New rewilding site!
We are thrilled to be able to finally reveal our new rewilding site in the Somerset Levels - provisionally called Clark Fields and named in honour of JA and EM Clark (of the Clarks shoe family). Spread over 53 acres between the towns of Street and Glastonbury it is our second largest site to date, and one which we are sure will become an exceptional wild stepping stone.
Unlike our previous locations at Athelney and East-Waste, this site was gifted to us by the JA Clark Trust as a donation, in large part because of the record we have been able to show on those two earlier locations. It’s a huge boost for us and we are deeply grateful and honoured to be entrusted with this opportunity. We still need to finish repaying the loans used to purchase Athelney (PLEASE HELP US DO SO), but they are already allowing us to make more space for wildlife.
Our plan for the land is slightly different than in our previous rewilding locations. The bulk of the land - 50 acres - will be allowed to wild up ‘as it wishes’ as usual. We will monitor the species that come and go and watch and enjoy as it transitions slowly from farmland into scrub, wetland and eventually forest. We might need to make a few more management decisions than normal - in part because it is so close to a nearby town. For example there are some power lines that cross it at one point and we will need to ensure that trees to not grow up to swamp these over the decades. There may also be a bit more tidying and path work to do and we will be working with the donors to plant a small memorial copse of nature trees at one location. Overall though our plan will be what it always is - to let nature lead and to voluntarily keep human infrastructure and interference to a minimum.
On the remaining three acres of the land we will be teaming up with a local mental health organisation to develop a community food-forest garden to allow them to give people hands on experience of food production and nature, and to provide an important asset to the local community. While we will also use the rest of the site to facilitate giving people experience of rewilding and nature conservation, this more managed area will be a great window into the project and place for people to come, work with plants and enjoy themselves. We’ll post more details on this aspect of the project as it develops, and provide links to the partners who will be the point of contact.
Over the next few months we will be gathering data, making plans, recruiting volunteers (these are primarily recruited from the membership) and just getting out to look around it. We are so happy to be able set aside this wonderful piece of land for nature, and look forward to welcoming the wildlife as it comes.