'Ghost woods' Rewilders and farmers bring landscape back to life

Rewilders and farmers bring landscape back to life

- Phoebe Weston

The Howgill Fells are a smooth, treeless cluster of hills in the Yorkshire Dales national park, so bald and lumpy that they are sometimes described as a herd of sleeping elephants. Their bare appearance - stark even by UK standards - has been shaped by centuries of sheep grazing. Yet beneath the soil lie ancient tree roots: the silent traces of long-lost "ghost woodlands".

Now, these woods are being encouraged to grow again. Over the past 12 years, 300,000 native trees have been planted in sheep-free enclosures. The results are beginning to be seen: birds and flowers are returning.

Birdsong ripples through the valley as first light spills over a ridge line and on to 26 hectares (64 acres) of fenced-off land near Tebay village. Meadow pipits, reed buntings and stonechats are among the choristers. A flush of cottongrass bobs in the morning breeze and a stonechat fledgling clings to a spindly branch.