We all feel overwhelmed by the enormity of Climate Change but in 2007 a lady called Terena Plowright founded the ‘Greening Campaign’.
The Greening Campaign envisages communities where residents used less energy and had lower bills; waste was prevented by reducing, reusing or sharing; nature could move freely along natural corridors in and between gardens; communities grew more of their own, climate resistant food and were resilient against climate impacts such as flooding and heatwaves; families were healthier and happier.
Since 2007 the Greening Campaign helped over 200 communities with a program of help and ideas to make a measurable difference and in August 2021 ‘Greening Duddon’ joined the Campaign.
A small group of volunteers led by Jay Sayers and Jackie McClure, and which involved Broughton in Furness and the Duddon Valley residents encouraged people to ‘save energy’ in various ways. The local primary school children had a competition with their suggestions; there was a very well publicised and innovative Scarecrow competition with 8 ‘energy saving’ challenges and in September 2021 there was a Greening Duddon Launch Event displaying all the results with information stands, food and music in the Victory Hall in Broughton.
However, we knew that to be more effective we needed to be more organised and funded and so in February 2022 Sustainable Duddon was formed as a charitable organisation. To involve the local community, we held a fund-raising ceilidh.
Since 2022 Sustainable Duddon has grown steadily in terms of volunteers and the number of projects we have instigated.
- Community Garden. Based at The Old School House at Ulpha Bridge the garden has evolved into a nursery for our ‘whips’ [young trees] whilst also providing fruit and vegetables for the Community’ Meals on Wheels’ and the Ulverston Food Waste project
- Community Orchard. Planted in the grounds of the Kepplewray Centre, the orchard has 40 apple trees which have been supplying fruit to the primary school and the Community whilst the edible hedging bordering the orchard has been helping the wildlife.
- Hydroelectric Scheme. A feasibility study was undertaken in February 2022 to investigate the possibility of a community hydro-electric scheme on the Lickle River. It was an interesting and exciting project but sadly could not progress as we were unable to get permissions from all the landowners.
- Litter picking events occur regularly throughout the year primarily on the main A595 from Broughton to The Hill where we hope our yellow tabards might encourage folk to stop throwing their rubbish out of car windows!
- BEAT project evolved from Sustainable Transport aims to provide a traffic free, active transport route from Barrow to Eskdale
In December 2023 Sustainable Duddon became instrumental in setting up the Duddon Catchment Partnership in which we joined with South Cumbria Rivers Trust, the Duddon River Association and the South Lakes Red Squirrel Group to be able to access sufficient funding to help us in our aim to restore our traditional, natural landscape to the benefit of both nature and the community.
Numerous projects have been spawned from this collaboration:
- Grey squirrel control
- Mink control
- Bat monitoring
- Natterjack monitoring
- Trail cameras for recording wildlife
- Dormouse tunnels and boxes
- Invasive species control i.e. Himalayan balsam, skunk cabbage and Japanese knotweed
- Tree planting
- River Fly surveys
- River Morph surveys
- Leaky dam building
- Electro fishing
- Water quality monitoring
- Thermal imaging to identify heat loss from homes in the community
- Weather stations
- Community and schools’ engagement
Looking forward we hope that the DCP will continue to flourish, the number of volunteers will continue to increase, our projects will progress, and new ones will develop enabling our vision to enhance the natural environment of the Duddon Valley and surrounding areas to help promote the health and well-being of our communities whilst building resilience to our changing climate.
