Haweswater: Farming, Wildlife and Water
Caz Graham is in Cumbria to find out about the sometimes controversial challenge of maintaining hill farming traditions while creating space for nature and clean drinking water.
Caz Graham visits Wild Haweswater - a Cumbrian hill farm run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Since taking over the tenancy in 2011, the charity has drastically reduced the number of sheep grazing on the hills, focusing instead on conservation and land restoration. It's been a controversial project, attracting fierce criticism. Caz talks to Lee Schofield, who has run the operation since 2012, but who is now moving on to a new job. She asks whether conservation can ever work in harmony with productive hill farming, and hears Lee's thoughts as he looks back over his eleven years on the farm.
Caz meets David and Faith Garvey, the couple managing the farm's livestock of 300 breeding ewes, thirty cattle and four fell ponies. She hears how different animals graze in different ways - with different impacts on the land, the plants and the biodiversity. Haweswater also aims to involve the public on the farm. Annabel Rushton shows Caz their new badger-watching hide and explains about the involvement of other staff and volunteers. Caz finds out how these projects fit with both a farming business and a large-scale landscape recovery scheme, and asks about the team's plans for the future.
Produced by Emma Campbell
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- Sun 14 Apr 2024 06:35Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4