The Friends are appealing for volunteers to take care of Helvellyn

The Friends are appealing for volunteers to take care of Helvellyn

A conservation charity is appealing to walkers and outdoor enthusiasts to help them show a little tender loving care to one of the Lake District’s most popular mountains.

The Friends of the Lake District want fit hillwalkers to join them in a Fell Care Day on Helvellyn next month.

The group is also organising a range of volunteering activities for less hill-savvy outdoors lovers as part of a large-scale day of events on and around England’s third highest mountain.

The Friends are hoping for involvement by more than 25 organisations, with schools and a hundred volunteers taking part in the 29 September event.

The day will include practical conservation activities and raising of awareness about managing the land and water and the benefits the fells provide for us. It will also celebrate 2011 as the European Year of Volunteering, the 60th Birthday of the Lake District National Park, and the International Year of Forests.

Volunteers will be undertaking a range of tasks on and around Helvellyn, from footpath repair work, surveying red squirrels, rebuilding a sheepfold and a squirrel hide, tree conservation work to litter picks on Swirral Edge and Striding Edge, and on the lakeshore for those without a head for heights.

Local schools will be taking part and making squirrel feeders, alongside other educational conservation work.

The Friends are appealing for more volunteers for the many of the events, which are being run by the organisation’s Flora of the Fells project. The scheme’s project officer Sue Manson said: ‘We’re looking for volunteers with reasonable fitness and mobility, super-fit volunteers for working at high level on steep slopes, experienced drystone wallers, and people to help us make films of the day.

“If you enjoy meeting people and raising awareness about the fells and conservation, or baking cakes, then we’d love you to be involved too.

“The Fell Care Day promises to be a great day in celebration of the Lake District Fells, all they provide for us and the immense volunteer effort that goes into helping to conserve them.”

Individuals, groups or business interested in volunteering are asked to contact Sue Manson, Flora events and communications officer on 01539 733187 or by emailing her.

A similar event is also being planned by the Friends in Ennerdale on Tuesday, 18 October. Contact details are the same as the Helvellyn day.

Some articles the site thinks might be related:

  1. Keswick festival Fell Care Day volunteers brave wind and rain in clean-up event
  2. Wainwright Society voices opposition to planned Thirlmere zipwire
  3. Forest groups tells bishop: come and visit the Lakes
  4. Fix the Fells repair for Yewbarrow path thanks to £7,000 Friends grant
  5. Man dies and another seriously hurt in two 650ft Striding Edge falls in two days