Coverhead is a privately owned 5000 acre shooting estate and upland farm in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. We have always blazed a path embracing and, in some cases, developing the latest innovative conservation programs, well before they have become accepted practice by the scientific and shooting communities.
We believe that conservation, sensitive farming and shooting go hand in hand, are mutually supportive of each other and in combination deliver wider ecosystem benefits far beyond our own boundaries.
Coverhead Farm purchased by the Mawle family. At that time Coverhead overwintered over 3000 ewes with a resulting degraded sward, shot less than 100 brace of Grouse annually and was fully 'griped' ( moorland drained) causing flash flooding in the river basin, over erosion of soils and the degradation of the river ecology.
In 1986 Coverhead started a program (which continues to this day) of tree renewal - replacing those lost to overgrazing and historic felling for fuel. Both commercial conifer and native broad leaf plantings have been used to create habitat for game, birds and insects and stabilise erosion zones
Moorland re-wetting begins. A voluntary program of grip blocking starts. Filling in the grips (moorland open drains) is seen as essential in boosting Grouse numbers as many chicks are lost in them soon after hatching
Coverhead is one of the first upland farms to enter the new Countryside Stewardship environmental improvement scheme. This scheme is for a term of 10 years. Sheep numbers are reduced from 2000 to 1200 ewes and a Highlander cattle fold established to help deal with the course rank moorland grasses, allowing native wild flowers to thrive.
A study by the Wild Trout Trust shows that the River Cover ecology is rapidly improving in response to the moorland drainage reversal policy.
Coverhead starts an ongoing program of heather reseeding on degraded 'white ground' to improve habitat for grouse and as a first stage to restoring areas of blanket bog. White ground is the term used to describe moorland so historically heavily overgrazed by sheep that only course pale moorland grasses remain, lending the ground a characteristic white color when viewed in the landscape.
Charles I Hunting Lodge, Hunters' Hall, renovated and saved from ruin. This comfortable lodge now acts as a farmhouse and shooting lodge for visiting guns
Blanket bog ecology shows signs of great improvement on the experimental areas of re-wetted and heather seeded ground. This encourages Coverhead to accelerate the moorland re wetting program.
Coverhead enters a ten year Higher Level Stewardship agreement with Natural England aimed at Blanket Bog and Black Grouse recovery. The grip blocking program is intensified with the help of the Yorkshire Peat Project.
Coverhead starts a successful Black Grouse translocation and recovery project lead by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and under license from Natural England. All trans-located birds are radio tracked as apart of a 5 year study.
Coverhead achieves a 5 year Red Grouse average in excess of 1000 brace - a milestone in the moor's recovery from its degraded state when originally purchased in 1983
After two very wet, cold and terrible breeding years in 2015 and 2016, it looks like it has finally been a good one. Most species of moorland birds have bread well this season , Grouse Included! Young Curlew, Lapwing, Golden Plover, Snipe, Woodcock, Skylark, Meadow Pippit, Ketrel and Merlin are doing well.
A very dry and hot spring and summer in 2018 was a disaster for many ground nesting birds that rely on a good hatch of grubs and insects to feed their young. This included Red Grouse and many pairs failed to raise any chicks to maturity. Our monitoring efforts lead by the GWCT allowed us to plan ahead for a no shooting year to conserve stocks. Rather than reduce the cost of moorland management to compensate for the loss or revenue from no shooting, Coverhead continued with plans to invest and recruit extra staff to improve the effectiveness of management effort on the hill. This has resulted in a very good overwinter survival of the remaining Red Grouse pairs and bodes well for a reasonable shooting season in 2019.
The project to rewind, slow and restore the River Cover as it passes through Coverhead is well underway and starting to show benefits for fish and aquatic insects. By installing 'leaky dams' at strategic points and slowing the water in channel during periods of spate we expect to significantly slow flood water entering the larger catchment down stream. During periods of low water the pools formed by spate action behind these dams will provide refuge areas for fish and the slower water to the side of the main channel during normal flow conditions will further increase the existing high level of biodiversity of aquatic insect species.