Transformation of Howgill Beck at RSPB Geltsdale praised for supporting nature’s recovery.
A river restoration project to bring back its natural twists and turns, benefitting wildlife and the landscape, has won the prestigious UK River Prize Project-scale Award 2025.
RSPB Geltsdale is a remote nature reserve in the North Pennines. Here, thanks to our supporters, partners and funders, we’re working to create a more resilient landscape, restoring peatland, planting native woodland, creating meadowland and re-introducing lost river features.
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Howgill Beck is a small river that was straightened more than 200 years ago, causing it to lose many of the natural features that benefit both wildlife and the landscape. In an ambitious project, led by RSPB Geltsdale Warden Jen Selvidge, a 1.8km stretch of the river was returned to a more natural state, by the creation of natural meanders and re-connecting the watercourse to its floodplain.
Now the river’s “wiggles” have been restored, the flow of the water has slowed, which has allowed gravel beds to form. These habitats are really important for fish and invertebrates, which in turn provide food for birds and other wildlife.
During periods of high rainfall, river water can now spill out onto the surrounding floodplain meadows, helping to reduce the chance of flooding downstream and providing vital pools and damp patches for wading birds, like Lapwings and Redshanks, to feed on.
Already the project is having a significant impact. Just three years since the project began, in 2024, five pairs of Redshank were recorded breeding in the project area — up from just one pair in 2016. Two pairs of Oystercatcher successfully nested for the first time since 2016 and two pairs of Common Sandpiper nested in 2022 and 2023. The latter is a common summer visitor to most upland areas in the UK but were totally absent from this stretch of river previously.
Lapwings, Curlews, Snipe and Dippers can also be regularly seen using the shallow silty edges and flowing wetlands. Great White Egrets have been seen nine times in the project area, with five sightings in 2024 alone — almost all recorded after the restoration was completed.
Eleven dragonfly and damselfly species have been sighted, including Broad-bodied Chasers and the first Black-tailed Skimmer since 2006. Aquatic vegetation surveys show species like Water Starwort, Water-crowfoot and Brooklime are returning thanks to the re-naturalisation of the beck.
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Thrilled with the UK River Prize Project-scale Award, Warden Jen Selvidge said: “I am absolutely delighted with this win, and it's great recognition for the whole team involved in this project. Howgill Beck’s restoration means the watercourse and the wildlife it supports will benefit the diversity here in this hidden corner of Cumbria. It’s wonderful to see species like the Sandpipers back here again.
“So many of our rivers have been modified and we’ve been conditioned to think they are natural, when the truth is often far from it. What we’ve done here is more than re-wiggling, we’ve connected floodplains, created new wetlands and blocked ditches, resulting in a truly dynamic river. The project was a true team effort, and we couldn’t be prouder of this prestigious prize.”
Andy Lees, Programme Manager for the North Pennines National Landscape, added: “This is exactly the kind of thing we’d like to see more of in the National Landscape – restoring natural processes on a large scale to benefit all kinds of wildlife, slow the flow of water from the fells, and sequester carbon.
“The speed with which some wildlife has colonised these new habitats is uplifting, and the project shows how much can be achieved when farmers, land managers and conservation bodies work in partnership. We’re proud to have supported this work and we hope to use it as a showcase to inspire similar change across the North Pennines.”
Tenant Farmer Ian Bell said: “The difference in wildlife here has been amazing. It’s lovely to see Curlews when you are going about the fields. And the flocks of Lapwing are astounding. It makes me feel proud that I’m involved in working the land here, for nature and for farming.”
The UK River Prize is curated by the River Restoration Centre, which champions the benefits of restoring our river systems. Also a winner this year was the Holnicote Estate Project in Somerset led by the National Trust, which won the UK River Catchment-scale Award.
The prize for the work at Howgill Beck follows in the footsteps of another partnership project to restore habitats in Swindale Valley at Wild Haweswater in the Lake District, which won the 2022 UK River Prize Project-scale Award. Both Swindale Valley and Howgill Beck are part of the Cumbria River Restoration Programme, which won the prestigious European Riverprize in 2022.
The Howgill Beck project was funded by Northumbrian Water under the South Tyne Holistic Water Management Project and Defra’s Farming in Protected Landscapes programme, which is administered by the North Pennines National Landscape’s team. Working with consultants Dynamic Rivers, the project has also been supported by the Fellfoot Forward National Landscape Partnership Scheme (LPS), Natural England, Cumberland Council, Cumbria Amphibian and Reptile Group (CARG), the University of Salford and the Tyne Rivers Trust.
We have further ambitions for RSPB Geltsdale. Thanks to the purchase of a final piece of land at RSPB Geltsdale, we are now able to go bigger and better to fully restore and protect the area’s moorlands, wetlands and woodlands.
RSPB Geltsdale Reserve Manager Ian Ryding explains: “Conservation efforts over the last three decades are clearly paying off but now we are stepping up a gear to realise our bold new vision for the reserve. Now is the time to take everything we’ve learned and go bigger, we’re talking more trees, more wetlands, more birds and more homes for our threatened wildlife.” Find out how you could help us do even more to create a Pennines paradise.
