A pioneering rewilding initiative in Lincolnshire is poised to transform more than 600 hectares of former agricultural land, utilising beavers, pigs, cattle, and ponies.
This ambitious Boothby Wildland project represents the first large-scale implementation under a flagship government programme, aiming to be an “exemplar” for securing nature restoration through private finance.
The scheme, on land previously considered “hard” to farm, will generate valuable carbon and nature credits from its newly established habitats and the wildlife they support.
Central to its ecological revival is the re-wiggling of the river and establishing beavers in a vast enclosure.
These efforts are designed to create vital wetland habitats, improve water quality, and halt flooding.
Further ecological enhancements involve allowing vegetation to “fluff out” from existing patches of woodland and hedgerows.
Large grazing animals will subsequently be introduced to foster a rich mosaic of grassland, scrub, and wood pasture habitats.
The estate is owned by Nattergal, a company founded by prominent environmentalists to drive and scale up private investment in nature restoration.
As the inaugural pilot project to reach the implementation stage of the taxpayer-funded “landscape recovery” programme, Boothby Wildland has secured a contract worth up to £11.8 million over three decades.
This initiative forms a crucial component of the broader post-Brexit environmental land management scheme, which has superseded agricultural subsidies from the EU era.
The landscape recovery arm of the scheme aims to back projects that restore nature across whole landscapes and draw in private finance to support the work, as part of efforts to meet legal targets to halt declines in wildlife.
At Boothby, agricultural land that was used to grow mostly animal feed on wet, deep clay has been left to go wild save for one “control field”, with fields once treated with chemicals turning to grasses and wildflowers, while hedges are growing bigger and young oaks are springing up near mature trees.
Long-vanished “ghost ponds” have been reinstated, with protected great crested newts already detected using them.
And while the tyre marks of diggers used to create the meanders of the West Glen river in May are still visible, reeds, wildflowers, dragonflies and water boatmen have colonised the shallows, while field drains have been destroyed to stop water running off the land so quickly.
Fencing is also going up for the 200-hectare (500-acre) enclosure around the river and a tributary stream, for beavers, which are expected to arrive in December.
They will manage the landscape to create wetlands that support an array of wildlife, and it is hoped their presence and the re-wiggling of the river will reduce flooding that affects the village downstream.
Over the next couple of years heritage breeds of cattle, pigs and ponies are expected to be introduced for natural grazing of the landscape and to produce meat, while stalking is used to keep the deer population in check and provide venison.
Lorienne Whittle, rewilding landscapes manager for Nattergal, said the landscape is “going to be a lot more wild”, eventually containing a mix of open grassland and wood pasture with bigger trees, while in the meantime grass and scrub will spring up.
Ecologist ranger Lloyd Park said wildlife such as small birds are increasing year-on-year across the site, which was purchased in 2021 before farming was phased out over several years, as food becomes more abundant for them.
“A lot of these lovely plants people call weeds are really important for feeding these species. We’re starting to see good numbers of chaffinches, linnets, yellowhammers,” he said.
Birds of prey are also being drawn to the site, with marsh harriers joining red kites and kestrels, and even a male and female hen harrier spotted last winter.
Government landscape recovery funding is going towards elements of the scheme, including increasing footpaths and bridleways, creating an education hub with a nature classroom and ponds for pond dipping, employing staff including in education and community roles, and monitoring wildlife onsite.
But income for delivering habitat creation and maintaining the project will come separately from private finance, including the sale of “biodiversity net gain” credits under a scheme which requires developers to boost nature when carrying out housing or other projects.
There are sales of what Ms Whittle calls “charismatic carbon” credits, which pay for natural regeneration of carbon-storing woodland that also delivers other benefits such as nature habitat and social benefits.
Tours and team away-days are also generating income for the project.
Ms Whittle said: “We’re really keen for this to be an exemplar, nationally and internationally, in how we can use private finance to secure nature restoration.
“But also really important to me and the local team is this has got to be somewhere the local people are proud of.”
The team has worked closely with local people to provide elements they want such as a safe bridleway and routing fencing away from houses to reduce visual impact – and creating space for a community orchard, she added.
Tony Juniper, chairman of government nature body Natural England which administers the landscape recovery programme, said more than 50 projects had received initial support to develop bespoke schemes, with a range of landowners, farmer groups, water companies and charities involved.
He said: “The reality is in England at the moment in looking towards our very welcome goals to achieve nature recovery we are going to need to act at a greater scale than has been the case.
“One of the things we will need to do to make that work is combine private finance with public investment.”
Mr Juniper also said the climate and nature emergencies were “inextricably linked” and restoring landscapes such as Boothby would deliver a range of climate benefits from storing carbon and tackling more extreme weather and flooding.
The scheme at Boothby was also providing an increase in local employment, a “wonderful amenity for people to enjoy”, and would still produce food in the form of high-value meat, he added.