News and events from the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership team. Landscape Forum 2022, Planetariums, Twigwams, Chainsaws, Webinars, Wild Play Days, Volunteering, Hedge Laying and lots more as 2022 gets off to a flying start.

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Scheme Manager's Update -  March 2022

Although spring is definitely in the air it’s a great time of year to enjoy the last of the winter landscape, with geology and archaeology laid bare before the grass starts to grow and leaves flush on the trees. Some of you will have been lucky enough to book on our Ice Age walks on Orton Scar with Paul Carling, but for those who haven’t Paul’s webinar recording is available on our website, together with all our other recent webinars. Despite the success of our webinars it’s great to be able to organise real events too and to get some of our stalled projects up and running. Over the last couple of months we’ve had hedgelaying taster days at Gaythorne Hall, a volunteer get-together at Kirkby Stephen and hugely popular planetarium events at Maulds Meaburn and Kirkby Stephen. Our apprentices haven’t stopped and all are now trained in the use of chainsaws, have had plenty of practice and have successfully  got their certificates.
 
And things will keep getting busier. We have our landscape forum taking place at Ravenstonedale on 23rd April – the first chance we have had to hold this properly since the start of the scheme. A number of our cultural heritage projects will be launching too with the Small-scale Heritage Features, Digging the Past and Dry Stone Walls projects kicking off in the spring, all with volunteer involvement. We’re also undertaking interviews as part of the Our Common Heritage project, continuing with our survey of traditional farm buildings and planning for the second season of excavations at Little Asby Common in September. There will be training events laid on for a number of these projects and lots of other events too. Just keep an eye on our website. We’re also in the process of producing a new leaflet promoting the area as well as welcome boards in key locations.
 
We look forward to seeing you out and about in the months to come. 

David Evans, Scheme Manager.

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In this edition

• Welcome to our Spring Newsletter 
• Landscape Forum 2022
• Celebrating our Dark Skies with 'Polestar Planetarium'
• Access the Dales
• Volunteering Opportunities in 2022
• Hedge Laying Days
• Volunteering Opportunities with Cumbria Wildlife Trust  
• Family Wild Play Day - Save the Date
• Spring Webinars
• Interpreting the Westmorland Dales
• Twigwams Willow Weaving
• Apprentices are a Cut Above!
• Volunteer Get Together Feedback
• Our 21 Scheme Projects

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