The Hazel Dormouse at Blean Woods | The Wilder Blean Diaries
Channel: Wildwood Kent
Date: 2021-07-20

We take you behind the scenes in Blean Woods in Kent and show you what we've been up to for the Wilder Blean project this past year 🌳 From fencing to conservation grazing, we're working hard with the Kent Wildlife Trust to make the perfect environment to welcome one of bison back to the area 🐂 Thanks to funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. 

Text WILDERBLEAN to 70470 and give £5 to help the project.

#wilderblean #bison #naturebasedsolutions #rewilding

What is the Wilder Blean Project?

Kent Wildlife Trust and Wildwood Trust launched a flagship wilding project, ‘Wilder Blean’, funded by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. This groundbreaking project is busy taking place in the Blean Woods situated near Herne Bay, Whitstable, and Canterbury. 

The project will promote stronger habitats by restoring natural processes that are able to withstand the current environmental crisis and species decline, and in the long run, reverse it.

In the UK, lack of woodland management is one of the eight biggest drivers of species decline. Wilder Blean aims to bring transformational change through a controlled trial with bison; a missing keystone species that is able to naturally manage woodlands.

A key part of this project will be extensive consultation and engagement with local landowners, interest groups and residents who know and love this area.

European bison are being used in this project because they are ecosystem engineers, meaning that they are able to change their environment through their natural behaviours. Bison can change woodlands in a way that no other animal can, they eat bark and create dust baths which each have benefits for many plants and animals, these are functions that have been missing from our UK woodlands for thousands of years and bringing them back can help restore an abundance of wildlife.