There are a total of 15 National Parks in the UK, each one designated as a protected landscape because of its special qualities. We’ve been looking at each National Park and what it offers to Britain’s wildlife as a whole, detailing unique species that live there and what challenges each park is facing.
Peak District:
The very first established National Park in the UK, consisting of beautiful lakes and peaks, carved into limestone and gritstone by meltwater from the Ice Age. It’s central location in the UK makes the Lake District the most northerly habitat of many lowland species, such as the stemless thistle and the lovely nuthatch, as well as the southern extent of many northern upland species, such as the glorious mountain hare.
Lake District:
Home to the largest and deepest lakes in England as well as the highest peaks, the lake district is Britain’s most visited national park. It’s beautiful landscape has changed enormously over centuries due to human activity through farming, mining and private land ownership. Despite this it’s still home to one of the largest remaining Red Squirrel populations and also has other rare wildlife including red deer, the Peregrine falcon, Arctic Char fish and Britain’s only nesting pairs of Golden Eagles.
One exciting rewilding scheme currently happening is at Ennerdale, where 10,000 acres of forestry land is being diversified from a barren sitka spruce plantation. It’s an exciting possible location for reintroducing both Beavers and Pine Martens to. Read more at wildennerdale.co.uk
Pembrokeshire Coast
Britain’s only National park recognised for it’s glorious coastline, Pembrokeshire coast is an ecologically diverse area recognised as of international importance for a wide range of high quality habitats and rare species including bats, skylarks, grey seals and dormice. It’s a very varied landscape of rugged cliffs, sandy beaches, wooded estuaries, wild inland hills, moorland and wooded valleys.
Snowdonia
Wales’ largest national park features a distinctive rocky landscape featuring Snowdon itself, the country’s highest peak. It’s also home to some beautiful lakes as well as a rugged and varied coastline. The wilderness which surrounds Mount Snowdon is home to a variety of hardy wildlife including the Mountain Goat and Ravens as well as Otters, Polecats and Stoats. The coastal regions are great spots to try and see the beautiful Osprey, a seafaring bird that was reintroduced from one breeding pair by the fantastic Glaslyn Osprey project. Read more at glaslynwildlife.co.uk
Not far from Snowdonia another exciting scheme is underway to re-establish a sustainable upland habitat across 40,000 hectares of the Cambrian Mountains. As well as increasing biodiversity and protecting the current wildlife, they have been working to change the grazing patterns of sheep and cattle herds to minimise ecological damage and maximise yield for the farmers, planting native trees to create important habitats and prevent flooding and helped develop green tourism. Read more at http://montwt.co.uk/projects/pumlumon-project
Dartmoor
Wild, open moorlands and deep river valleys, with rich history and endangered wildlife, Dartmoor is a beautiful scenic National Park in the South West. Before human intervention Dartmoor was mostly covered in a diverse temperate rainforest, providing habitat to thousands of unique species. Overgrazing and mismanagement by our ancestors has long since destroyed much of this rich vital ecosystem, and although there have been efforts to protect its wilderness, it’s now mostly covered with heathland. Despite this it is still home to some rare and endangered species like the ring ouzel, cuckoo, the UK’s only venomous snake – the adder and is a great spot to go looking for Otters.
Many believe that Dartmoor is an excellent candidate for an extensive rewilding scheme, combining its unique open heathland with a dense and diverse forest as it would once have been. @Moortrees were established in 1999 as a charity dedicated to recreating native woodland across Dartmoor and south Devon, and increasingly helping projects around the Tamar valley and beyond. They’ve managed to restore 88 woodland sites, planted over 100,000 trees, and offer free advice to local landowners on how to bring back more diversity to Dartmoors rich ecosystem. Read more at www.moortrees.org
North York Moors
From beyond the rocky shores and sandy bays on the North Sea, where white-beaked dolphins and minke whales follow the shoals of North Sea mackerel and herring swimming south from the Arctic, to one of the largest continuous expanses of upland heather moorland in Great Britain. The North York Moors encompass a diverse range of landscapes and wildlife, as well as being an internationally recognised dark sky preserve due to its low light pollution. The North York moors would once have been a rich and varied landscape; home to wildcats, birds of prey and significantly more forest than is there now. Unfortunately, the historical focus on game hunting and irresponsible land management has contributed to a significant change in landscape.
There have already been a number of efforts to reintroduce lost wildlife in the National Park. Following the success of the Scottish Beaver Trial at Knapdale Forest, A pair of Eurasian beavers have already been introduced to Cropton Forest, Yorkshire. Forestry England has monitored them gradually producing offspring and establishing their habitat in what is a revolutionary trial in flood management. Another initiative is the Heritage Lottery Funded Pine Marten Support Project. After four years of monitoring, a single male pine marten was spotted in 2017 on the north york moors, which was the first evidence of the species living in the area for over 35 years. You can find out more about this exciting project here: https://www.naturespy.org/what-we-do/projects/yorkshire-pine-marten-project-support-programme/
Yorkshire Dales
The rolling landscape of the Yorkshire Dales has been shaped over millennia by ice. These windswept hills and vast expanses of heather-covered moors straddle the Pennines, the backbone of England. A landscape of striking contrasts, between the deep, sheltered dales, the open, exposed, sweeping fells above and the longest cave system in Britain below. Home to perhaps the finest variety of wildlife in England, the Dales contain more than 120 species that are national priorities for conservation action. including red squirrels, peregrine falcons and lady’s-slipper orchids.
Some incredibly important work has just been given the go-ahead this year in the form of the Tee-Swale: Naturally Connected programme. The five-year project will work closely with local farmers to help reverse the decline in biodiversity via: hay meadow restoration, peatland re-establishment, river enhancement, wetland and woodland creation. There are other initiatives seeking to expand support for rewilding at a more local level to create a more diverse and balanced community of plants, animals and humans across the nation. Find out more here https://www.yorkshirerewildingnetwork.org.uk/
Northumberland
Nestled between the scottish border and Hadrian’s wall, Northumberland represents the northernmost reach of England’s National Parks. It is home to the cleanest rivers, clearest air and perhaps the darkest skies. The park is also rich in rugged landscape and precious wildlife such as Red Squirrels, rare Black Grouse and the distinctive Curlew. Northumberland, formerly a rich tapestry of co-existing wildlife, is another example of a landscape significantly altered by humans over time. One of the most familiar examples of rewilding efforts is the potential reintroduction of beavers to forest and river habitats. In 2011 the gnawed remains of a birch stick was found in Kielder Forest. Remarkably, that stick had been chewed by a beaver. More surprisingly, the wood was radiocarbon dated to the 14th Century meaning that Beavers were present in Northumberland 400 years later than previously thought.
Another example of an animal lost to the annals of english history is the Lynx. Widely backed proposals put forward by Lynx UK Trust to introduce 6 Eurasian Lynx to Kielder Forest were rejected in 2018, A second bid is currently being prepared but is currently shelved due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Lynxes’ shy and secretive nature makes them a perfect reintroduction candidate. No attacks on humans by a healthy, wild Eurasian lynx have ever been recorded anywhere in the world, and they have a very low impact on livestock.
The Kielderhead Wildwood Project, organised by Northumberland Wildlife Trust is a project aiming to prevent the loss of the William’s Cleugh Scots Pines, as well as restore a Native Upland Pine Woodland Habitat. This is all part of restoring natural processes and rebuilding diverse and healthy ecosystems that help with carbon storage and water quality in the area. Find out more here: https://www.nwt.org.uk/what-we-do/projects/wildwood
Brecon Beacons
As the name suggests, Brecon Beacons National Park is part of a landscape defined by its peaks. Dominating the centre of the National Park are the Brecon Beacons themselves, whose most celebrated peaks, Pen y Fan (886m) and Cribyn (795m), are the highest in southern Britain. The Black Mountain Range to the east is one of Wales’ most wild and remote corners with impressive, glacier-carved escarpments and isolated lakes. The Fforest Fawr UNESCO Global Geopark is located in South Wales, UK, and covers the western half of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Designated a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2015, it was the first in Wales and is one of around 150 worldwide. As well as boasting spectacular scenery and impressive mountains. The park is home to some of the rarest bird, animal and insect species in Wales.
Otters, great crested newts, marsh fritillary butterflies, bats and reed warblers are just some of the local residents you might run into. The rivers are the breeding grounds of trout and salmon – a delicious meal for any otter, and a real spectacle when making their way upstream to spawn. Threatened species such as water voles and white-clawed crayfish, a sort of freshwater lobster, can also be found in the waterways. Many species of birds nest or winter here, thanks to the diversity of habitats. The little ringed plover, for example, broods its eggs on gravel banks.
The Penpont Project by Action for Conservation is an ambitious and innovative youth conservation effort and is the biggest attempt of its kind in the world. Working in partnership with farmers, the landowners, conservationists and local stakeholders, they are restoring habitats and ecosystems and exploring innovative farming and forestry approaches to provide a healthy support system for people, biodiversity and agriculture. https://www.actionforconservation.org/penpont
Exmoor
Exmoor national park boasts large areas of open moorland providing a remoteness and tranquillity rare in southern Britain. The highest sea cliffs in England can also be found along its spectacular and rugged coastline, where deep wooded valleys, and fast flowing streams all combine to form a rich and distinct mosaic. Inland you will find burgeoning hedges and scrubby woodland full of wildlife that break up a patchwork of valley bottom fields, and encircled by heather-clad hills lightly grazed by cattle, ponies and sheep. Across the world, nature is struggling, even inside the boundaries of national parks and other protected areas, and Exmoor is no exception. The main barrier to rewilding projects so far has been the negative public perception towards it as well as disgruntled farming groups with a resistance to changing their methods. However, there have been some recent breakthroughs…
Beavers which have recently been re-introduced to Somerset have constructed a dam – the first in the area since beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK over 400 years ago. The Eurasian beavers were relocated from Scotland and released onto the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate in January 2020 as part of an effort to reduce flooding. Beaver’s are also a keystone species in improving biodiversity, their work creating dams in small rivers and streams can have a massive impact on the ecosystem around them, creating life for fish, insects, birds and amphibians.
The Broads
A unique mosaic of gentle landscape, lakes and rivers covering 303 square kilometres. The broad, shallow lakes are man-made rather than natural. They began as pits dug for peat to provide fuel during medieval times and filled over the centuries to become the boating playground we see today. Despite the Broads as we know them being a direct result of human activity, the area is now home to more than a quarter of the rarest wildlife in the UK. Birds are in particular abundance, with the broads being home to species such as Teal, Wigeon, Reed and Sedge warblers. The marsh harrier has made a comeback and Bittern numbers have also increased in recent years. Around 230 nationally important invertebrates (mini-beasts) can be found in the Broads including Britain’s largest butterfly, the swallowtail, and the rare Norfolk hawker dragonfly.
It was once famed for its gin-clear waters but today the waterways of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads are more typically a murky greeny-brown. Now a new “bio-manipulation” project aims to restore clear waters to Ranworth Broad and Barton Broad, paving the way for the return of osprey, common Terns and rare aquatic plants currently thwarted by the murky depths. To achieve this, some 1,800m of fish barriers will be installed in the two Broads, creating three biomanipulation zones at Ranworth and reinstating a further three at Barton. This in turn will restore lost water quality, allowing rare water plants such as holly-leaved naiad to flourish, and promoting the recovery of around 800 metres of emergent plants, and habitat for water voles, at the edge of Ranworth Broad. It is small initiatives such as these, seeking to offset the impact of increasing human activity and developments, that can help the fledgling ecosystems survive and flourish.
Loch Lomond and The Trossachs
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs is a place of contrasts, from rolling lowland landscapes in the south to high mountains in the north, with vast lochs and winding rivers, diverse forests and woodlands. Over 200 species of birds and more than a quarter of all plant species known to occur in Britain have been recorded in the national park. It’s home to many of the species most associated with the Scottish highlands, including capercaillie, red deer, red squirrels, Scottish wildcats, golden eagles, peregrine falcons, black grouse, buzzard, geese and osprey. Notably, Beavers are also now present in the park, with signs of beaver activity being observed on Loch Achray in the Trossachs which represents a real positive step in their widespread reintroduction to the UK as a whole.
Another species that could be encouraged to return to the landscape is the Lynx. The Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, near Loch Lomond, has been selected as the first lynx reintroduction site following an ecological feasibility study and initial community consultation work carried out by the Lynx Trust UK. @lynxukofficial Lynx are solitary and secretive creatures who live in dense forests full of hiding places and stalking opportunities. Often, the only way humans know that lynx are in a particular area is by the footprints that they leave in the snow. Apex predators such as lynx play a crucial role in promoting forest regeneration and biodiversity by controlling deer numbers. The lynx was hunted to extinction in the UK 1,300 years ago, and without this vital species there is a huge overpopulation of deer. With too many deer overgrazing and preventing natural forest regeneration, the biodiversity of woodlands is suffering.
Cairngorms
The largest park in the UK, and home to around a quarter of the UK’s rare and endangered species. The Cairngorm mountain range lies at the heart of the national park, but forms only one part of it, alongside other hill ranges, some lower lying areas and major rivers and wetland. Once home to a vast forest, and home to wolves, lynx, elks and many other species, land clearances for farming and felling trees for timber destroyed most of that habitat hundreds of years ago, leaving only a few disconnected fragments of land to provide shelter for dwindling numbers of animals. Cairngorms Connect is a local project that aims to bring back some of this vital carbon positive forest and the diversity of wildlife that has declined.
The Cairngorms contain some of Scotland’s largest, most wild habitats, and are home to the country’s most ambitious, landscape-scale nature conservation. The conservation is primarily focussed on the development of woodland and the restoration of peatlands and wetlands, all key activities that could provide bountiful habitats to a diversity of wildlife. Currently the park is home to some key animal species such as the Wildcat, Mountain hare and Beaver, as well as some rare birds of prey and the largest member of the grouse family, the Capercaillie. Nearby there’s also a very exciting rewilding project run by Trees for Life, who are planting new trees and protecting small growth to create a stunning new wild forest. Read more at treesforlife.org.uk/dundreggan/
New Forest
England’s smallest National Park was actually originally a hunting ground for William the Conqueror, almost a thousand years before it became a designated National Park. Despite the name, less than half of the park is actually covered with trees, with the rest a variety of terrain, including Europe’s biggest remaining area of lowland heath. A large portion of the park is still under ‘forest law’ where farm animals are allowed to roam and graze freely, which play a large part in encouraging biodiversity and actually contribute to the ecosystem. It’s home to a variety of wildlife, including all of England’s deer species, Otters, lots species of bat and a variety of heath and woodland inhabiting birds. The Red Squirrel used to be common but has been driven out by the American Grey Squirrel, a non-native species that has been responsible for the loss of many Red Squirrel populations.
As a whole, the New Forest is a good example of how to manage a National Park to ensure biodiversity and a varied ecosystem with a large amount of tree coverage and other types of habitat. While it’s not as wild as somewhere like Yellowstone in America, it doesn’t suffer from the same ‘monoculture’ type approach that farming in other National Parks in the UK have favoured, leading to barren stark landscapes, devoid of wildlife and dominated by the hedgerows and fencing of grazing and arable land. The forest would be a prime location for introducing Wild Boar, who would further contribute to biodiversity through scrubbing up seedlings and encouraging forest growth.
South Downs
The South Downs are often referred to as the lungs of southeast England – a bucolic swathe of greenery edged by an iconic coastal margin. Gently undulating hills, dazzling chalk cliffs, wildflower-filled ancient woodlands. Many fish, amphibians and invertebrates thrive in the chalk streams of the Meon and Itchen rivers whilst rare butterflies flourish on the flower-rich chalk grasslands. A rich diversity of landscape areas exist across West Sussex. The distinctive Wealden Greensand ridge, formed from deposited sands and clays when this part of Britain was under the sea, shares the same sloping landform as the chalk hills. River valleys support wetland habitats and wildlife. Lowland heaths provide shelter and breeding grounds for reptiles and heathland insects. Ancient woodlands, beech plantations and mystical yew groves offer secluded habitats for specialist species.
Restoring biodiversity in the South Downs will require a range of actions and approaches. These include the encouragement of more nature-friendly farming, removing some land from agricultural production, enhancing woodland management, and restoring river valleys to a more natural state. Nearby the Knepp Castle Estate is a pioneering rewilding project, once intensively farmed, but since 2001 has been devoted to nature conservation. Having turned failing farm land into a profitable site of abundant wildlife, Knepp demonstrates that low-cost methods of ecological restoration can be highly effective, producing dramatic and profitable results for inefficient or unsustainable farmland. It shows that rewilding projects can support established nature reserves and wildlife sites by providing an expansion of habitats and wildlife that will one day connect up on a landscape scale.
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