Talla Hartfell Wild Land

The Talla Hartfell Wild Land is located in the hills to the north and east of Moffat in the central Southern Uplands of Scotland and incorporates the communities of Moffat, Tweedsmuir, the Upper Yarrow and Ettrick. This landscape has the potential to support a wide range of wildlife, to sustain the local communities with livelihoods that are based more on improving natural processes, and to inspire visitors to enjoy a landscape rich in culture and heritage.

The Southern Uplands Partnership is working in the area to create a community-led partnership based on the principles of a nature-based economic vision which places equal value on both human and environmental well-being and recognises the inter-dependence between the two. Carbon capture and reduction, ecosystem restoration, and the attendant benefits for local livelihoods, social cohesion and cultural curation are all central to this vision. Through enhancing and celebrating the natural assets of the Talla Hartfell Wild Land Area and the surrounding valleys and communities, this project seeks to address climate change, biodiversity loss and rural deprivation, and to demonstrate a sustainable approach that could be adopted by other areas.

The Wild Land Area covers almost 10,000ha while the project area is almost 5 times as big. The Southern Uplands Partnership is working with landowners across the area, along with the local communities and businesses, to stimulate discussion on the opportunities to respond to changing attitudes to the environment, especially to natural climate solutions and potential carbon capture, and to our relationship with nature. The partnership is aiming to develop a new, locally-led vision that works with and for all, to improve local economic opportunities as well as restoring a rich mosaic of native habitats and species.

The team is currently developing an online eco-museum to showcase artefacts, stories and memories from local communities, displaying the area’s unique and distinctive heritage. It is also arranging a series of talks on natural capital topics of local relevance in a bid to inform local communities about the assets and issues on their doorstep, and to trigger an area-wide conversation about what stakeholders and communities want the future of their region to look like.