The Mardale Mountain Project – David Morris

This is a joint talk with the RSPB and SRGC.

In 2017 the RSPB embarked on the launch of a partnership project with the Alpine Garden Society, Natural England and United Utilities to restore native alpine flora at Mardale at the head of Haweswater reservoir in the English Lake District. Harter Fell and its associated crags are an important site in an English context for our native alpine flora but many of these plant communities are in poor condition due to decades or inappropriate sheep and deer grazing. The project has looked to address the grazing pressure allied with working with AGS members to help grow a range of native species from seed on site before planting these back out in the large Mardale enclosure to accelerate restoration. Since inception, the project has moved at pace and the signs of recovery of some of our rarest mountain plants are looking good.

David Morris is area operations manager for the RSPB for Cumbria and the Northeast of England. He is a passionate nature conservationist, botanist and plantsman with a particular interest in alpine flora. He has been a trustee for the Alpine Garden Society for a number of years and in November 2021 took on the role of president of the AGS. He lives with his family in North Cumbria at their traditional Georgian home that they are in the process of restoring, including a delightful quarter acre garden with a mix of cottage garden style herbaceous borders, woodland beds with a range of Asiatic flora, alpine house and vegetable garden.

This is an online talk.  Please register for the talk on our Eventbrite page so that we can send you a joining link. Please note: registration will close at 5pm on the day of the talk (or earlier if all the tickets are allocated).  This is to ensure that everyone is sent the joining link in a timely fashion.