Thirlmere
Thirlmere, a reservoir in the valley below Helvellyn, sits within the Lake District National Park.
For the past five years, the Trust has surveyed and monitored the area around Thirlmere reservoir - near Helvellyn - working with volunteers to promote long-term peatland and woodland regeneration and restore natural processes.
The Thirlmere Resilience Project is a partnership with United Utilities, Natural England and Cumbria Wildlife Trust with the aim of managing land to create a resilient water catchment to supply the water needed by people, while providing a home for native biodiversity. Phase one of this partnership project was completed at the end of 2025.
Impact at Thirlmere
Since the start of the Thirlmere Resilience Project in 2020, the Trust has engaged 176 people in charting the land and planting approximately 4,800 trees around Wythburn Beck. These trees will provide an important habitat and increase biodiversity, flood mitigation, carbon sequestration and reduce sediment flow into the reservoir.
Volunteering and engagement
We committed to making Thirlmere a key hub for conservation activity, ensuring that people of all ages and backgrounds could become involved in enriching the natural environment of this beautiful landscape.
We supported residents and visitors as they enjoyed and cared for the Lake District’s special qualities through the John Muir Award. Our engagement scheme has been firmly established in Cumbria since 2003 and in partnership with the Lake District National Park since 2011.
Impact at Glenridding Common
The Trust helped protect another wild place near Thirlmere. In 2017, we leased 1100ha of Glenridding Common (which includes an area jointly owned by LDNPA and the National Trust) — on the other side of Helvellyn.
Over six years, our work at Glenridding Common included the re-establishment of rare arctic-alpine plants and mountain woodland species including downy willow, aspen, rowan and juniper. We also planted trees, removed non-native species, established a tree nursery, and delivered educational visits. All our work was carried out with the invaluable support of local, green fingered volunteers and partners.
Wildlife and species monitoring
The Glenridding Common team carried out extensive survey work to establish baseline information for a variety of species on this nationally important upland site. Alongside partners and the local community, we monitored rare species such as mountain ringlet butterflies and arctic-alpine plants, and worked with the British Mountaineering Council and Natural England to advise on suitable climbing conditions.
We also conducted upland vegetation monitoring, breeding bird surveys, and moth trapping in a variety of habitats. Helvellyn's high altitude crags and coves provide a refuge for rare arctic-alpine flora such as alpine saxifrage and alpine mouse-ear, which grow nowhere else in England. We also worked to restore a viable population of mountain avens. The area also holds significant stands of juniper scrub woodland, plus a variety of montane and upland heath, grassland and flush communities.
Red Tarn holds a population of schelly, one of the UK’s rarest species of fish, plus England’s highest population of stickleback. Bird life is also rich, with snow bunting found on the high tops in winter, while upland species such as raven, wheatear and the red-listed ring ouzel all breed here in the summer. Butterflies spotted at Glenridding Common include the green hairstreak and the mountain ringlet.