Rewilding Britain

It's the final week to apply for the Rewilding Challenge Fund ⏳ get your applications in by Friday (11 October) to be in with a chance of being awarded £100,000 for your ambitious rewilding project.  You could be following in the footsteps of:  🦭 2023 recipient Sussex Bay who are rewilding at the seascape scale and setting up a new innovative blue carbon lab 🦬 2022 recipient Wilder Blean who are scaling up rewilding in Kent working in partnership to allow herbivores to move across the landscape Find out more and apply via the link in the comments.  Image: Binson/Shutterstock

Habitats would be nothing without their inhabitants 🦫 From industrious beavers shaping wetlands and rivers, to grazing animals maintaining open meadows, species don’t just live in habitats — they create them. Reintroducing keystone species helps restore habitats, allowing them to thrive. This #WorldHabitatDay, let’s celebrate wildlife's important role in shaping, restoring and protecting our landscapes. 🔗 To learn more about rewilding key species, visit our website: https://lnkd.in/eHyJzeKH Images: [1] Podolnaya Elena / Shutterstock, [2] James Shooter / SCOTLAND: The Big Picture #rewilding #rewildingbritain #thinkbigactwild #beavers #speciesreintroduction #naturerestoration

Have you heard that Sadiq Khan is looking at how oysters could clean up the River Thames? These #rewilding champions deliver a huge array of benefits to our waterways & coastlines, from filtering water to creating reefs for other aquatic species. Read the full BBC news story 🦪

Today, Wildlife and Countryside Link have released their yearly progress report on protecting 30% of land & sea in England for nature by 2030 – and it's not good news. 🌊 Just 9.92% of marine areas are protected across England. Current MPAs just aren’t working hard enough. 📉 On land, protected areas have fallen to just 2.93% from 3.11% in 2023. A rapid response is needed, including making nature recovery the primary purpose of our national parks and landscapes. At Rewilding Britain, we estimate around 1% of Britain is currently rewilding and we NEED our government to put rewilding 30% of land and seas as a top priority – to Think Big and Act Wild for nature, people and planet. Read the full Wildlife and Countryside Link report (🔗 link in comments)

It’s been over year since we awarded the Wilder Blean Initiative £100k through the Rewilding Challenge Fund 🎉 We caught up with Helen Pitman, Wilder Blean Landscape Manager at Kent Wildlife Trust, who lays out their grand vision for Wilder Blean. If you’re involved in a large-scale rewilding project with bold ambitions to let nature lead, help people prosper and secure long-term benefits, there’s still time to register your interest for this year’s Challenge Fund. Apply by 11 October (🔗 Link in comments) Bison, camera trap and aerial footage: Donovan Wright, Kent Wildlife Trust, Wildwood Trust  Boar footage: Martin Janca, Shutterstock

Exciting rewilding news from Dartmoor, where 15 pine martens have been reintroduced to the area after a 150-year absence! This reintroduction, spearheaded by Devon Wildlife Trust, is being hailed as a historic step in the restoration of the region’s woodlands and their wildlife – helping to reinstate natural processes and improve the health and resilience of these important landscapes.

🌿 Last week, we had an incredible staff off-site to the Dundreggan Rewilding Centre (a Trees for Life initiative). A huge thank you to the Dundreggan team for hosting us in such a breathtaking setting. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect, share ideas and recharge our passion for rewilding. We were also thrilled to get out into nature and experience rewilding in action underneath the beautiful September sun.  Images: Rich Edwards, Rebecca Wrigley, Sahran Higgins / Rewilding Britain

Your September #rewildingwins are here 🌳 1. A new citizen science study has shown that large-scale rewilding boosts black grouse numbers in the Affric Highlands. 2. More than half a million oysters are to be released into the Humber estuary as part of Wilder Humber's Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust groundbreaking five-year programme to help restore Britain's coastal waters from overfishing and pollution. 3. The Lifescape Project launched the Cumbrian White-Tailed Eagle Project, which will explore the possibility of bringing white-tailed eagles back to the Cumbrian landscape. 4. Thanks to a £5 million investment, the temperate rainforest at the summit of Skiddaw in the Lake District is well on its way to being restored by Cumbria Wildlife Trust. 5. The Welsh Government announced they support the managed reintroduction of beavers into the wild. Let’s keep spreading positivity — share these uplifting #rewilding stories and follow us for your monthly dose of #rewildinghope 💚 Images: [1] Neil McIntyre / scotlandbigpicture.com, [2] MikeLane45 / Canva, [3] steve-goacher / Canva, [4] Mark Williams/Wildscreen, [5] Sam Rose, [6] PhotocechCZ / Shutterstock #thinkbigactwild #rewildingbritain #rewildingscotland #positivenews

Have you heard the news that the Llywodraeth Cymru / Welsh Government supports the managed reintroduction of beavers into the wild in Wales? We're delighted that Huw Irranca-Davies, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, has at last publicly stated this. As Prof Alastair Driver, Director at Rewilding Britain, says "The net benefits of this incredible ecosystem engineer for wildlife and people have been well documented for many years now and managed releases in the right places will be a great step forward for the rivers and wetlands of Wales. It just remains for England to catch up with Scotland and Wales now - something that we're optimistic that the new Secretary of State Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP will soon bite the bullet on." Link to the full announcement in comments 🔗 Photo: Philip Price / scotlandbigpicture.com

Our friends at Heal Rewilding are hosting a series of events with expert panellists to discuss access to nature, the need to create sanctuary for wildlife and to share the latest on the upcoming Heal film about rewilding their first site in Somerset.  Their next event is in London on 23 October, followed by events in York and Birmingham.  Find out more and get tickets via the link below.