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00:06Great Britain, an island of wonders and breathtaking landscapes.
00:19Protected and conserved by the people who live here.
00:25Established in 1949, Britain's national parks are a haven for nature.
00:31Home to an abundance of life.
00:48Northumberland National Park is one of the wildest of Great Britain's 15 years.
00:52National Parks.
00:57To the south lies Hadrian's Wall, to the north the Scottish border,
01:02and to the west Kielder Forest, one of the largest man-made forests in Europe.
01:12Although the park is easily accessible,
01:17it is a hidden gem.
01:24Offering remoteness.
01:28And solitude.
01:30To the south lies Hadrian's Wall.
01:32The West.
01:35The West.
01:47The West.
01:49The West.
01:51The West.
01:52The West.
01:52The West.
01:52The West.
01:53The West.
01:55The West.
01:56The West.
02:00The West.
02:03The West.
02:04The West.
02:04When we moved into Northumberland, we wanted to have an outdoor-inspired lifestyle.
02:12and we knew that we wanted to take him when he was a small baby out into the
02:17into the forest so we started foraging with him when he was about 18 months old
02:20you know we knew that he loved it straight away it was just a fascination
02:25for him
02:29can you spot any wood soil on the floor mister
02:41Arthur and his dad John Shahabedin go foraging as often as possible the family moved here to be
02:53near the forest grazing like a like a herbivore what about these mister look here are um beach
03:00beach shoots John now works remotely from home hey look mr. man oh gosh
03:26John spent a lot of time in the forest looking after his young son when his daughter was born
03:35they understand how to forage sustainably and responsibly
03:41we were coming out here picking wild garlic and water mint from the from the river and it was just
03:49a really really brilliant time it was a really nice time it was special time we got to bond as
03:53well as
03:54uh my daughter and my wife together so it was um yeah it's been really a fun adventure of foraging
04:01with him
04:04so how do we pick wild garlic mister
04:07yeah
04:08don't just grab the whole plant and pull all of the leaves off
04:12okay so do we pick one at a time
04:14yeah
04:15and what do we do with each leaf
04:17sniff
04:18give it a sniff
04:19give it a sniff
04:20give it a sniff
04:20give it a sniff
04:20give it a sniff
04:21make sure that it's wild garlic why do we do that if you grab the whole thing you might pull
04:29up some other poisonous plants and we don't want that
04:36wild garlic is probably one of the most versatile wild foods that there is it's one of the things
04:43that we really look forward to every spring to forage we um we gather a lot of it we
04:48chop it up we put it in the freezer and we keep it and he sometimes make garlic butter
04:53yes we make garlic butter with it put that in the freezer as well
05:01i think we've got enough there haven't we
05:15in spring heavy rains flood the parks already saturated ground
05:26the northumberland sheep is a subspecies of the scottish blackface
05:33a particularly robust breed that can cope with the difficult weather conditions
05:52eight park rangers keep an eye on the wildlife that inhabits the parks 410 square miles
06:01i'm a northumberland girl born and bred so i love to be working in the landscape that i grew up
06:06in
06:11i'm a country girl i'm a farmer's daughter so i really feel a connection to northumberland
06:21margaret anderson has been working for the national park for 15 years
06:29she has been leading the ranger team for a year the first woman to hold the post
06:36it's got a huge range the national park a lot of um quite wet soggy boggy ground here as well
06:41which
06:41is fantastic for wildlife some people might think oh that doesn't sound too good but it's not that's
06:45great we love that sort of thing it really gives a unique sense of tranquility we can hear the birds
06:51singing here right now so it makes it very special landscape in the summer songbirds are drawn to the
06:58park to feed on insects in the wetlands
07:09the clean rivers attract dippers these lively birds like to sit in the middle of the watercourse
07:16to look for insect larvae and freshwater crayfish
07:30in the south of the park the rangers monitor wildlife changes within a designated area
07:42there's a couple of things out there isn't there it's nice and calm today so
07:51margaret's colleague steven set up a raft with a soft clay base that records wild animal footprints
07:58to better understand the park's inhabitants this knowledge helps the rangers protect the many
08:03different habitats within the national park
08:10it's got wetlands it's got peat habitat it's got hay meadows it's got woodlands it's got beautiful
08:15streams right in front of us but it's also a place where we can showcase what can be done in
08:20a
08:20landscape as well hopefully to inspire others to try and follow suit and really try and lead by
08:25example as much as we can a fellow ranger recently spotted an otter at this exact location
08:59northumberland national park lies along england's border with scotland
09:05this is a region with a violent history numerous ruins and fortified remains are scattered throughout the park
09:18the park's star attraction and the largest roman structure of its kind is hadrian's wall
09:31the 73 mile wall spans northern england
09:38even dramatic cliffs don't stand in its way
09:44the wall marked the northern border of the roman empire under emperor hadrian around 2 000 years ago
09:53today hadrian's wall is a unesco world heritage site
10:06as archaeologists our challenge is to work our way back through time
10:14and that's quite complicated of course we're not dealing with the whole jigsaw we've just got three or four pieces
10:20of the puzzle and from that we're trying to build a painting
10:29the vindolanda archaeological site explores a roman border settlement
10:34surprising discoveries are still being made here
10:40andrew burley andrew burley is an archaeologist and director of excavations at vindolanda andrew's family has been digging here for
10:48three generations
10:49we define the alleyway
10:51uh-huh we define the corner of your building
10:53what i want for you is to be sitting in your alleyway flanked on either side by roman buildings
10:59all right
11:00so yeah i'm standing on the road it's the via princid palace
11:03one of the high streets inside the fort
11:05that links with the road that goes out into the town
11:08and eventually the main road that connects the east and west coasts together in this part of the country
11:12and then of course the buildings around about them collapsed
11:14they fell in on either side covering the street in rubble
11:17and that's how it stayed really from about 500 a.d. until about three weeks ago
11:22when we took the grass off we took the rubble off
11:25and showed up the streets for the first time in almost two millennia
11:34during the summer months andrew is supported by hundreds of hard-working volunteers from all over the world
11:44the volunteer teams change every fortnight
11:50this is my first time so we've got a mixture of veterans people who've been here for a number of
11:55years
11:55and newbies like me rookies who are new to the to the dig
12:00but once you've been on it once you get hooked
12:03and so we'll be back next year to continue along to the back of the fence
12:08this year excavation is limited to a small quadrant within the walls of the military fortress
12:17roman soldiers routinely tore down and rebuilt the site as part of their training
12:23excavating its layers today is like traveling back in time
12:30working with andrew is the italian archaeologist marta alberti who also looks after the volunteers
12:39if you have any any archaeology questions i'm your woman
12:42how much farther down do you think you'll be digging
12:46it can be quite deep but that's because the romans are really lazy right
12:50so they build the first fort here at the end of the first century
12:54and then they leave and the new garrison comes in and builds on top of that
12:59so instead of getting everything back to the ground like we would do when we're building
13:04they just build on top and on top and on top and on top and on top and on top
13:07and so you end up five or six meters down from the actual ground level
13:11it's very very enjoyable
13:14I've thrived in to say that
13:16I might sign up when it comes up to next week
13:20it's thrilling because it's so old we don't have that in Canada
13:25thank you so much
13:26the most valuable finds are on display in a small museum on the edge of the excavation site
13:37the museum was built around andrew's grandfather eric burley's original study
13:45he bought the land in the 1930s and was the first to properly excavate the site
13:53the collection includes coins featuring Emperor Hadrian
13:58as well as everyday objects such as pens and tablets
14:05beauty accessories and a lot of 2,000 year old leather shoes
14:16Vindolanda tells the story of everyday Roman life
14:24women, children, craftsmen and travelling traders lived in a civilian settlement that developed alongside the military base
14:33a microcosm of Roman life centred around guard duty on Hadrian's Wall
14:40soldiers were deployed to Northumberland from every corner of the vast empire
14:45each bringing a piece of their own culture with them
14:49poor drainage and heavy rains have flooded this pit
14:53posing a serious threat to any artefacts still in the ground
14:59climate change in this region
15:01looks like a lot more water from the sky
15:04and then immediately a lot more drought
15:07so all of these changes in the levels of the water
15:11the water really affect what is under the ground
15:21that's a beautiful whetstone, small find, congratulations
15:38based on assessments of the site
15:40the archaeologists are developing a list of priorities to salvage as many artefacts as they can
15:48studies have been made of peatlands and other sort of organic soils in the UK
15:53and we've already lost metres and metres of peatland
15:57it means everything has shrunk, everything has gone down
16:00and the archaeology is coming to the surface
16:02we've got our probes here at Vindolanda and our plan is to have them for the next 10 years
16:08and they'll monitor this curve that is going up and up
16:12and really if the trend continues we probably have 20 years maximum to save all of this
16:28to this day dry stone walls are a characteristic feature of the landscape in the Northumberland National Park
16:40to pass on the skills and to keep the tradition going
16:43training schemes are available for young people and those looking for a career change
16:56the extremely rare endangered curlew lives here
17:00the National Park is one of its last refuges
17:03the wet moorlands provide an ideal food source
17:18the damp boggy northern landscapes of the park are home to some very shy animals
17:24rarely seen by humans
17:34you do have to think like a goat
17:37in order to be able to follow them and to understand what might be the things that are moving them
17:59the Cheviot Hills stretch to the north of the National Park
18:05these granite uplands were formed by lava flows around 400 million years ago
18:17Richard Bevan is a professor of zoology at Newcastle University
18:2320 years ago he took over the university's Cheviot goat research project
18:30they are a unique species
18:32we've got a female up ahead with a kid
18:35and then we've got a few more up on the ridge
18:40there
18:42Richard recently made a groundbreaking discovery
18:45DNA tests revealed that the Cheviot goat herd has not mixed with other breeds since the Iron Age
18:52and possibly even the Neolithic period
18:57their gene pool is so pure
18:59the traces of the original goat from 15,000 years ago
19:03can still be detected in their DNA
19:07I need to be really quiet when the goats are around so I don't startle them
19:12if I get too close to them too quickly then that will make them move quickly
19:17whereas if I do it gradually I'll be able to get closer and closer
19:21I'm downwind of them so they shouldn't pick up my scent
19:26but I need to be quiet
19:31Richard follows the movement of the goats through the Cheviot hills
19:35since 2011 the goats have worn GPS trackers
19:39allowing Richard to monitor their roaming patterns
19:49in recent years the goats have clashed with both conservationists and farmers
19:54the trackers help scientists better understand their range and feeding habits
20:06the GPS collars record even the smallest movement
20:10if everything is working
20:16it's a fitness tracker for goats essentially yes
20:25the goats are not legally protected
20:28and could in theory be culled
20:31for Richard this will be a tragedy
20:33and is why he is working to prevent conflict
20:36by gaining a deeper understanding of this ancient herd
20:40a group of eight males
20:44behavior left to right
20:46male one grazing
20:48male two grazing
20:50male three standing
20:53male four
20:55moving
20:56male five
20:58standing
20:59male six
21:00grazing
21:01male seven
21:03grazing
21:04male eight
21:09standing
21:13time is 19.50
21:20what I'm
21:21observing
21:22is
21:23the same
21:24sort of behaviors
21:25that these animals
21:26or
21:27their ancestors
21:28at least
21:29would have been behaving
21:30possibly sort of way back when the Vikings were here
21:33or
21:35or even
21:35possibly further than that
21:37back to Romano times
21:38you can imagine
21:39sort of
21:40centurions
21:41sort of
21:41around these areas
21:43and seeing
21:43goats
21:44in the
21:45in the distance
21:46and they'd be doing exactly the same
21:47thing as we're recording now today
21:50so yes
21:51it's
21:51it's an insight into
21:53the history of these
21:54these animals
22:08on the western side of the park
22:10lies Kielder forest
22:13up until the 1920s
22:15this area was mainly moorland
22:17but the site was chosen for large scale tree planting to address timber shortages after world war one
22:26shallow rooted conifers dominate the forest with Sitka spruce accounting for 75% of the planted area
22:37at around 250 square miles Kielder forest is the largest forest in England and one of the biggest man-made
22:45forests in Europe
22:46it may not look like it but wood production here is managed sustainably
23:08over half a million tons of wood produced in Kielder forest every year
23:16equivalent to 50 lorry loads a day
23:41equivalent to 50 lorry loads a day
23:43the
23:44the
23:53wildlife always surprises and you're constantly learning
23:58and I think
23:59and I think
24:00if you're interested in never reaching the end
24:02never stopping learning
24:03this is exactly the sort of job that you want
24:09the
24:12the
24:14the
24:15the
24:15the
24:18the
24:18the
24:20the
24:22the
24:34from
24:36the
24:37the
24:38the
24:39the
24:47yeah
24:54very well the fast-growing North American trees were originally planted too densely
25:00with no consideration for habitat loss this did not change until the 1980s we
25:09just wanted to increase woodland cover and we wanted products and so we planted
25:14lots of trees that would grow well since that time lots change in forestry England as we're
25:20now called has got a conservation remit so we not only produce timber but we encourage people
25:27into the forest as well and we also do things like reintroduce species and encourage species
25:32recoveries the introduction of the invasive North American gray squirrel to Britain in the 19th
25:42century led to the disappearance of the native red squirrel from much of England and Wales
25:53keel the forest is now one of the last refuges in England for the endangered red squirrel
26:12ecologists are working to locate the red squirrels they study the forest floor using a transect a
26:20marked line to guide their search in most forests is difficult to see the squirrels themselves or to
26:32be sure that the nest led ray is actually squirrel and not a bird but one thing that's a dead
26:37giveaway
26:37is cones like this is a sicker spruce cone and they eat it in a very characteristic way
26:51as an ecologist Tom plays a key role in forestry management decisions trees in kill the forest are
26:59only felled when wildlife can safely move to nearby areas as a result the forest is a mosaic of different
27:08stages of tree growth ornithologists Martin Davison and Joanna Daly are working in a clearing restoring an old
27:22osprey nest a human assisted home makeover ospreys are a conservation success story these migrated
27:38birds are expected to return from their wintering grounds in Africa at the end of March
27:48ospreys were once thought to be extinct in Great Britain however conservationists were delighted when
27:55the hundredth osprey chick recently hatched in Northumberland we also want to encourage them to
28:04nest in places we want them to nest in so the forestry operations carry on next door without
28:09interfering with the osprey without disturbing the ospreys so it's it's a win-win the birds get
28:14themselves a night home and the forestry operations still still carry on as normal
28:22whoops see that fell off just like it would an osprey
28:28it makes it look accommodating for ospreys and they'll think you know this is exactly the sort
28:34of place I want to live and I've got some work done already for me
28:46ecologist Tom Dernley has asked a climber to help hello hiya lads hello look before you go to the
28:54tree can you grab some of these twigs off here these branches off here and help us carry them up
28:58there sure you want me to take the most yeah just take some moss and we can bring the branches
29:12the climber will rebuild the nest at a height of 20 meters
29:23ospreys only nest on very high exposed perches
29:31high up great view that's what they're after
29:49there's a lot of wildlife in the forest a lot of it's very secretive and very hard to show
29:53and ospreys are very reliable they come back to the same nest so you're seeing ospreys but actually
29:59the wider picture is all the squirrels and all the more secretive birds and all the plants that we'll
30:03see here as well
30:37can you bring it round to the cameras right a bit bring it round to the cameras right
30:48then up a bit up a bit more up a bit more a bit more a bit more
30:58that's fine that's good excellent looks good
31:07people watch it where we've got live cameras people watch on youtube for instance um they'll
31:13watch one of our cameras on there and then i'll take video from ones that aren't live and put them
31:17in
31:17the blog or um social media and people will look at them interesting behaviors and that sort of thing
31:24it's astonishing it's astonishing in the uk there's a huge love of ospreys and even though more
31:30organizations put cameras on each year you get more audiences
31:47in kielder forest the trees grow on moorland
31:54in many places it is so humid that a thick blanket of moss covers the entire forest floor
32:00these are perfect conditions for mushrooms
32:06but to safely harvest them you need to know exactly what you are doing
32:11some mushrooms are easy to misidentify and toxic varieties can be lethal
32:16we're going to pick some so arthur tell me what kind of mushroom this is st george st george's mushroom
32:27what do they smell like cucumber like cucumber cucumber and mushroom
32:34i know i know which mushrooms there are because my eyesight is better than my dad
32:56john traded his office desk in newcastle for life in the national park
33:01now he works from home and as a photographer capturing weddings and portraits he also runs
33:08an online blog about foraging with children sharing photos from his adventures with arthur
33:16i got lots of questions like how have you not managed to poison the children so i started an
33:23instagram account but also started a website as well to teach people how to do that um
33:28and then last summer it just went a bit crackers and we ended up with i think one of his
33:33videos got
33:33seven million views and then we ended up with 260 something thousand colors just unreal uh but it's
33:41been a really good experience it's been a lot of fun
33:59originally from germany christina is now enjoying life in kielder forest
34:16the forest dictates the menu i think we probably have more mushrooms and it goes very it's very
34:23seasonal i think we you get a lot of mushrooms certain type of year a lot of garlic certain times
34:30of year and so you just have to eat them then so you kind of have to go with whatever's
34:36available
34:39perry can i help drop the wild garlic you bunch it together in your fingers and then just make
34:45little little tiny cuts that's it make sure your bunch is nice and tight
34:54the family turn the mushrooms and fresh wild garlic into a classic english pie
34:59push it down hey can i have yeah one sec i think one more okay oh another oak and one
35:07more oak yeah
35:09yeah yeah one more oak let me go what a masterpiece that's amazing a piece of art made by my
35:18dad
35:18and me and my mom and my sister
35:33here we go i think it's free actually daddy can i have that piece
35:55as night falls over the national park father and son head to kielder observatory
36:01by day it offers sweeping views of the forest and by night a window to the universe
36:23northumberland national park has been included on the list of british dark sky reserves for several years
36:40the air here is particularly clear with minimal light pollution
36:52you can gaze far into the universe
37:27if you're living somewhere like this the colors just inevitably
37:30influence you
37:35and also the light and clarity of the light
37:40in the winter the hills are very pale very very pale wonderful pale color
37:48sometimes rather strange colors of this landscape
37:56the dark the dark brown of the heather with dark the dark brown of the heather
38:27and then the black brown of the heather with dark brown of the it's used to look at
38:51young couple decided to create their own what began as a personal palette grew
38:57into something much bigger a turning point came in the early 1980s at a
39:03London art supplies fair I had a van he put we put some furniture in it from the
39:13kitchen this table and the big dresser and we took as many pastels as we had
39:21and big pots of pigment which looked very beautiful on the wood and we just set up
39:31and hope to the best and there's a lot of enthusiasm and we got our first two outlets
39:39our first two shops at that show thorny bone is still the headquarters of the family business
39:49today 19 employees work there including color expert Hazel McDonald and pastel maker Nessie Wise
40:08every morning at 10 a.m. sharp the entire team meets at Kate's kitchen table many employees are artists
40:18themselves there is no hierarchy and everyone contributes their ideas Nessie is organizing a
40:26pastel workshop in collaboration with the National Park I'm slightly worried it's going to be rather
40:32expensive if you're using the well an orange they'll still we can still use all of that they're not
40:38going to go to waste ah okay gonna keep all the off cuts and the ones that go wrong we'll
40:43keep yes
40:44so it should be super fun Kate and Hazel want to put together a pastel set inspired by the colors
40:51of
40:51Northumberland National Park and yeah so we're going to have a look at that today the photo yes see if
40:58we can and draw some colors out and see oh yeah and see if we can put together for a
41:03set hmm no it's okay
41:06um maybe what like for this one here yeah maybe all right try greater into seven
41:19so re8 have a go why not I mean it's quite fun to have something which is a little bit
41:24a little bit
41:26kind of the peachy bit peachy hmm because this is this here this is oddly enough in this photo anyway
41:34it is slightly peachy yeah there is a peachiness in her the converted outbuilding is the nerve center of the
41:42company and Hazel's workspace for experimenting
41:52Hazel and Kate's plan to select 18 of the 350 available colors for the new set based on Kate's
41:59photos they're not different shades they're all individual colors and yeah and you can look at it
42:06anything knowing it does need to be a bit warmer or it's lacking a little bit of reading it or
42:12a bit of
42:12it needs to go it's too bright it needs a bit of blue or dull down a little bit somewhere
42:17but I think it
42:20just comes with years and years of experience of doing the job and looking at colors and yeah and
42:56getting some pleasure out of it really
42:58it's quite a sort of unnatural blue in a way blue green four it doesn't often mix with the others
43:06quite as well so yeah you've chosen my earthy neutral colors which is very much Northumberland
43:12and and quite muted that's great thank you
43:28Nessie's colleague Jim Longman mixes the colors which are made from traditional pigments
43:55blue green four is a blend of turquoise and intense Prussian blue the recipes for creating the
44:03these colors are a closely guarded secret
44:30the pigments are mixed using simple kitchen appliances
44:34and then Nessie stirs in water to form a mass
44:45when I tell people I work here and say in the middle of the national park and I've got you
44:50know
44:50full-time job in the arts and in this making they just their jaws drop because they didn't think that
44:56it was such a thing here so I feel very lucky feel very lucky
45:10it's the tactileness as well it's the actual making things with your hands that is the best thing
45:14about it it's why I love doing it and I've been doing it for three and a half years now
45:18and I didn't
45:19think I'd be doing it this long but I like the I just love the feel of it it's lovely
45:22and working in
45:24all with all the color as well and in this landscape it's pretty it's a dream job really
45:36while the pastels dry Nessie has time to test the new set of colors
45:46how's it going fine enjoying these pinks in them I think the pinks work really well
45:51so even more peachy colors definitely I'm waiting to see how good our final piece is
45:58oh no that means we'll never do anything it all depends on how it comes together Nessie if you
46:04keep going it'll end up on the cover of the box I know yeah god no one will buy it
46:09then
46:19martin davison lives in a village in the middle of the park
46:25the ornithologist has taken his work home with him he is renovating a bird box for tawny owls
46:36it's much easier to refurbish a box than it is to start from scratch so we can keep these going
46:41for
46:41about you know 30 years on occasions you know they'll last a long time with a screw here and
46:46nail there a new roof a new button things like that
46:55tawny owls thrive in mixed habitats including woodlands with clearings
47:03the timber production forest with its varied growth stages
47:07suits the owls providing them with plenty of food
47:20so we have to keep replacing the boxes as you can see
47:21martin supports the owls by building nest boxes which are well received
47:33the one here in this territory has lived here for 20 years it's the oldest one we've got
47:41so it's lived a long time rent free and we have to keep replacing the boxes as you can see
47:46because
47:46they don't last you know sometimes as long as the owls last
47:52last year martin installed another nest box in this area
47:58a tawny owl hatched here 15 days ago and will be ringed today
48:09so i just pop my arm in the box and here here's a little chap might be a woman but
48:14i don't know
48:15just gently uh take her out and pop her in the bag and then it's uh nice and secure and
48:22uh
48:22it's not going to wriggle or doing anything like that and then i'll go down
48:32here's a little fella
48:47you see can't go over its knee joint can't go over its foot and it spins nicely on its leg
48:54and the legs actually get slightly smaller after the bird leaves the nest box but once they start
48:59standing on their feet which would be another week or so the legs get hardened off and actually shrink
49:07ever so slightly so that ring can't ever get too tight for a bird
49:18in a few more days this young owl will be strong enough to take its first flight
49:41the ospreys have returned from africa and moved into the nests
49:49ospreys often reunite with their partners and return to old breeding grounds
49:54the other nest sites have also been occupied and new cameras are streaming live footage to thousands of viewers
50:10of the nests of the nests of kielder water is situated in the middle of the forest
50:23with a capacity of 200 billion cubic meters
50:26it is the largest man-made reservoir in europe
50:31joanna daly often comes here to watch the ospreys hunt
50:49technology has made a huge difference advances over the last 20 years or so so many relatively cheap
50:55400 500 600 millimeter cameras that can be handheld and enable it is really good from conservation
51:01point of view because with birds like ospreys that have color rings that can be read with one of
51:07those cameras if it's flying you know not far offshore here for instance and that that can then
51:12be reported and the person can find out the history of that bird and it just sort of all
51:18adds to the sort of fullness of the experience i think
51:27in northumberland national park the rugged beauty of the landscape meets the tranquility of nature
51:36a magical wild place still in need of protection
51:49so
51:50so
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