The benefits from rewilded land can be felt by us as well as by nature. Greater woodland coverage stabilises soils and prevents flooding; thriving ecosystems help us fight climate change; connecting with nature is good for our mental health and wellbeing; and richer landscapes can provide economic benefits for rural communities. And not least, rewilding in the UK is also good for the flora and fauna that are introduced!
If you want to read or listen to a couple of inspiring examples about UK rewilding, look below. If you are already involved in rewilding land, jump here if you want to do something bigger.
Inspiration read
Rewilding Scotland’s largest community nature reserve
Tarras Valley Nature Reserve
One of the most ambitious community projects of a generation has been the purchase of over 10,000 acres of land by the local community in Langholm in the south of Scotland. They completed their second round of fundraising in August 2022, doubling the size of their newly-created Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. Now this land is in community ownership, the team is working on projects to restore and rewild the landscape on a huge scale; protecting and restoring peatlands, enriching ancient woodlands, expanding more recent native woodlands, bringing back lost wetlands, and providing a sanctuary for rare species.
Wild about doing more
The vision of the Langholm initiative is to do even more than large-scale nature recovery and to support community regeneration efforts in the area. The aim is to help create new nature-based opportunities for the former textile town in Scotland’s Dumfries and Galloway, including generating jobs, diversifying income and attracting visitors. Based on the shining example set by this community, scores of people have contacted the team in Langholm about how to do more and replicate something similar in other areas of the UK.
Plenty of space for nature
Britain has all the landscape that it needs for an epic return of its wildlife. Only six percent of our island is built upon and large areas of our countryside are not productively farmed. We have all the land we need to do something bigger, without affecting essential food production. We can rethink the way we use our uplands, allowing blanket forestry plantations and sheep-grazed landscapes to rewild; reform shooting and hunting estates for the benefit of wildlife; and let nature reclaim more of the green spaces in our towns and cities.
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Inspiration listen
Do Something Bigger
In this, the first episode of the Carbon Copy Podcast series, Do Something Bigger, we introduce our year-long campaign: 25 Big Local Actions in 2025.
Do something bigger
Rewilding on a landscape scale is not the only way to have a positive impact, and replicating small-scale rewilding projects can add up to something even bigger. These projects create space and pathways for nature amongst human infrastructure, promoting the spirit and ambition of rewilding by allowing native plants and animals to flourish around us.
Rewild your land
Councils, among the largest landowners in the country, are rewilding public land with one in five county councils setting aside former golf courses, post-industrial scrubland and recovering waterways for nature. If you’d like to do this on your land, read the 12 steps to rewilding and join Rewilding Britain’s network of local community groups, landowners and land managers to help you get started. If you don’t own land and want to spearhead rewilding in your area, try talking to your local council first to see if they have any sites which they’d be interested in rewilding. Also listen to our fascinating Carbon Copy Podcast episode about rewilding and getting involved, All Nature: Heal the Wild
Reintroduce keystone species
A keystone species is a plant or animal that’s key in holding a habitat together because it has a disproportionately big effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance. Beavers are a keystone species, hunted to extinction in the UK around 400 years ago and now successfully reintroduced in locations across Britain, led by initiatives like the Ealing Wildlife Group beaver project. Another project will see the rewilding of ‘tauros’ wild cattle in the Scottish Highlands, reintroducing a keystone species to enhance nature recovery, after its extinction in the UK centuries ago. Returning a keystone species is not necessarily limited to one specific area, and their ability to make our surroundings more resilient to environmental challenges can be replicated elsewhere.
Let it grow
One urban rewilding initiative organised by Plantlife is No Mow May. For one month, councils and gardeners are encouraged to leave green spaces alone and let grasses, wildflowers and ‘weeds’ grow naturally. The resulting patches of wild meadows and verges help pollinators thrive and the increased biomass improves local air quality, locks away carbon and increases soil stability. After No Mow May, Plantlife calls for people to keep up their rewilding into Let it Bloom June and continue giving local wildlife a welcome breathing space.
Discover more
Create space for nature
Plant more trees
Protect our shores
Restore peatlands
Nature
With special thanks
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