We and our local partner organisations are committed to doing our bit to help to tackle climate change. Moving towards a situation where the whole National Park is ‘carbon neutral’ (where the amount of greenhouse gas emissions generated in the national park each year is matched or exceeded by the amount of carbon being taken out of the atmosphere) is one of the 6 ambitions for 2040 set out in the Yorkshire Dales National Park Management Plan 2025-30.
The Management Plan also sets out a series of more specific objectives that local partners are now working to achieve, including many that will contribute directly to tackling climate change. Updates on progress on those objectives will be published each year in a new section of our website that is currently in development. The first report will be in September 2026.
Given the incredible environmental value of the National Park, the primary focus is on enhancing natural processes that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – notably, through peatland restoration and tree planting.
Peatland restoration
The Yorkshire Dales National Park’s peatlands are a nationally-important carbon store, covering around 55,000 ha and up to 7m deep. But much of it is in a poor condition as a result of artificial drainage that was installed in the 1970s and 1980s to try to make the land more productive for agriculture. This led to severe erosion of the exposed peat.
Restoring all degraded blanket bog/deep peat habitat to ecologically and hydrologically functioning bog is one of the objectives agreed by the Authority and a wide range of local partner organisations in the National Park Management Plan 2025-30.
The Yorkshire Peat Partnership is led by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and supported by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Natural England, National Trust, Environment Agency and North York Moors National Park Authority. It was formed to work with moorland owners to help restore and then conserve the unique and valuable upland peatland habitats across large swathes of Yorkshire.
Since 2009 the Yorkshire Peat Partnership has restored over 27,500 ha of degraded peatland in the National Park, including 414 ha of degraded peatland restored at Summer Lodge, Swaledale; New House and Stake Moss, Bishopdale; and major work at Fleet Moss.
Woodland creation
The Yorkshire Dales has very low woodland cover (only about 5%, compared to a UK average of over 13%). The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and its local partners have been positively supporting landowners and communities to manage and increase the amount of native woodland for the last 25 years. For more information see ‘Woodland Planting’.
Wider action on climate change
The National Park has the potential to make an important contribution to wider regional efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Further information about this work can be found here: