The Field Studies Council has been awarded £2 million from the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) Changing Spaces programme to deliver the Eco Challenge Project.

This three year project will involve 7500 students from 250 schools in 22 LEAs in England and will offer schools fully funded 3 night short residential courses for Key Stage 3 pupils at one of the 17 FSC Centres.Support will also be offered on return to school to help apply the skills learnt at a local level for the benefit of all the community.

The Field Studies Council has the mission of - "Building understanding and capacity for real sustainable development that bring about changes".

Over the past ten years FSC has developed a high reputation for developing and delivering projects that successfully meet the needs of individuals, organisations and communities. We have a team of recognised experts with a variety of skills and experience in many different areas of education for sustainability, working with communities, sustainable development, capacity building and change.

This means at times some of the Blencathra Staff work overseas. FSC currently operates in 27 countries. Who is doing what this year?

Tim Foster Head of FSC Centre Blencathra and Richard Fox LDNPA Fix the Fells Project Officer have moved Environmental awareness a stage further at the Blencathra Centre by launching a project with the Tourism and Conservation Partnership to raise funds for footpath repair on Blencathra. This is part of the 'Fix the Fells Project' and for every £1 raised at Blencathra an extra £2 can be drawn from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support the Lake District National Park Authority, the National Trust and Natural England on the route leading up onto Blencathra.

Publications
The new Field Studies Council publication creating a buzz this autumn is the Guide to Bees of Britain. The 8 page chart, produced in conjunction with the invertebrate conservation charity Buglife, shows 28 species of bee, most of which can commonly be seen flying in domestic gardens.

The Field Studies Council at Blencathra were pleased to welcome Doug Scott who took time out of his busy schedule to officially open the Blencathra Eco-garden on Sunday 9th September. Members of the local community, businesses and organisations joined pupils and staff from Ullswater Community College to celebrate the efforts undertaken in the garden.

Since its inception in 1997 the Green Tourism Business Scheme has been championing sustainable tourism in the UK.What is green tourism? Green tourism is a term used to describe best environmental practice within the tourism sector. It covers issues such as business efficiency, environmental management, waste, transport, as well as topics such as social responsibility and biodiversity. The scheme criteria cover over 120 measures of sustainability and there are 3 levels ,Bronze,Silver and Gold.

The Government's new Minister for Landscape and Rural Affairs, Jonathan Shaw MP visited the Field Studies Centre at Blencathra in the Lake District National Park on Thursday 27th July as part of his first visit to a National Park in his new role.Tim Foster ,Head of Centre said 'It was very

In November we will be running a course at The Blencathra Centre entitled Lakeland Legends and Ghosts and whilst researching this I read about Thomas Lancaster of Threlkeld. He is sometimes called the ‘arsenic poisoner’ or the ‘Mass murderer of Threlkeld’. Using white arsenic he poisoned his wife, her father and her three sisters, her aunt, her cousin and a servant boy, besides several of his neighbours who became seriously ill between November 1670 and November 1671.

Climate change is real and it is happening now at an unprecedented rate. The impacts on already vulnerable landscapes and ecosystems are of critical conservation concern at a global, national and local scale.

There is an exciting schedule of events covering the five days of the Keswick Mountain Festival. A very wide and varied activity programme will make the most of the outdoors, whilst indoors at the Theatre by the Lake, Moot Hall, Keswick Museum and Cinema there will be lectures, slide shows, films and exhibitions.