Rothbury CAN visit to Wild Kielder, April 25

Katie Scott
May 1
3 min read

The brand new UCCT minibus was our transport to the wonderful Event put on by Wild Northumberland, in conjunction with colleagues from Wild Kielder, and Forestry England.

The weather was perfect, and the day was excellent.

Members of the Lichen Group immediately spot some interesting specimens.

We started with a coffee at the bike hire place, and we all loved the music blasting out - Pink Floyd, The Byrds, all of us ancient ones were most impressed!

We were soon met by the other participants, and the leaders. Graham from Wilder Northumberland and Tina from Wild Kielder were our main guides, with their colleagues on hand for the wide range of questions asked by the group.

Tina explained to us that 'Wild Kielder is the biggest of the four areas of the nation's forests where we're taking a nature-led approach to restoring fully functioning and resilient ecosystems.

The Wild Kielder area in Northumberland covers at least 6,000 hectares and the project will deliver landscape-scale ecological enhancements that will benefit both nature and people'

Of course those of us from Rothbury CAN had attended the Wildlife Trust packed talk on the purchase of the Rothbury Estate recently, so we were aware that these areas were to be part of a massive nature recovery programme.

The Wilder Northumberland organisation's role is to join landowners together who are keen for their land to be part of this incredibly important and exciting movement.

We had to go in several vehicles. Our first stop was to see the Wild Wood. Tina explained that

'Wild Kielder will focus on restoring natural processes, including allowing trees and scrub to regenerate naturally and reinstating hydrological function.

Through this project we're aiming to identify nature-based solutions for climate change and biodiversity, whilst driving sustainable and resilient forest management practices.

Forestry will continue to be an essential activity, putting nature at the forefront whilst continuing to produce high-quality, sustainable forest products and welcoming visitors to enjoy spending time at Kielder.'

We could see massive areas which had been clear felled - but in the distance an enormous project of planting native broadleaves had taken place. For as far as the eye could see, the tree guards were evident.

Clear felled land in the foreground, newly planted broad leaved native trees in the distance

These are the principles of Making Kielder Wild

The Wild Kielder project will follow these principles:

Making space for water, through rewetting, slowing the flow, 'rewiggling' water courses, and floodplain management.

making space for trees and scrubs, through native planting and encouraging scrub.

letting nature lead, through increasing areas of connectivity, enhancing river corridors, planting woodland suited to wetlands, and removing barriers.

Working in partnership

The wilder forests work is being supported by Defra’s biodiversity funding, with Forestry England’s first major biodiversity corporate partner, Forest Holidays, contributing funding over a five year period to create the wild area in Kielder Forest. Forest Holidays is a key partner to Wild Kielder; they understand the long-term benefits and impact of investing in our wild landscapes to secure and grow their social, economic and natural capital value for the future.

After eating our packed lunches at an idyllic spot by a stream, we set off again to visit a now empty farm house, and to notice how different the land is at this spot. Wild Kielder are thinking through a variety of different options to utilise this area in the future.