Natural Flood Management (NFM) means working with the landscape around a river catchment to absorb, clean and slow the flow of water. This includes installing leaky dams and shallow ponds known as wetland scrapes, planting trees and creating buffer strips between the river and livestock to reduce soil runoff. 

With other partners in West Yorkshire, our NatureBid project helped farmers and landowners implement natural flood management measures in the Upper Aire Valley. The auction ran in March and October and awarded £340,792 of funding to 145 bids across the catchment.

These measures will help to slow the flow of water and reduce the risk of flooding, improve water quality, improve soil health, encourage carbon capture and enhance biodiversity.

Since Wild Ingleborough launched earlier this year, the team have been busy putting up dry stone walls, planting around 11,000 native trees, undertaking wildlife surveys and relocating grazing animals, all to help the land and its wildlife on the road to recovery.

Wild Ingleborough, which will initially cover 1,200 hectares, plans to be one of the first examples in England of reestablishing the natural tree line. By aiding nature’s recovery, we will protect and restore wildlife-friendly habitats, home to precious animal species including black grouse, red squirrels, cuckoos and curlews.

Our restoration of peatlands and the expansion of native woodland and scrub will also remove and store carbon, another important example of a natural carbon solution which are key to helping us tackle the climate emergency.

Peatlands are an incredible and vital habitat - globally, they store more carbon than all of our forests combined. But most of the UK's peatlands are severely degraded and actively release carbon into the atmosphere. Our Yorkshire Peat Partnership works with partners across northern uplands to protect and restore our peatlands.

The work includes blocking the 'grips' and that were dug to drain the land and the 'gullies' that formed because of them so that the ground retains water, and planting sphagnum moss and cotton grass to protect the peat from erosion. This year, the partnership completed a remarkable 36,574 ha of peat restoration work, which is 38% of all the blanket bog in Yorkshire. YPP blocked and reprofiled over 130km of eroding grips and gullies, and planted over 250,000 plants!

Just look at the photo to see the difference it's making!

Following over twenty years of work, Dearne Valley wetlands was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by Natural England, giving this special site and its wildlife vital protection for years to come. It was designated primarily for the nationally important breeding and wintering birds that use the wet grasslands, wetlands, open water and scrub habitats.

Compare that with just ten years ago when the valley was a degraded, industrial landscape, and you can see just how far we have come. Many would have considered this valley beyond repair, but the dedication and hard work of conservation groups have ensured its restoration to an exemplary space for wildlife.

Thanks to your generous support of our Give Seas a Chance campaign, we've sowed seeds of hope by planting seagrass, an amazing ocean habitat and natural carbon store. Back in March, we successfully germinated our first seagrass seed – and that was only the beginning!

In September, around 30,000 seagrass seeds were sustainably and carefully collected and 3.5 acres have already been planted. Next year we'll plant more mature plants over an additional 5.5 acres, and continue to monitor the seedlings.

Seagrass absorbs 10% of global ocean carbon every year. With care and nurture, we can restore Yorkshire’s mighty seagrass meadows to their former glory - a vast, green underwater forest where juvenile fish and feeding birds can find refuge, and an incredible natural carbon solution.

Yorkshire's amazing wildlife and wild places are often under threat from the multiple pressures around them - the climate emergency, habitat loss and development. We may only be a small organisation, but we speak up and advocate for wildlife when we're able to make a difference. 

This year, we campaigned strongly against a quarry extension next to Brockadale nature reserve. Although we were unsuccessful, we managed to change the vote of several of the councillors and raised awareness about this rare and unique reserve.

We've also been campaigning against wildlife crime - asking the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner candidates how they plan to reduce wildlife crime in the region. We'll continue to keep the pressure up into next year!