Value of uplands highlighted at Cheviot Centre forum meeting

Mr Howat told the packed meeting at the Cheviot Centre in Wooler that the social benefits delivered by the uplands would need to be maintained with public money.

He said that few people realised that 70% of the country's drinking water was sourced in national parks and that they were the key to frontline efforts to lock up carbon and control water flow.

Ross Lowry of the Environment Agency said the uplands were critical to the management of water - providing storage of clean supplies for people and agriculture in the hills and the lowland plains and to control too low or too high flows of rivers.

But a warming climate could result in big changes such as northern waters being too warm for salmon and the hills being more suitable for arable farming.

He said tree planting along rivers could help to keep water cool in summer and help to slow water flow in winter.

Mark Osborne of Groundwork Northumberland said that encouraging visits from urban communities in the North East might combat the worrying trend of children being alienated from the countryside.

Tony Gates, chief executive of Northumberland National Pak, which covers 20% of the county, said the authority has taken on the role of advocate for all of its upland rural communities.

Mark Carr from the Alnwick School Partnership said that the key to raising awareness about the value of protected upland landscapes was by enabling the region's children to learn and understand from an early age, and by making school visits part of the curriculum. He called for an education centre in the park.

Rachel Ellis-Jones of Northumberland College, said rural skills should be taught in the park to ensure that people would continue to be able to live and work in the countryside.

Local farmers stressed the primary importance of farming to both the open, grazed appearance of the hills, to food production and to the existence of rural communities and the facilities they provided for visitors.

Ian Hall, land manager for Lilburn Estates, said that most farmers on the estate were in their mid-50s and that it was very hard today to provide a practical living for young people.

Terry Carroll from the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University, said that the last affordable housing built in the park was four homes in Harbottle in 1980.

He said that current planning policy favoured local people and the status quo, whereas if rural communities were to survive and thrive, inward migration of young families should be encouraged.

Brendan Callaghan, regional director of the Forestry Commission, said the organisation recognised that not all conifer plantations were appealing to visitors and that parts were now being harvested and replaced with native woodland habitat.

But large-scale forests like Wark had a major impact on employment where wood was processed outside the immediate area, so a balance had to be struck between biodiversity, economic well-being and climate change mitigation.

The park authority wants to continue the discussion and will be opening a discussion page on its website at www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk