National Trust Land in the Yorkshire Dales
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National Trust Bringing together Land, Outdoors Land in the & Nature Yorkshire Dales NAT037_YorkshireDales_VisionDoc_AW.indd 1 22/04/2015 13:13 02 National Trust Land in the Yorkshire Dales This is our philosophy for the What you’ll find inside This document tells you about the thinking behind our work in the Yorkshire Dales; land we take care of at the what we’re aiming for and why. It explains what this means for the people, businesses, heart of the Yorkshire Dales. wildlife, culture and landscapes that make the Dales special. It also sets out our commitment to keep the Dales alive and relevant to the people who value them — whether you live and work here, come to visit, or benefit from afar. Behind our vision is an important story about landscape evolution; The document is divided into four one that can be traced to a shift short sections: over time in the things people need and expect from the Dales. 1. The Dales It’s a process of change that we’re A landscape shaped by people, bringing about as much through nature, and time principles and relationships as through policies and master plans. 2. What we’re working towards The Dales for ever, for everyone 3. Making it happen Getting inside the workings of the Dales 4. Our principles How we work with people NAT037_YorkshireDales_VisionDoc_AW.indd 2 22/04/2015 13:13 National Trust Land in the Yorkshire Dales 03 NAT037_YorkshireDales_VisionDoc_AW.indd 3 22/04/2015 13:13 04 National Trust Land in the Yorkshire Dales A landscape The Dales shaped by people, nature, & time The landscapes we look after in the Yorkshire Dales are some of the most striking and well loved in the country. Starting around Malham Cove on the National Park’s southern threshold, they take you up to Malham Tarn, over Fountains Fell, and into the valleys and hills of Upper Wharfedale in the heart of the Dales. NAT037_YorkshireDales_VisionDoc_AW.indd 4 22/04/2015 13:13 National Trust Land in the Yorkshire Dales 05 Although each of the places in our What the Yorkshire Dales do for people Field systems and barns landscape is distinctively part of the can be straightforward and practical; like in Upper Wharfedale Yorkshire Dales, they can, at times, feel providing meat, cheese, wool, and income like different worlds. You can be on a wild to sustain a living — something the Dales One of the striking features of the open fell-top that will blow your breath have been doing, in one way or another, Dales is that traces of the way the land away on a sodden and bone-cold winter’s for generations. Just as importantly, it can was worked in the past show through day. But you might just as easily be warmed be about the difference the Dales make to still in the landscape today — like an by the sun down in a river valley, where people’s lives when they visit. They might open historical record. Sometimes the villages, woods, fields and farms ease be out hiking, climbing, or cycling. Or old traces are built into the fabric of gently into the lie of the land. And from they might be having quieter moments; something new; like an old barn being time to time you can find they catch you wandering, sitting, watching, and building converted into a bunkhouse, or ancient out in another place entirely; perhaps memories. Either way, the Dales are good roadways like Mastiles Lane, still open when a sharp light makes the limestone at making people who come here happier as a green lane near Malham Tarn. But pavement glow white like teeth, or casts and healthier. They also provide for people even the traces that are out of use, deep shadows up Gordale Scar. further afield. Even just knowing they’re up like hut circles on a hilltop or old lead there, full of fresh air, wildlife and beauty, workings, never quite fade from the The Dales are not just about views. Part enriches our sense of the world we live in. landscape. of what makes this landscape special is the way it has been shaped — and is still Our philosophy for the land we being shaped — by the action of people, manage in the Dales is also guided by an nature, and time. Whether that means understanding that none of this stays the rivers cutting valleys and caverns, peat same forever. The forces that shape the bogs growing on the fell-tops, people Dales — how they look, what we get from mining lead in the past, rearing sheep, them, and what we expect from them watching wildlife, or riding bikes. These — are all acting and shifting over time. are the workings behind the landscape The pace varies. From the impossibly — they come together to make it tick. slow and geological; to historical epochs — Romano-British to monks to miners Importantly, these processes shape the to mountain bikers; through to the more functions of the Dales, as much as how they personal eras of family generations, down look. Understanding what the Dales do, to the choices we make day by day. But what they provide for people and what we all of these move constantly onwards, expect from them, guides our philosophy changing how the Dales work, and for the land and how we manage it. changing what we want, what we can get from, and how we care for the Dales. It’s an evolving landscape. NAT037_YorkshireDales_VisionDoc_AW.indd 5 22/04/2015 13:13 06 National Trust Land in the Yorkshire Dales The range of things the Dales can deliver: • Things we think it’s right to have in our landscape; like thriving wildlife, more natural and wilder What we’re places, traces of the past, and stunning views. • Things that have an obvious working towards practical value; like making sure the water that flows from our land continues to be clean, and helps reduce flood risks downstream. Or trapping carbon in peat or trees. Or simply making people The Dales for ever, 1. A landscape that does more 2. A landscape that works happy and healthy. things for more people for the long-term • Things that pay; like producing for everyone food, providing for sport and This means we’re broadening the focus At its simplest this means thinking ahead, recreation, energy and timber of land management. Specifically, while and positively matching the landscape production. livestock production has a permanent and land management of the Dales to the place in the Dales, we think it should no purposes and expectations that people longer be the only dominant force in the and society have for it; so that the Dales landscape. We have been working over time remain relevant, valued, and protected. with our tenant farmers to integrate other But we can’t always predict the future, functions and qualities into the way the so we’re also working towards developing It’s our role to make positive choices land is managed. We’re doing this because a landscape that is more generally robust about how and where the land it’s our job to manage our land in the Dales and able to adapt. This is partly brought we manage meets the needs and for everyone. We also think that delivering about by increasing the number of expectations of society, for the long this wider range of ‘goods and services’ is purposes we put the land to, meaning term. And to put it directly, we think where the opportunities will lie in the future we have options available when new the way the Dales are worked is, in for supporting the livelihoods and way of opportunities present themselves. And it some important respects, out of step life of people we work with in the Dales. means the Dales are not beholden to a few with the broad range of purposes it can markets, or grant regimes. It’s also about and should deliver. We also think that investing in, and taking care of, the natural changes are needed to make sure the assets that underpin the Dales and how landscape is better able to adapt to the they operate; things like the rivers, soils, future. So while our work here doesn’t wildlife, and historic environment. We’re have a fixed end point, we do have doing this because we take a very long some very clear outcomes in mind: view; our land in the Dales we can’t sell — we’re managing it for ever. NAT037_YorkshireDales_VisionDoc_AW.indd 6 22/04/2015 13:13 National Trust Land in the Yorkshire Dales 07 3. A more natural landscape 4. A landscape that remains unmistakeably the Yorkshire Dales It follows for us that a landscape that can integrate more things for more people, But far from all of what we do is about and can adapt to the future, is a landscape change. The Dales are special because in which nature has a more powerful and of what they are, not just what they could obvious influence. This doesn’t mean be. So we are careful in our work and in pushing people out or walking away. the choices that we make to be authentic But it does mean reinstating natural to the Dales; to do things that respect processes, plants and animals so that the people, nature and pace of change they are prominent in every part of our that make up this landscape. And when landscape. And at times it means allowing we do something new, we build on the some places to become distinctly wild.