapes we look after are unique, at times challenging, and always surprising.

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But our work here also involves working closely with generations of tenant and neighbour farmers – many of whom are now bringing their decades of experience and expertise to our ambitious Heart of the Dales landscape recovery project, working with DEFRA and Natural England too.  

The village of Muker nestled in the valley bottom in Swaledale, one of the most northerly dales in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. PIC: Tony JohnsonThe village of Muker nestled in the valley bottom in Swaledale, one of the most northerly dales in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. PIC: Tony Johnson
The village of Muker nestled in the valley bottom in Swaledale, one of the most northerly dales in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. PIC: Tony Johnson

This past year, it must be said, has been an eventful one for the farming community across the Dales and beyond. From the recent budget protests (and the accompanying, at times polarising online discourse) to our more intimate and thought-provoking ‘kitchen table’ conversations with farmers in the Dales, we are hearing loud and clear what those in the field have to say about the future of agriculture. Above all else, one word is repeated often and by everyone we know here: survival. 

In line with its charitable aims, the Trust has been caring for this part of the Dales for many decades now and witnessed countless changes. Yet in the 12 months since we began the Heart of the Dales project, the notion of survival has very quickly become one of our most important motivations.

Whether it’s ensuring that farming across the Dales can become more financially sustainable, or working to create a landscape that is resilient to climate change, we are all focussed on having a Yorkshire Dales where people, nature, animals, the economy, and everything in between can not just survive, but thrive too.

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The conversations with our tenant farmers are, I hope, meaningful ones. They are certainly honest and at times forthright. One of the first things we did as a project team was to appoint a farm liaison officer, someone with experience of working on farms and intimate knowledge of the industry, to make sure that the National Trust’s future proposals for the Dales are tailored to individual farm needs and ambitions.

Indeed, what sets this scheme apart from others is that the National Trust is co-designing it with farmers from day one. Afterall, no two farms are the same.  

This has made some of the recent, at times noisy, discourse around farming somewhat frustrating for those ‘on the ground’. Social media in particular has forced many people to think in very binary terms, like you have to pick a side on issues that are complex and fast-changing.

At an early climate change workshop hosted by the National Trust for our tenant farmers in the Dales, there was much discussion and debate. Yet one thing everyone could agree upon was the increased frequency and ferocity of extreme weather events. That is our battleground for future partnership work with our farmers here. The Heart of the Dales project is still in the planning stages, but 2025 will see many more workshops and hopes for the future discussed with tenant farmers, our neighbours and other landowners.

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We certainly want to be ambitious for the Dales. Our work will include ensuring cleaner water, restoring peatlands and species-rich grasslands, putting trees and woodlands back into the landscape, and creating protected upland habitats for ‘lost’ species.

More areas can be governed by natural processes, and there will be more access and opportunities for people and communities to feel connected to nature. 

The latter is a particularly important consideration for us too, particularly with the Dales having such close and historic links with more urban neighbours in the great cities of Bradford and Leeds. As well as the need to engage more communities here, we

remind ourselves that work to ‘slow the flow’ of water in the most remote parts of the Dales uplands can be of as much benefit to big towns much further downstream as they are to farmland closer to home.  

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Above all else, we want everyone in our wonderful part of Yorkshire to feel like they have a part to play in our work. This isn’t about the National Trust waving a finger and telling people what’s best, it’s about bringing people together to work for what’s right and just.

Martin Davies is general manager for the National Trust Yorkshire Dales.

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