Taking the long view on our work in the Lake District

Walkers at Buttermere in the Lake District

We can't take a landscape in the Lake District and protect it like a famous oil painting, capturing it as a snapshot in time. The valleys and fells here are evolving masterpieces. They're as much about the future as they are the past.

Part of our responsibility is to work with change, and keep the landscape alive. How do we do this?

Helping shape the evolution of the Lakes might occasionally mean being bold, but it doesn’t involve a revolution. Few things have to happen overnight. We’ve been here for over a hundred years, and we’re here to stay. Most of our land would require an Act of Parliament for it to be sold. So we’ll work with people and do things when the time is right, measured at a pace to fit the circumstances.

" We're in this forever. It's because of this that we'll always invest in the fabric of the Lakes; it’s why we will try to look ahead to what society will want in the future; why we think it’s important to respect nature; why we understand the importance of a self-reliant rural economy. And it’s why we set so much store by being part of the Lakes community. "
- Mike Innerdale, Assistant Director, Lake District