Nature Recovery Fund
We introduced a Nature Recovery Fund of £50,000. The fund supported projects that:
- restored, enhanced, created or connected habitats to support pollinators, or one or more priority species identified by the Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS)
- undertook other actions to support LNRS priority species or pollinators – such as baseline surveys, monitoring or reintroductions
- supported the removal or control of key invasive on-native species, as defined in the LNRS
- conducted research on LNRS species recovery
Applications are now closed.
The following applicants were successful:
- Ullswater Catchment Management CIC (£14,708.80) - Design and delivery of river restoration project, restore natural processes to a heavily straightened and modified watercourse. The beck will be returned to a natural state which will have multiple habitat benefits.
- Friends of the Lake District (£14,900) - Protect and regenerate 72 acres of temperate rainforest. Boundary repairs, invasive beech and sycamore removal, halo thinning, trial mechanical bracken bashing, pulse grazing, pilot use of Trico (a product to repel deer from newly planted trees)
- Penrith Swift Group (£7,854.30) - Swift nest boxes in St Andrew’s churches in Penrith, Dacre and Greystoke, on Church House in Penrith and village halls in Armathwaite and Lazonby plus on Armathwaite Community School.
- South Cumbria River’s Trust (£14,000) - De-culverting 1.4km of headwater channels adjacent to the River Mint. Creation of scrapes and installing 5-10 leaky dams and 15-20 drain blocks.
Coronation Community Orchard Fund
This £50,000 fund supported community groups, schools, charities and other organisations to establish community orchards in their local area in celebration of the King’s coronation.
The fund supported the planting of accessible community orchards across Westmorland and Furness.
The Coronation Community Orchard Fund awarded grants up to £10,000 per group.
Applications are now closed.
The following applicants were successful:
- Grizedale Arts (£10,000)
- Levens Charity (£4,500)
- Sedgwick Parish Council (£2,000)
- Sustainable Duddon (4,500)
- North Stainmore Parish Hall (£2,900)
- UBS Parish Council (£1,100)
- Cumbria Wildlife Trust (£4,800)
- Levens Playing Fields (£4,500)
- St Catherine's Catholic Primary School (£500)
- Cartmel Fell Community Trust (£4,250)
- Mungrisdale Parish Council (£400)
- Art Gene (£7,000)
Climate and Nature Partnership Fund
The fund supported collaborative partnership working to tackle climate change, support nature recovery and ensure a fair transition to a low carbon future for our communities in Westmorland and Furness.
This fund allowed us to support 24 different partnerships that are working on an exciting variety of projects across Westmorland and Furness, and Cumbria as a whole:
| Partnership projects across Cumbria | ||
|---|---|---|
| Partnership | Lead applicant | Project Aim |
| Arnside and Silverdale National Landscape | Arnside and Silverdale AONB | Strengthen the capacity and resilience of the national landscape team and local communities to transform the ability to respond to the climate and nature crisis. |
| Branching out in Barrow | RAISE - Cumbria Community Forrest | Establish tree planting in three areas of Barrow identified as needing environmental improvements. |
| Community Collective | Lakeland Arts | Inter-generational conversations, empowering local voices regarding climate activism and erosion of biodiversity. |
| Coniston Environment Partnership | Coniston Parish Council | Identification of projects that would protect and enhance biodiversity whilst creating a positive amenity for the parish. |
| Cumbria Local Visitor Economy Partnership | Cumbria Tourism | To develop and implement place-based sustainable and active travel plans. |
| Cumbria Peat Partnership | Cumbria Wildlife Trust | Identify and develop restoration sites, improve, and maintain peatland nature reserves, and deliver peatland restoration. |
| Cumbrian Peatland Restoration Partnership | University of Cumbria | Part funding a PhD at the University of Cumbria. "Wool as a novel material in the restoration of severely degraded peatlands". |
| Eden Catchment Partnership | Eden Rivers Trust | Improving invasive species management around Eden's lakes and rivers. Outcomes will be increased knowledge, improved wetland habitat and biodiversity, improved water quality, reduced erosion and behaviour change in water users. |
| Flourishing Ulverston | Mycellium Thinking CIC | To co-create ground-breaking creative schemes to transition into a zero emission arts and cultural sector in Ulverston. |
| Grange to Arnside Trail | Morecambe Bay Partnership | Increase capacity to enable progression of a range of activities focused on developing the Grange to Arnside trail project. |
| Land and Nature Skills Service Partnership | Cumbria Chamber of Commerce | Connect people with learning and training opportunities relevant to land and nature-based work. |
| Love Windermere | Freshwater Biological Association | To have a better understanding of Windermere's water quality, allowing for rejuvenation. |
| Love Windermere Partnership | Lake District Foundation | Working with farmers across the Windermere catchment to help reduce nutrient runoff. |
| Lynster Farmers Group | Lynster Farmers Group | Supported by scientists and engineers to: Optimise the Yields, Inspire the Young, Improve the Environment, Reduce Emissions, Increase Sequestration and Enable Vital Societies. |
| Nutrient Neutrality Project Board | Lake District National Park Authority | Ensure new development doesn't cause further harm to water environment where nutrient pollution is already having adverse impacts on protected habitat sites. |
| Ormsgill Community Garden | BarrowFull | Enabling BarrowFull to continue working with Ormsgill Stronger Together and Brathy Trust to run community bulb planting. |
| People and Nature Network | West Cumbria Rivers Trust | Help to develop Cumbria's nature recovery network. Their website will link people with nature activities across Cumbria. |
| People Planet Pocket | People Planet Pocket CIC | Running a series of Fix Fests, with the ideas of reusing, upcycling, fixing, and mending, lending, sharing and circular economy a focus to help promote carbon reducing behaviour change. |
| Paths to Leadership: Active Community Engagement (PLACE) | Cumbria Development Education Centre | How youth-led behaviour can lead to sustainable, locally informed and agreed actions. |
| Sustainability and Energy Network in Staveley | SENS | Initiatives to tackle the climate crisis and biodiversity and to promote sustainability in action. |
| The Life of the Park | Octopus Collective Ltd (Trading as Full of Noise) | Developing and measuring biodiversity in Barrow Park to explore climate change effects on a micro-level through artist sessions. |
| Wild Walney | Art Gene | Helping to enhance the biodiversity of Walney through volunteer sessions. |
| Windermere Science Festivals | Windermere Science Festivals CIC | Empowering community groups to deliver benefits for their community needs. Addressing biodiversity loss, encouraging sustainable land-use, reducing species loss, improving green spaces and supporting more sustainable local food systems. |
| Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership (ZCCP) | Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS) | Maximising the benefits of current lottery funded partnership activity and ensure the legacy of the programme is embedded. The fund also helps to run ZCCP’s four emissions sector groups, deliver the inaugural Zero Carbon Cumbria summit 2024, and support community-led environmental activities. The funding also helps CAfS to develop its retrofit advice service. |