How green is my valley
Last updated 22:09, Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Richard Maxwell is a Cumbrian farmer who was brought up to farm the traditional way. He still gathers his Herdwicks around the highly inaccessible region of Pillar Rock, herding them up to the skyline before driving them onwards along the high ridge towards Great Gable.
Only when he reaches Black Sail Pass does he finally bring them back down to a fold at the edge of the forest in Lakeland’s remotest dale-head.
From here, it might take six trailer-loads to ferry his flock back down the eight miles of forest track to his farm at the Ennerdale Bridge end of the lake.
He thinks nothing of such an operation that, in reality, is a tour de force.
Hill farming work like this is his way of life, as natural as breathing.
It is doubly interesting then to hear his views on today’s changes in farming in the valley which involves practices quite alien to those he learned when he first started working in agriculture in west Cumbria.
Ennerdale, in fact, is the subject of an initiative called Wild Ennerdale – a partnership between the National Trust, Forestry Commission and United Utilties.
The project is also supported and funded by Natural England.
The aim is to allow Ennerdale to evolve once more as a wild valley, no longer the heavily-afforested dale it has been for the last 70 years.
When asked about the meaning of wild, a Forestry Commission manager said, “Wild Ennerdale is not about abandoning the valley but about managing the valley at a lower level of intervention, working with the natural processes and special qualities of the terrain.”
Jeremy Barlow, National Trust property manger, is in no doubt about what there is to gain.
He said: “The valley I live in has a wonderful sense of openness, of remoteness, of grandeur.
“To me the word wild conjures all that up about Ennerdale. The Wild Ennerdale project is all about enhancing that special, spiritual quality – something of immense value today.
“We’re stepping back to give nature a much stronger hand in shaping the landscape for the future.”
Richard does not disagree, though, like other farmers in the valley, he had to come round to the “wild” idea.
This was, as Mr Barlow, explained, because the old way the National Trust was managing Ennerdale with the Forestry Commission left much to be desired. “So we asked ‘why not work together to produce something which people today would really value?’
“The key is co-operation – to do what’s best for the wildlife, for the local community and for the people who come here for pleasure.”
Richard says there were times when this radical thinking went against the grain.
“You can be looking at a field that must not be cut until a certain time and you feel ‘We really need to be in there doing something’,” he said.
“At times, I have thought, ‘this is not the farming I learned’, but then we have to look at it in another way now.
“We aren’t just farming for animal production, we’re also farming for the environment.
“Of course, we won’t just let things go wild. We need traditional cattle and sheep to keep the valley healthy, control the gorse and give other plants a chance to develop.
“But there’ll be no more pushing the land with chemicals to raise more animals – that’s not the future of farming.
“Already, with less tree felling, otters have been seen round about here as the valley gets cleaner and there’s been an increase in wildlife and new bird sightings.”
This spring, local people planted 12,000 oak seedlings from acorns they had collected.
Richard likes to think his children will be standing on that crag in 50 years and looking down across woodland their parents and grandparents helped start.
He said: “I want people to come here and see how Ennerdale is aiming to be a healthier, richer place for future generations to enjoy.
“They can see how my animals are keeping back the scrub, and how these broad-leaved trees are growing because my Galloway cattle are poaching the seeds into the earth with their hooves.”
Richard, who farms Howside with his wife Alison, a vet, says other farms in Ennerdale are each doing their bit, to restore the valley to its former wild glory.
He does not class Howside as a big farm, despite his extent of fellside around Pillar Rock. “A lot of Lake District fells will be larger. We have 250 acres inby, a fell of 850 acres and an intake of 360 acres,” he said.
His 50 continental cows (Limousin, Limousin crosses and a few Charolais) are his commercial farming side. He also has a selection of north of England mules.
Meanwhile his Herdwick and Swaledale sheep, and small herd of Galloway cattle are in line with the traditional breeds farmed in Ennerdale.
So why has he has he not stuck solely to commercial farming? He has proved himself tops at this, twice winning the championship at Cockermouth suckler sales with Limousin cross suckler calves.
“To be perfectly honest,” he says, “we had to go along with the conservation way of thinking at first to satisfy environmental schemes.
“But since then, we find the health of the animals is better because they are more naturally reared.
“Now we farm this way because that’s the way we want to farm.”
