Monitoring is a key part of the work of Wild Ennerdale and is seen as important for the following reasons:- informing the partners about levels of unacceptable change (e.g. increasing vehicles dominance of spruce regeneration) sharing the results of allowing natural process to develop the valley. providing a base line for future generations to see the effects of change on the valley. enabling the effectiveness of the Stewardship plan actions to be assessed. This page includes information on how the Partnership is monitoring Vegetation Change, Birds, Extensive Cattle Grazing, Forest and Woodland Development, People and Weather

The Wild Ennerdale Partnership is involved in a number of monitoring activities some of which are described below. In addition the Partnership has developed a methodology for ecological monitoring.

The Wild Ennerdale Partnership is very grateful to Natural England who have been very helpful in supporting and funding much of the monitoring work.

Vegetation Change

As part of understanding the development of the valley under natural processes the Partnership is keen to monitor changes in vegetation and habitats. This is being done through fixed point photos, aerial photography, a national vegetation classification survey of the whole valley and more detailed vegetation monitoring plots. In addition to funding by Natural England the Wild Ennerdale Partnership is very grateful to Keith Miller and Rigby Jerram for the high quality of their work and reports.

Extensive Cattle Grazing

A small female herd of Galloway cattle were introduced into a 145ha enclosure in Silver Cove in April 2006 to discover how practical it was to reintroduce extensive grazing by large herbivores back into the valley. This is seen as a missing natural process and in order to monitor the impact of the cattle a number of activities are being undertaken:-

• The matriarchal cow of the all female herd has been fitted with a satellite tracking collar. This records the location of the cow at regular intervals in addition to its level of activity and the temperature. The data is stored on the collar and is downloaded remotely every couple of months using a separate manual wireless handheld device. The data is then imported into a geographic information system and overlaid on a National Vegetation base map of the valley. This allows an investigation to be carried out into the cows preferred habitat and grazing activity. The system being used was purchased from Televilt, a Sweedish company, and includes the RX900 logger and R98E scanner coupled with the Tellus GPS System.
• A number of fenced and unfenced vegetation monitoring plots have been setup within the grazing area. The data from the survey of these plots carried out during the summer of 2006 will form a base line for comparing future surveys.
• A number of fixed point photos have been taken around the enclosure.

Forest and Woodland Development

A series of 100 permanent sample plots was setup across the valley during Autumn 2006. Each plot was 12.6m in radius (0.02ha) and located using GPS with the center marked by a metal peg driven into and flush with the ground. Each plot was then photographed and the number of trees, saplings and seedlings recorded by species along with evidence of browsing and vegetation type.. The aim of this work is to provide a baseline for comparing the development of the forest into the future and follows a similar methodology to that proposed by the Forestry Commission for monitoring Continuous Cover Transformation ( see Forestry Commission FCIN45)

People

The Wild Ennerdale Partnership believes that people are an important part of the valley. Indeed it is people who experience the valley as a wild place not the wildlife. It is also the belief of the partnership that the level and scale of human intervention in the development of the valley has in the past dominated the natural processes and wild characteristics. The partnership is still developing ways of monitoring the sense of wildness in the valley but a number of activities have been carried out and are currently active including :-

• Working with students from Leeds University to explore the sense of wildness across the valley. In 2005 a number of students from the University independently produced a sense of wildness map of the valley.
• To get a better feel for the numbers of visitors to the different parts of the valley a number of simple people and vehicle counters are being used (custom built by Forestry Commission radio and electronic branch).
• During 2005 a number of one to one surveys were carried out by volunteers supported by Rachel Yanik. These explored peoples reasons for visiting Ennerdale and their experience of wild places. In addition a number of visiting groups have been encouraged to spend time alone and write down their experiences of the valley.
• A number of opportunities are being explored with Universities and Funders to investigate further the relationship between people and wild places.