Outdoor leaders on a previous Friends of the Lake District training outing

Cumbrian charity the Friends of the Lake District is offering free landscape learning sessions for outdoor leaders.

The programme is aimed at mountain leaders and other outdoor practitioners and is being staged at various venues across the county.

The training is designed to expand outdoor guides’ knowledge of the variety of Cumbria’s upland ecology, and to cover the issues and pressures that outdoor users place on the landscape, wildlife and habitats. The sessions are accredited by the Mountain Training Association as continuing professional development.

Ruth Kirk, Friends of the Lake District programme organiser said: “We’ve got a fantastic range of sessions on offer this year including geology, red squirrel conservation and woodland management, conservation farming, and the Lake District’s bid to become a World Heritage Site. The format is a walk and talk style, enabling outdoor, experiential learning.

“We know there’s a great appetite for environmental knowledge and learning among those who lead people in the outdoors, to enable them to give their clients and deeper and more meaningful experience.”

The first session, on gill scrambling, Esk Gill: continuing the use while minimising the damage, takes place on Friday 28 April in Eskdale. Places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Events are free to outdoor leaders and run from the end of April through to September at various locations in Cumbria.

To find out more or to book a place, visit the Friends of the Lake District website or contact Ruth Kirk.