Facilitation Fund farmers’ groups

Part of project: Land management

Eden Rivers Trust currently manages a Facilitation Fund Farmers’ Group; the Fellside Group which was established in June 2022 and is going from strength to strength!

Our role is to help groups of farmers and land managers work together to improve the natural environment at a landscape scale, to achieve greater improvements than individual farms could on their own. The group is member-led, with Eden Rivers Trust acting as a facilitator to co-ordinate the group. We bring farmers together to share best practice, explore ways of working together, and access expert advice.

Challenge

Pollution from all sources remains a key issue affecting the health of our rivers.

With 97% of the Eden Catchment involved in agriculture, farmers and landowners are a key audience for the Trust to engage with.

Farmers and landowners in the catchment may not be familiar with the many ways in which they can obtain expert advice and funding. The challenge for us at the Trust is in providing the information as to how this advice and potential funding can be accessed.

Approach

We have a long track record of working with farm businesses and landowners to identify and implement water-friendly farming measures that are good for the environment as well as for their businesses.

By taking on a facilitation role, our aim is to target key sub-catchments, reaching more farmers in those areas and bringing them together to share best practices and increase the positive impact on Eden’s rivers.

We secured Government scheme funding for the facilitation group until the end of November 2025, with the potential to continue the group through a different funding stream (watch this space).

About the catchment

The Fellside Facilitation Group covers the Western fell-edge of the North Pennines AONB, from Talkin Tarn up to Ousby. The area is predominantly mixed beef and sheep with the occasional dairy herd.

The main focus of the group is to improve the water quality of the tributaries of the River Eden, through reducing the agricultural diffuse pollution of nutrients and sediment. This can be done through fencing off water courses, increasing agroforestry and improving soil health and management of resources and nutrients on the farm.

The North Pennines AONB is home to a number of priority habitats and species. Blanket bog is an important priority habitat, vital for storing water and slowing its flow into our communities and for sequestering carbon, and nearly a third of England’s blanket bog is based within the North Pennines. The area also provides an integral stronghold for multiple priority species, including Curlew and Black Grouse.