Find out more about nature on our Love Your Scrub site at the University of Sussex. The top left image in each panel shows you what the site looked like in each season in the first year. The rest of the images tell you about what can be happening in scrubland, and what we hope will happen here in the future. The artwork was produced by Dan Locke, and funded by the University of Sussex. Winter Spring Summer Autumn ..read more

By Lotty Mansfield It is becoming increasingly apparent that the biodiversity we have on Earth is rapidly dwindling, and the effects this is having on ecological systems is detrimental. However, using a case study based at The University of Sussex, it has been acknowledged that the effects of such declines also influence students and staff on a local scale. As such, it is important to consider these personal effects when managing biodiverse areas in educational settings.  In bringing together three key ideas – education, wellbeing improvement, and greenspace – a project was launched to ga ..read more

By Veronica Wignall Imagine for a moment that you are a bee. Or for that matter, a songbird, beetle, fox or hoverfly. Where are you hanging out these days? Where are you finding the food, nesting spaces and company you need to survive, multiply and maybe even enjoy yourself? It might be difficult to answer that question. Nature is often pushed to the fringes of our busy human lives, compartmentalised to where we want it to be. It is protected in reserves and zoos and tamed in our gardens, but often not tolerated in our streets or even our fields. In agricultural land, which makes up 72% of the ..read more

There is still plenty of discussion about what rewilding means. Like many words that describe how people interact with nature (e.g. agriculture and conservation), rewilding doesn’t have a single method of implementation. This framework attempts to provide a pragmatic description of what rewilding is and isn’t, based on rewilding in Britain. It is essentially exploring what rewilding projects have in common while allowing each project to be unique to the place, nature and people involved. It would be great to hear what you think. Photo: Glenfeshie. Note: This framework is adapted from Sandom, C ..read more

By Betsy Gorman  The BLUE campaign all started in Chipping Sodbury in 2017 with the idea that a community can band together and connect people with wildlife friendly green spaces. We worked under the principle that setting aside even a small amount of land to go wild will  create some habitat for different species, and it actually worked! Many people in Chipping Sodbury embraced the wild. It was fantastic because so many people could get involved. Even a windowsill or 2m X 2m patch was creating an additive effect in the village to the point where, when more people joined in, the ..read more

A wild GardenDownload By Betsy Gorman an exploration of how to make your green space just that little bit wild. Follow the journey of a garden as it goes from a mown lawn to a space where animals and plants can thrive ..read more

By Daniel Maude (Dan is a MRes student at the University of Sussex and produced this outstanding report as part of his research. It gives a really nice overview of what natural disturbance is and why it is important. Restoring natural disturbance regimes is a key goal in rewilding which is why we wanted to share it here. You can follow Dan on Twitter here: @DanMaude_90 ) Ongoing anthropogenic ecosystem changes have caused a substantial reduction in global biodiversity. With it comes the insidious loss of ecological processes, including the often-underappreciated effects of natural disturbance ..read more

We hope that rewilding is going to become a fantastic career opportunity sooner rather than later. And what a career it could be! A great opportunity to connect with nature and people. Do you want such a career? If so, the list below details some of the knowledge, skills, experience, and qualities we think are going to be really beneficial to any rewilder. It’s a pretty long list, but not exhaustive. We don’t think any one person needs it all, but these are all things worth looking into if you’re interested. We’ve added a few links for places to find more information, but we’d love to add more ..read more

Talk by Chris Sandom for the U3A society ..read more

by Tom Dando It’s hard to steer clear of coronavirus and the bombardment of news, information and sobering statistics at home and abroad. However, more and more throughout this time, I’ve found myself tuning into the sounds and sights of the urban nature that lives around me, in a way that I can’t remember doing before. The first springs of new life Nature is something I’ve always made a point to go out and look for, this species or that habitat, a place to go and immerse myself. In these lockdown times, I’ve found myself grounded to my garden and (very luckily) my allotment. I’m lucky to be a ..read more