England's upland commons survey

The John Muir Trust and the 20+ 'Our Common Cause: Our Upland Commons' project partners seek your views on upland commons and commoning

The Our Common Cause: Our Upland Commons project aims to support the centuries-old heritage of upland commons in four of England's most significant landscapes: Dartmoor; Shropshire Hills; Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District.

To help design the project, the partnership organisations (which include the John Muir Trust) behind it are seeking responses to a consultation on upland commons and commoning. This will look at what makes this form of land management relevant in the 21st Century for the public good - food production, health and wellbeing, community cohesion, economic sustainability, biodiversity and flood management.

The Trust's engagement initiative - the John Muir Award - is used to engage people in upland commons across all four areas of the project, while Glenridding Common (the land we manage in the Lake District) is an example of a registered upland common which requires shared responsibility from graziers, owner, manager and all other users.

Our John Muir Award Cumbria manager Graham Watson is representing the Trust in the project partnership and he urges people to take part in the survey: "We need as wide a range of views as possible to ensure upland commons are valued as a shared resource for the public good. This will help to ensure their use and management seeks to address and balance contemporary issues such as food production, recreation, loss of biodiversity and climate emergency adaptation."

Please complete the Our Common Cause: Our Upland Commons survey (survey no longer active)