To mark Volunteers’ Week, we’re featuring a recent project that demonstrates why our amazing volunteers truly are a force for nature. Helping us transform rivers and landscapes into better places for people and wildlife, creating a lasting legacy.  

In the UK, 14.2 million people volunteered at least once a month in 2024, boosting the UK economy by an estimated £4.6 billion. Volunteering clearly delivers massive benefits to our communities but is also a force in caring for and managing the landscapes that we share.

Its a force that helps Eden Rivers Trust tackle invasive species, makes our communities more resilient to extreme weather events and improves the diversity of habitats supporting our native flora and fauna; facilitating the reintroduction of many beloved but beleaguered native species.

Five years’ ago, we completed a river, floodplain and landscape project at Greystone and Littlebeck on the river Lyvennet. This raised water levels to reconnect a local floodplain; increased the amount of wetland helping to mitigate the risk of downstream flooding in the area and created valuable new habitat.

Following capital works to transform the site, an army of our volunteers, joined by members of the local community, ‘waded in’ to plant 10,000 wetland plants on the site and create areas of willow to prevent further soil erosion. Tonnes of wood were moved by hand to create ‘habitat piles’ and regular seed sowing days were then organised to further boost biodiversity.

Today, the site has blossomed into a vibrant, rich wetland habitat. The rapids and pools in the river provide much-need spawning potential for endangered Atlantic salmon and has created ideal living conditions for native species such as White-clawed crayfish.   

Jenni Payne, our Community Engagement & Volunteer Coordinator:

“Walking through this rich habitat today, you would think that it has always looked like this, however it exists thanks to the generosity of volunteers who helped to shape it and continue to care for it.  That this generosity can go unnoticed makes it doubly important that we donate a little of our own time each year to reflect on the positive impact that volunteers have on us all.”

The resilience and diversity of the Cumbrian landscape and its native flora and fauna are all enhanced by hundreds of small-scale projects like this and the volunteer effort that makes them possible.