Celebrating our Wetlands
Why protecting wetlands in Cumbria is good land-stewardship
The fen creation at Low Beckside provides a great learning opportunity and supports nature restoration. We are looking forward to sharing our experience of this with our learners.Vicki, Head of Learning, Operations & Partnerships (Cumbria/Lancashire)

Low Beckside Farm, Cumbria
Putting land into this stewardship scheme means the revenue it generates can be used to plant more hedges, repair walls and carry out other work.Hector, Farmer at Low Beckside Farm
We’ve not just abandoned it to get the money – it is unsuitable for farming and this is the best use for it and good for the environment and for nature.

Ed Ikin, Chief Executive, discussing hedging at Low Beckside Farm with Hector
The Ernest Cook Trust is investing in protecting and enhancing an important area of wetland, as conservationists across the globe celebrate World Wetlands Day (February 2nd 2025).
Greenah Moss, an upland area on the Trust-owned Low Beckside Farm, Mungrisdale, Cumbria, is undergoing major work to keep the environmentally valuable peat hydrated and create a new fen.
A hedge has been planted and a fence erected to keep out livestock. Within the site, bunds – banks of peat manoeuvred into place using specialist machinery – have been created to prevent water draining away, re-wetting the area.
The land is unsuitable for agricultural use for much of the year but can support a number of threatened bird species, including lapwing, curlew, skylark and snipe. Re-wetting also encourages the growth of sphagnum moss while the peat itself is important for storing carbon, holding twice as much as the world’s forests.
The wetland at Low Beckside has been put into a Higher-Tier Countryside Stewardship Scheme which attracts grant support from the Government. The Ernest Cook Trust is making the investment in the re-wetting project and believes the benefits make the cost worthwhile.
The Higher Tier agreement was signed in January 2024 with the fen creation works starting in August. In all around 70 acres of land are involved.
Vicki, the Ernest Cook Trust’s Head of Learning, Operations & Partnerships (Cumbria and Lancashire) said wetlands and their management and enhancement were increasingly important environmentally – both for helping mitigate climate change and providing an essential habitat for threatened species.
The work at Greenah Moss has the full support of the Trust’s Farmer at Low Beckside, Hector, who has carried out much of the work, alongside specialist contractors Barker and Bland, one of the UK’s leading peatland restoration contractors, who are based in Cumbria.
Hector said: “This is very poor agricultural land, and many efforts have been made over the past 60 years to improve it, and all have failed. It has been ploughed and re-seeded, attempts were made to drain it, it was limed – but nothing worked.”
Hector said the changes as a result of the re-wetting had already altered the nature of the vegetation with the large number of rushes dying off to create a more fen-like habitat. “I’m not sure if there are more insects – but it certainly looks as if there are.” he added.
The hope is that an increased number of invertebrates on the site will help bird life to thrive in the area, with nesting sites for ground-nesting species close to the fen.
The site is adjacent to a Cumbria Wildlife Trust nature reserve at Eycott Hill and the work carried out by The Ernest Cook Trust will also have a beneficial impact on the reserve, helping to create a larger wetland habitat capable of supporting more species.
World Wetlands Day is celebrated annually on February 2nd, marking the adoption of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1971, an international treaty aimed at conserving and sustainably using wetlands around the world.
The UN Environment Programme, promoters of World Wetlands Day, says:
By conserving, protecting and restoring peatlands globally, we can reduce emissions and revive an essential ecosystem that provides many services, for people, the planet and the climate—including their vital role as a natural carbon sink.
The theme for World Wetlands Day this year is ‘Wetlands and climate change’.
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