How Yorkshire rewilding efforts are supporting nature's recovery

The Yorkshire Rewilding Network is a key part of that. “Our main aim is connecting, inspiring and enabling rewilding throughout Yorkshire,” says community engagement officer Claire Blindell. “We're bringing people together with rewilding for the benefit of the people of Yorkshire as well as the landscapes and the wildlife. We know grassroots community work has big results. We’re not really getting government leadership on rewilding and nature recovery so what people can do on the ground is really important.”

This year, the network held the first Yorkshire Rewilding Festival and it is now working to establish local hubs around the region with rewilding champions to support individual and community efforts. “Not only is Britain nature-depleted, one of the major issues we have is people’s connection with nature,” Claire says.

“People have become really disconnected and rewilding can be a good way to [address that], particularly through these local hubs…By bringing rewilding into towns and cities and improving our natural green spaces, we can improve people’s wellbeing and access to nature as well and that’s really important. [Rewilding] is something that can do great things for people as well as great things for nature.”

The network highlights rewilding projects that are taking place across Yorkshire, connecting communities, sharing knowledge and working to inspire others to get involved. It is open to everyone, from individuals in urban centres encouraging wildlife to return to their back yards, to groups working in partnership on large-scale rewilding projects at Yorkshire country estates or in vast rural spaces.

The Wild Ingleborough Project, for example, brings together partners to implement rewilding practices including a reduction in sheep grazing, native tree planting and peat bog restoration. Smaller community projects, meanwhile, are seeing tree planting in urban areas, a reduction in pesticide spraying, less frequent mowing of longer verges and the flourishing of wildflowers.

Sara King, Rewilding Manager at Rewilding Britain, says: “Rewilding can feel quite lonely and isolating for landowners and practitioners because often you’re trying something new and different.

"Initiatives like the Yorkshire Rewilding Network and our wider network are really important so people don’t feel on their own. Empowering people who are rewilding at all scales is so important...Yorkshire is definitely a hotspot at the moment with the number of projects there are at all different scales.”

Whilst some rewilding projects have long-term visions over 100 or more years, she says “even what we’re starting to see within a few years is wildlife really coming back”. That is especially the case when efforts are focused around keystone species – those which have a big impact on ecosystems and the natural environment.

"We’re seeing impacts including improvements in water quality, especially if we’re looking at river restoration...cleaner air as well - where we’re seeing trees come back, that improves air quality; flood mitigation; and also helping with water storage and reducing the impact of drought...A lot of rewilding projects are also focused on how they’re contributing to carbon sequestration and storage.

"We’re also collecting data on the impact rewilding projects are having on people. We’re seeing projects embracing schemes like green and social prescribing and helping people’s health and wellbeing and we’re seeing an increased number of jobs as a result of rewilding projects, not just tourism jobs but wildlife wardens, rangers, land management jobs – and also volunteering opportunities.

"We’re seeing people returning to landscapes, enjoying them and benefitting from them as well. There’s a whole host of positives as a result of the rewilding we’ve seen so far.”

To find out more, visit yorkshirerewildingnetwork.org.uk