The future of the beautiful ravine woodlands in the Peak District is looking brighter thanks to £5 million in funding.

The LIFE in the Ravines partnership project, led by Natural England, will tackle the threat that ash dieback poses to the forested river valleys of the Peak District. The project has received £3.6m in funding from the EU LIFE programme, with the remainder coming from project partners.

Ash dieback disease, caused by a fungus lethal to UK native ash trees, arrived in the Peak District in 2015. The ravine forests of the Peak District are dominated by ash, so the whole woodland area could be devastated without intervention.

In Staffordshire, the project will include work in the Manifold and Hamps Valleys of the Peak District, where the Trust’s Castern Wood and Weag’s Barn nature reserves are situated.

LIFE in the Ravines will help 900 hectares of forest survive this threat with a programme of tree planting and woodland management. Native trees historically present in the woodlands will be planted to step into the spaces left behind when ash trees die.

Jeff Sim, Senior Conservation Manager for the charity, said: “Ash Dieback will have a major impact on some of our woodland reserves. The impact on ash trees across the county was especially noticeable in 2020. It’s great news that we now have funding to protect some of the Peak District woodlands.

“The project will not give up on ash, it will seek out trees that might be resilient to the disease and give a helping hand to natural ash regeneration.

The project will help these special ravine woodland ecosystems survive beyond ash dieback, thrive into the future and help counter other threats such as climate change and flooding.”