The National Trust and Yorkshire Water have announced a landmark partnership to restore and improve the UK’s uplands.

Together, the two largest landowners in Yorkshire will deliver the ‘Landscapes for Water’ project, which will focus on restoring five upland areas in the South Pennines, spanning from Heptonstall Moor in the north to Marsden Moor in the south.

Creating resilient landscapes for nature, climate and people is motivating the major landowners to come together to establish woodlands in moorland cloughs by planting native trees, including rowan, oak and birch, which would naturally grow in upland environments.

Reducing flood risk is also a major focus of the programme, with the landowners planning to install 3,500 leaky dams, block gullies and create ponds, with the aim of encouraging water to soak slowly into the landscape to rewet peat bogs.

The project has drawn support from Wild Moors, which has been lobbying both landowners to restore wildlife and habitats across their vast upland estates.

Luke Steele, Executive Director of Wild Moors, said: “The world is fast moving in a direction where restoring land for nature, carbon and people is at the forefront of tackling climate change and biodiversity loss.

“The National Trust and Yorkshire Water’s bold partnership for the South Pennines is to be commended and serves as an important step towards protecting and restoring this treasured landscape for the benefit of nature, the climate and future generations.”