Lower Tarras Restoration
We are collaborating with the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust to develop a long-term plan for restoring Lower Tarras to mixed native woodland, incorporating community feedback and aiming for future funding.
Over the past few months, we have been working with Yorkshiredales Millenium Trust to create a masterplan for the Lower Tarras to help provide a longer-term vision for the site. Our aim is to restore it to mixed native woodland following the felling of the former sitka spruce plantation on the site earlier this year. We have had lots of feedback from a recent community design session which helped to shape plans which are a work in progress!
Not all of this is funded, some elements are aspirational and subject to funding but hopefully it sets out an idea for what could happen over the coming years.
The preliminary site restoration groundworks are set to start next week being carried out by local contractor Simon Richardson and are estimated to take about 3 weeks, subject to site conditions and weather.
They will involve:
- Creating shallow wetland ponds to help slow the site run off and create new habitats
- Land reprofiling of the leftover brash from the felled trees and where machines have churned up ground during works
- Creation of a new circular access track around the site
We are also looking at replacement of the access gate to the site to ensure its more user friendly and we’ll update once we have a clearer idea about an installation date.
Over this autumn/ winter we will be busy planting native tree islands to help native trees regenerate, removing sitka spruce saplings and old forestry fencing. If you are interested in getting involved in our volunteering events please get in touch.
We are very grateful for the ongoing support and funding from Rotary International who have been supporting us with the site restoration including monthly volunteer sessions.
Thanks to local contractor Borders Forestry Ltd, we have cleared blocked paths on the Lower Tarras.
There are still some minor clearance works to do from the swing bridge up to Rashiel bridge along the Tarras but the main tracks are now passable again.