The Making of Wild Woodbury Final

Making space for nature, rewetting the land, creating Oak Henge and involving the local community with the nature on its doorstep - now in its second year, find out more about the progress of our pioneering rewilding project at Wild Woodbury, near Bere Regis.
Huge thanks to volunteer, Susan Western for making this film for us.

[@user-bi3rh4gn9p]

What an inspiring film about an inspiring project. Can we have regular updates please?

[@DorsetWildlifeTrust]

Glad you enjoyed it - you can sign up for regular updates about the Wild Woodbury project here: www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/emailsignup ~ Hazel

[@HelenBennett57]

This is the most lovely, thrilling video. Thank you so much! My skin tingled all over when the thunder and rain started, and it feels like waking up hope. Thank you, thank you.

[@user-zq5rd2ur7t]

Great project, lovely film - very inspiring. I hope other county Wildlife Trusts are following suit with this approach.

[@charlieneilson1239]

Absolutely brilliant. 🙏🏼 4 or 5 of these in each county 🙏🏼 😴 Terrific work 👏🏼 👍🏼

[@pauldurkee4764]

My thoughts exactly Charlie. I'm disappointed that some of the big conservation charities are not buying farms to replicate this approach.👍

[@workerant7874]

Very impressed by these folks

[@simonwhite5535]

Wonderful!! Yep, let’s roll this out all over the place. There is good evidence that the tide is turning…finally!! ❤

[@coffeeman2079]

I’ve just read the book about the rewilding of the Knepp Estate. It’s great to see that this kind of conservation is taking root after the huge success of that project. Hugely inspiring and heartwarming.

[@slashingbison2503]

This is incredible well done everyone, incredible to see how quick nature bounces back . I have re-wilded my garden from 2 plain grass gardens when i moved in last year, added lots of native hedging, wildflower meadow as my front garden and a pond and nature was thriving. this is great to see especially all the birds and mice.

[@iwanttodoeverything5059]

amazing work guys, top job

[@myblackboxrocks]

Wonderful to see such a hopeful and well-told story. I'm excited to visit the next time I'm down that way.

[@thesolitarycyclist9005]

This is the sort of film which should be on Countryfile or Springwatch.

[@der_municycler]

❤❤❤

[@alainbaatjies5943]

I live in South Africa I see the same issues of not seeing insects, birds, lizards, tortoises and frogs in gardens that we had growing up. Mass extinction in real time. Gardens are just lawns and invasive trees. I rewilded my garden with native plants and added a pond and am seeing insects, lizards and bats that I havent seen in 2 decades. Wish all humans could wake up and realise that we need to share this planet💔

[@DerekYarnell]

Bravo. Great work and lovely storytelling.

[@joseenoel8093]

Hi from Montreal! I'm a chick forest technician, majored in sylviculture and re-wild the place, I'll bet that soil's far from low grade to nature, you rock!

[@prajaktajoshi6280]

Thanks Julia

[@damonchampion823]

Great work 💚

[@markjones7109]

Truly wonderful project.

[@prajaktajoshi6280]

❤

[@billsmith5109]

With LIDAR can you still see old channels or has the land been plowed for too long? Or is that the ‘computer analysis’?

[@allolobophorus]

Instead of using the digger you should have introduced beaver!

[@workerant7874]

Need water first

[@Lindy98]

Beavers?

[@stewartjones2173]

Sorry to add a sour note, but the phrase "denuding the countryside" springs to mind. If the children were told to collect all the acorns count them and then leave two thirds of the acorns on the ground that would teach the children to think of the animals needing the food. I loathe the Sunday supplements telling their middle class readers to forage in the countryside. As if they haven't ravaged it all already!

[@whitshane3511]

You have no idea if they talked about leaving acorns for foraging. I think it’s probably safe to give them the benefit of the doubt based on the rest of the video. Also, there are thousands of acorns and a gaggle of six year olds isn’t going to collect more than 100 at best. And of those 100, half of them are floaters and won’t grow a tree. I think it’s better to engage the kids as best you can at their age group. Describing this little project as, “denuding the countryside”, is inaccurate, alarmist and silly.

[@Kiyarose3999]

Thought this was excellent up until the grazing was mentioned, so never meant to ever be a complete ecosystem with predators etc. Using it instead to social-wash animal ag and continuation of making ourselves the ( unnatural) predator. Not learning anything just copying the past, we are not predatory animals and by acting as if we are precludes the land of the natural & native predators. Oh well at least we have the Vegan Land Movement(VLM) !. 🌻✊🏽🌎

[@whitshane3511]

Thousands of years with herds moving through is how these lands evolved. Ruminants kept in tight bunches and moved daily mimics the herding pattern that existed for a millennia. Amazing things happen to the land over 2-3 years of this correct grazing - native plant species return making the land more drought resistant, manure and urine brings more beneficial bacteria and build topsoil, and the grasses they eat explode with growth as they are getting pruned every 90 days. See Alan Savory for more info.

[@loubass101]

The landscape needs grazers. Grazers are a necessary management aspect of a dynamic landscape. They stop the landscape reverting to dense woodland that would shut out a lot of species. Ideally you need apex predators to keep the grazers on the move to keep them from grazing any one area too much. Without those predators that becomes a part we have to play. We have to move grazers place to place and stop their numbers spiraling, and we have to do it respectfully.