Volunteer Power On The North York Moors

We head to Sutton Bank on the North York Moors to find out what it really takes to keep a national park healthy, welcoming and protected. We meet the people making it happen, from volunteer managers planning for decades of restoration to a retired teacher rebuilding dry stone walls that could stand for 200 years.
• Sutton Bank as a base for cycling, walks, dark sky events and all-access routes
• The hidden layers of the moors, from wildlife habitats to archaeology and community projects
• What a national park protects, and why it is for everybody
• Who volunteers, what motivates them, and how flexible roles can be
• Youth ranger days, school outreach, River Esk Reconnect work and virtual walks for care homes
• Moorland fire recovery, peat restoration, and the long timeline of “wetter is better”
• How the park tries to remove barriers, from transport to welfare facilities
• Paul’s volunteering journey, skills training, public-facing ranger support and the pride of leaving a lasting legacy

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Transcript

Welcome To Yorkshire And The Moors

Derm Tanner 0:00

Hello, thanks for listening to the Grey Matters Podcast. If you're retired or coming up to that big change in your life, chances are no one has ever warned you about all the added time you never have on your hands. No financial expert can help you with that. We've spent months travelling around talking to charities, companies, and sports clubs, and it turns out you're needed and valued by them. Keep listening because we might just have a few suggestions for you. I'm Derm Tanner,

Roy Player 0:26

and I'm Roy Player.

Derm Tanner 0:28

And in this episode, we're back out in the wilds of Yorkshire. We're tracking down volunteers and officers because we're on the top of the North York Moors in the national park, and it was a great day.

Roy Player 0:41

I love the Moors. I sort of, it was one of those things. I came up to college at York many, many, many, many, many years ago and I remember going out and visiting the moors for the first time when I was a student, and what a beautiful place. And I've fallen in love with it with the whole county, really, and so I stayed up in Yorkshire and the North York Moors are very, very special, but you don't realise and appreciate as you're walking, driving through it, walking through it, walking with the dogs, just how much work goes into maintaining them.

Sutton Bank As An Easy Gateway

Paul Bamber 1:13

P aul Bamber from the North York Moors. I'm the volunteer engagement officer.

Roy Player 1:17

So we're at Sutton Bank. Now again, I've driven past here on numerous occasions, had absolutely no idea that there was so much going on behind the scenes off the road here and seeing all these things here. Just describe to us, please, about the importance of Sutton Bank in this setting for the North York Moors part.

Paul Bamber 1:35

Yeah, it's location, location, location. So yes, we are by by a nice main road, good access, and you there's the cafe and the visitor centre, all the little playthings you'd expect for families. We're currently sat at the Nature and Star Hub where we have dark sky events, and lots of school groups come and use this base as well. I t's obviously got our cycle trail as well as all the lovely walks along the natural cliffs. So great, great views out across North Yorkshire, and like all a lot of the routes, one of the really strategically valuable things about Sutton Bank is most of the paths are pretty flat and well surfaced, so great for all access. We even have the. the Tramper Project where you can hire one of our mobility scooters and you can get right out and along the tracks on our kind of robust scooters, if you like. Yeah, so we've got the mountain biking as well, which is again graded, so there's some of the more adventurous stuff for those, and it's just a great place to start and go and explore. We're right on the Cleveland Way, so you could walk yeah, to, to Filey from here, 109 miles along, along the national trail.

Roy Player 2:40

Just about making from this cafe, the cafe to here, actually, is about it at the moment. What I would say then, it sounds very much as though, and we're talking a little bit more about what the role of the park is in a moment, but this is something especially it's half-term week as well. A lot of families around, a lot of kids around, so plenty to do for every fun, everyone within the park for families, it's not just sort of maybe us green or something.

Wildlife Archaeology And Hidden Work

Paul Bamber 3:02

Yeah, you'll see plenty of people walking around with binoculars, with dogs, with prams. yes, it's it's got lots of layers, it's obviously really interesting for its nature and its habitats and its specific wildlife, because obviously we've got like the cliff fronts and stuff, which obviously attract a lot of specific bird species that people are very interested in, and also under, under layer, there's loads of like really interesting archaeology and that cultural heritage as well. So Roulston Scar is just the big bump that you can as you head out, where the just where the glider club flies over the top of. So that's the, the largest Roman hill fort this far north in the country, and we've had just like again to give the, the layers of, of what people don't always see. We've had a project recently Raiding the Bank, which volunteers have been very involved with helping run. So that's an archaeology project and also kind of a community engagement project.

Roy Player 3:50

I would have no idea that a national park and your role here would involve things like that. Maybe just just we just turn the clock back just a few moments and just sort of can I ask you, because there are national parts across the whole country, what is the role of the national park?

Paul Bamber 4:08

To protect these really special places for everybody. So it's again multi-kind of tiered, it's the protecting that kind of cultural heritage. So people want to come and you know, like every national park's kind of got its own identity, a special thing that it's it's protecting. So obviously the North Your Moors is in the name, if we've got our you know fantastic landscapes, each area's got its own little vibe, and that is kind of protected for for everybody to come and and enjoy, as well as the yes, all the the historical stuff, and obviously they're very special places for nature.

What National Parks Are For

Roy Player 4:38

I would imagine there is a huge interest from people that are have some have loads of skill, some don't have great deals of skill. You look after volunteers. What sort of people tend to come to you, Paul? Is it a broad cross section? But also, would you sort of just say this is open to everyone to come and chat to you and find and the national parks across the country, people in your position, people to come to you and chat to you and say, How can I get involved?

Paul Bamber 5:04

Yes, we are we are very open, we've got very, very diverse groups of volunteers and, and all what they do. So but yeah, we have we have yeah, from young people, graduate students wanting to obviously get experience, they they're coming to get involved to to gain qualifications and to network and that type of thing. That's how I started back in the day. And obviously a big group of our volunteers are retired again because a lot of the action happens midweek. We have a lot of people that are in that kind of career change area, or yeah, when they're in kind of in those life transitions, and it's it's a real landing point for people wanting to experience something new, some people that want to just do something completely different, want to do something with their hands, want to give back is a huge thing that people say that's like obviously do our surveys, and that's what volunteers tell us. They come here because they you know believe in the the vision, but actually they they want to make a difference, so it's not just coming as to their own distraction or their own enjoyment, which obviously does help retain people and keep them coming back. But, but a big motivation why people come is because they want to they want to make an impact.

Who Volunteers And Why It Matters

Roy Player 6:05

So if I came along to you today, I know Derm is at the moment talking to one of your one of your volunteers, Paul, and but if I came along today and sort of said, Well, look, I've got I've got no real skills, but I have a a real interest, I walk my dogs around in the country, I've I've been living around here for years, I'm fascinated by the place. What sort of advice would you give to someone who just comes along and just sort of says, yeah, please, I, I, I don't know quite though what what to do.

Paul Bamber 6:33

My advice would be to volunteer. There's nothing quite like getting to know people and start getting in there in those little bubbles and seeing what other people are doing as well. So we have on our website. If you're yeah, the North York Moors volunteers, a list of volunteer vacancies we have at the moment because we've got over 700 volunteers and they're across all the different departments, across the national parts, so they're doing a huge mix of things. A lot of those groups are kind of closer at capacity or kind of they're they're happy doing what they're doing, but we obviously have some groups that we are actively recruiting for that we want people to come in, so you can see the list on there that and obviously that's that's always changing. We're always you know applying for new funding or changing the way we do things, and so that, that, that is something we do add on in new new roles quite a lot. So that'll be the kind of first way in. My main responsibility is in my role in the volunteer team is I look after our volunteer leaders, so we have Taste leaders volunteers that take out other volunteers out into the wild doing practical stuff. So that can involve taking a minibus out onto the moors and off out into the valleys, and like Paul, who's who, who you'll hear from, is a dry stone waller. So he that's a skill that he's picked up since retiring from being a teacher, and again, nature conservation, so a lot of meadow management, grassland management, again, looking after like Cawthorne Camp and other bits that I know he does that it's those kind of historic monuments that we're just kind of keeping, chopping the trees down so the roots don't damage the archaeology too much. So that's you know great being in these very historic places and just doing a bit of chopping and pruning and chatting away as we're working.

Roy Player 8:04

But if you were sort of wanting to do other roles within the park, are there things like for social media or outreach programs, going to schools and things like that?

Youth Rangers Outreach And Virtual Walks

Paul Bamber 8:14

Yes, so we have young ranger teams, for example, so they're regular weekends and families and that type of thing, again, getting kids practical and doing things. We've got many different projects, such as the Reconnect project, which is the River Esk project, so it's obviously doing some habitat work, but again, a huge focus on that community engagement, so they're doing school things and, and lots of events and going out, meeting people, spreading their the good news of the River Esk.

Roy Player 8:40

And so, yeah, so they're and in what way does that work if you go into a school? I mean, Paul, as Derm will be finding out, is, is was a teacher, yes. Which is obviously fantastic, then to be able to go and reconnect with kids and get them involved in the in agents. So when you talk about events and things, like with that River Esk project, so do people have to go to the River Esk or do you take the information to the schools?

Paul Bamber 9:02

Definitely both. So, yeah, a huge part of what our project officers are doing are diversifying, is that they're doing everything. So they're kind of going into the schools, going into those target audiences, going to the big events and that type of thing. So, where there's the big fairs and they'll go and run a table and do a stand, and so they're kind of doing that open reach and stuff as well, catching catching people that they wouldn't otherwise get a chance to come across.

Roy Player 9:22

And so it's brilliant. So, if you're a volunteer who really likes sort of chatting to people and meeting young and old, that's again a great area to go into.

Paul Bamber 9:30

Another project that I help look after is the virtual walks project. So we have volunteers that go out on a lovely walk and they'll film in video and chat to people on the way, different landowners or people with different stories on the way, film in the nature. They'll edit that into a into a like an interactive presentation and they go out to residential care homes. They go out to whole different sets of go they go go and meet people, they bring the North York Moors to people that can't come to it.

After The Fire Restoring The Moor

Roy Player 9:58

I think also we can't we can't not mention that there was quite a major fire up on the on the North York Moors, and obviously the national park is heavily involved in the process of not just making sure that fire was was put out, obviously with all the you know resources available. I would imagine though, now the next huge job that you have is working out how best to restore the moor and maybe take it as an opportunity to do things.

Paul Bamber 10:27

Yes, so we're definitely in that strategic phase of working out how we can best because it's it's you know very diverse area, it's a lot of different landowners, there's a lot of different ways we need to do the mitigation in terms of the the habitat and the peat and the access, the rights of way, the historic monuments. So again, it's lots of different expertise that we're gonna need, and we're gonna be pulling in. So we know volunteers, people, local people have already been in touch regularly, desperate to try and help definitely to come out. So we're just kind of putting people on pause, we're pulling all that together and getting the the people and the resources in place to help facilitate that because we know that's gonna be a big part of our yeah, next coming few years, decades, hundreds years.

Roy Player 11:04

That must be quite a responsibility for you. You look after the volunteers, they're doing work that will last for generations, but the national park as a whole is doing something which will which will go into the future and hopefully, hopefully for hundreds of years. And sometimes, like you talk about the peat, we would you were mentioning this isn't the knowledge that I've got, I hasten to add, but a millimetre of peat that grows every year. But thousands of years of peat lost on that more recently. So you're looking ahead to do work that actually is for generation upon generation upon generation. It's extraordinary.

Paul Bamber 11:39

Yeah, and incredibly passionate people doing it. They're like they're thinking of sort of just my mind's bouncing across the whole of the team, and they're all , yeah, not just very passionate, but they're all experts in their in their distinct fields as well. So yeah, it's kind of layering in the the nature, the, the insects, the control of the erosion, the roots, as well as the you know, the the ancient peat and all the historic land use change. Obviously, been lots of different game owner landowners and that type of thing. So a big part of the project is is wetter is better. So re-wetting the peat, blocking up where people where it's been attempted to drain for arable land and that type of thing, obviously going back hundreds of years. So it's just restoring it back to that that way it can ecologically thrive and make that really distinct summer purple colour that people obviously love to come and visit and see, and that kind of the all the all the lovely feelings that invokes when when we kind of can protect that.

Roy Player 12:38

We talked about, and I'm using this phrase because you mentioned it, the the nerds and the super nerds about tanks. I mean I see on the on your website, and it's an extraordinarily detailed website, it's fantastic actually. There's loads of material there, and we'll put the information up about how you know the website on our web pages and and detail it at the end of the podcast as well. But it's it's a there's a lot of opportunities for different sorts of people to get involved, whether it be creatively with sculptures, the sculptures and artworkers as well, isn't it? You really don't seem to close the door on anyone actually.

Making Volunteering More Inclusive

Paul Bamber 13:10

No and deliberately we're very deliberately trying to continue to diversify, and like so the way I'm kind of looking at our volunteer leader programme, it's always an evolution of how can we capture people that like that we're not currently attracting, how can we make it more attractive attractive for students? Okay, we can we can create a more formal structure so it's clear what experiences and qualifications they're gonna gain, obviously the links to employment that that's gonna give, and working with colleges what what their curriculum is or what they're gonna need in terms of output. So and again, thinking of okay, how can we attract more working people? Okay, we need to rethink about how we're set up because obviously at the moment we it's very easy for us to facilitate midweek and really difficult to facilitate weekends, so okay, we can do some big restructural changes in terms of how just how how we're staffed and how we're funded, and we can we can attract those people, improve mobility. Obviously, you know, I think more's is is very tricky to get about if you're not got a car. So that's something that we can we can yeah, always looking to improve in terms of what vehicles we can have at strategic points in terms of minibus pickups and getting people too tasked and collected. Welfare is a big issue in terms of like toilet facilities while you're out in the wild and that type of thing. So again, that's something yeah, put back is is a big barrier for a lot of people. So it's the those strategic starting points and locations where we can still get people out to the wild, but working with be it local businesses, churches, pubs, whatever it might be, in terms of having those facilities, so it's those type of things we're continually evaluating and and really changing the the way that we work.

Roy Player 14:41

What do you think, as as a sort of manager of volunteers, what do you think that the volunteers get out of coming here?

Paul Bamber 14:49

The thing that they keep reporting to us is they they feel like they're making a difference, they're having an impact in terms of the actual work that they do is often very nice and tangible. It's it's clearing a you know, public right away that previously was overgrown or they've resurfaced or rebuilt some steps, nice physical, tangible stuff, building a dry stone wall, raking and clearing a meadow, so that obviously it's in great fur diversity of species. So it it is that nice visual, quickly rewarding activity, just in the time of a day. You can look back at the end of it and go, right, I can see what I've done. This place is now better than when I arrived.

Roy Player 15:24

Well, I know Derm has been talking to Paul, our volunteer, who has retired with a varied background as well, and fantastic that he's come and joined us today. So thank you very much indeed for telling us a little bit more about the park and what you do and how important the role is, and I'm looking forward now to hearing about what Paul, our volunteer, thinks about it all as well and how he gets involved.

Paul On Skills Purpose And Pride

Paul Welford 15:46

I'm Paul Welford and I'm a volunteer with the North York Moors National Park.

Derm Tanner 15:49

And how long have you been volunteering here, Paul?

Paul Welford 15:52

For nine years now.

Derm Tanner 15:55

And what started it? What what what was your story? Why why here?

Paul Welford 15:59

I live on the edge of the North York Moores National Park, and I've always been a guy who spent a lot of time outdoors, and when I was thinking about retiring I wanted to get out more and do more outdoors really, and I looked around for opportunities to do that, and I saw that you could volunteer with the national park, and that's what I did. But I took a I took quite a while looking into it and deciding what I wanted to do, but nine years later really enjoy it.

Derm Tanner 16:36

Well, here we are, we're just sort of wandering around. Got to the top of Sutton Bank for the National Park, North York, more sort of main centre, and it's a very impressive location, and there's clearly been a bit of thought gone into it, and a lot of money, and a very fancy cafe there now as well. So, there's lots for people who who want to come out for the day to do, and we're we're just sort of chat wandering around and some of the brushwood here, and what looks like a very interesting and that that's very strange. What what on earth is is is that?

Paul Welford 17:08

There's a few of those these dotted around there carvings, wood sculptures, really. We've got them here at Sutton Bank, and there's some are at our other National Park Centre at Danby, and they're they're really just features to sort of interest the the tourists that that walk around and, and hopefully enjoy what they what they're seeing.

Derm Tanner 17:29

It certainly takes the eye. I'm just gonna wander around here. I'm gonna be a wind break because I'm, I'm aware that it can be a bit windy here. We're okay, it's a decent day, it's as we speak, it's autumn. So, in autumn, what's the kind of job that you're doing, Paul?

Paul Welford 17:43

Really, at the moment I'm working on three things. In particular, though, with the conservation group that I lead. We are clearing grassland of, of dead vegetation to encourage regrowth, particularly wildflowers. So you wouldn't think this, but to get wildflowers to grow they really need poor soil. So we have to clear off the dead grass and things from the season's growth so that the soil doesn't get any more nutrients over the over the winter, and it then encourages the wildflowers to grow the next year. So we've got a few sites that we go on and doing that, and that's what I'm busy with every fortnight. Go somewhere in the park and work on a on an area of grassland. The other thing I'm doing at the moment is dry stone walling. So I've got a dry stone walling group, about eight of us when we're all there, and we're working on a big dry stone wall in Fryupdale.

Derm Tanner 18:43

Okay, let me just stop you there because I'm I've there I've got so many questions already. Could you do dry stone walling nine years ago? Had you ever done anything like that before, or are you one of these guys that can turn your hand to pretty much anything?

Paul Welford 18:56

Yes and no is the answer to that. So my background long term ago, my, my, my family of farmers. I didn't go into farming, I went into education as a career. Still got my brother farming and so on. So when I was you know in my teens, I suppose, I did do a little bit of dry stone walling, but we didn't have much on the farm. But no, the the actual dry stone walling anyone can do, I think. You need a bit of strength, but we were all trained, we all had the national park, are very good at offering you training opportunities, and so the team I work with have all have all had that that core training, and we've been working now I think five years now on dry stone walls.

Derm Tanner 19:39

Wow, okay. So you've been volunteering here and around for nine years. How many days a week do you volunteer? Or is it a few days a month, or or what is the schedule for you?

Paul Welford 19:51

It's grown really.

Derm Tanner 19:52

I thought it might have done.

Paul Welford 19:55

So it varies. I guess definitely probably on average two days, two days a week on average. What I like about the volunteering in national park is the flexibility of your time. You can volunteer whenever you like, and okay, some tasks run on certain days and people like that, but you know, I, I run tasks, and so I've I have a certain I can say, well, if I can't make Thursday, you know, could we change the task to you know another day? So and the park are very good at enabling you to to be flexible on what on when you can go and volunteer.

Derm Tanner 20:32

If I was to volunteer, would I know what I would be doing from one day to the next, or do I turn up and they say, Derm, you're on so and so today? Okay, fine enough. What am I doing next week? I don't know, but we'll find out next week. Is it like that, or is it no, you're on this project for a while and and then it sort of progresses from there?

How To Sign Up And Get Started

Paul Welford 20:51

Yeah, you would you would know. So so basically there's

Derm Tanner 20:55

that's important to know, isn't it?

Paul Welford 20:56

Yeah, so if you wonder if you are interested in volunteering with a national park, basically you need to register that interest with the park. That's basically an email or a phone call. They'll send you information and they'll request some data from you about, about your background and and various things, and you can express on there what you're interested in. After that, you can then get access to website which is called Better Impact, and on that they itemise all the volunteering opportunities that are that are there, and they'll be tailored to what you said. So, if you're interested in in archaeology or something like that, then you'll get access to what what the archaeological opportunities are, or if you're interested in conservation or maintenance, which is the things I do a lot of, you'll get those.

Derm Tanner 21:42

Are you out in all weathers, or are there sometimes you say, Do you know what it really is bad today? We're just going to try and find some stuff to do indoors.

Paul Welford 21:50

There are tasks for volunteers who are more comfortable working indoors. That's part of the flexibility I'm talking about. But for me it's Being outdoors.

Derm Tanner 22:01

And you would be working with other people. You wouldn't be working on your own in the middle of nowhere because again, you'd need some kind of backup, wouldn't you? For that very reason. And I guess different things for different parts of the year. I mean, as we speak, obviously, and we've talked a little bit about it before we started, you know, the awful fire over the summer, and that's still impacting what's going on. And presumably, you know, you're you're having to do when I say you, the the volunteers and the organisation are having to do a lot of extra work after that.

Paul Welford 22:32

Yeah, the fires left quite a lot of damage, and the ranger who who's responsible for that area is just beginning to assess what's needed now that you know they're going to be building new boardwalks and straightening out footpaths and so on. So yeah, and that's happening all the time.

Derm Tanner 22:51

And I guess also are are you engaging talking to members of the public as you come across them? And I guess in some respects you have to be, and I think in your word, diplomatic because you might have to point them in the right direction. Some people don't really know what they're doing, they might be on a bike in the wrong place, they might be thinking about having a barbecue or whatever, and you have to sort of say, no, that's not really a good idea in the very in the best way possible, do you?

Paul Welford 23:20

Yeah, that's true and certainly one of the one of the the roles I have in addition to the voluntary ranger role is I also work as an assistant ranger to the other rangers, you know, the the full-time rangers. That's a once a month job, and I go out and meet a lot of the public on those days, and usually it's they just chat and want to know a bit more about the park or you know how do they get to different places? Occasionally you have to point out things like you say, you know, safe use of barbecues or fire risk and so on, point things out. But yeah, you have to be diplomatic, yeah. But in general the people that you meet are very appreciative of of the space that the park offers.

Dry Stone Legacy And Closing Thoughts

Derm Tanner 24:10

What's your highlight? Is there something you're particularly proud of that that you've helped do?

Paul Welford 24:17

I think that the one that's really got me going is this is the dry stone walling. We've we did what 160 metres of dry stone wall in a in Gothland, finished that last year. We're now on this 80 metre dry stone wall in, in Fryupdale and it is such a fulfilling and and sort of worthwhile project to look at it look at a stone, a dry stone wall that you've taken apart completely. So this is what we do if it's if it's all rickety, we don't just patch it up, we take it apart completely, rebuild it, and think that's going to be there for probably another hopefully 200 years. That's a legacy, you know, that you that you know it's quite humbling really, you know, to think that you know I've left something a bit more permanent.

Derm Tanner 25:08

We are blessed in this country with amazing countryside. It's not just Yorkshire, that we happen to live in Yorkshire, Roy and I, but there are, in fact, 15 national parks in the UK, 10 in England, three in Wales, and two in Scotland.

Roy Player 25:21

And so many of them dependent upon the work that the volunteers that we met. Just imperative that we had a fire up in on the North York Moors last year now, wasn't it? and the damage that it caused, and the thing is now that as the guys mentioned in the in the podcast actually, was that the people just came together. Again, It's that thing it's that spirit of community and that is something that is very special, and especially when it's driven by people who are volunteers and driven by people that have got time to help out, but are passionate about helping out.

Derm Tanner 26:01

You've been listening to Grey Matters More, produced and presented by Roy Player and Derm Tanner. Please don't forget to like, follow, or subscribe. That way you'll never miss an episode.