Wilder Northumberland Network

Our vision

The Wilder Northumberland Network is an exciting local rewilding network for nature recovery in Northumberland. The network seeks to connect land managers who are currently or would like to undertake nature recovery actions including rewilding. 

The network endeavours to increase connectivity across Northumberland, removing barriers to species movement whilst also creating more space for water, trees and scrub. Naturalised grazing and diminishing management are key to letting nature lead, creating a Wilder Northumberland. 

The network aims to inspire members, provide access to key resources and peer learning opportunities, offer expert advice and share local and national experiences.

Principles of the Network

By being a member of the network, members will be actively following one or more of the Wilder Northumberland principles, which are:

1. Making space for water, including re-wetting, slowing the flow, ​‘rewiggling’ of streams and rivers, floodplain management, and reintroducing beavers.
2. Making space for trees and shrubs, including wilder hedgerows, natural regeneration, native planting, encouraging scrub, and leaving deadwood.
3. Letting nature lead, including diminishing management, naturalised grazing, habitat succession and using proxy herbivores.
4. Increasing connectivity in Northumberland, including river corridors, planting riparian woodland, uncut verges, wilder field margins and removing barriers to species movement.

Aims of the Network

The network aims to inspire members, provide access to key resources and peer learning opportunities, offer expert advice and share local and national experiences.

1. Enable peer learning: organise knowledge-sharing field trips to network member projects, provide access to written case studies of network member projects or projects further afield and access to storytelling where network members can share best practices, experiences, lessons learnt and other details about their projects.
2. Provide wilder resources: finding and helping with project grants and funding opportunities and providing access to local, reliable contractor information through contractor contact lists.
3. Provide wilder services: providing access to tailored ecological advice for network members, the Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s (NWT) volunteers for practical activities, ​‘Flexigraze’ (for network members who need grazing animals), surveys (completed by NWT or NWT volunteers) and monitoring schemes for network members, allowing members to make informed choices about their land.

Get involved

Membership of the Wilder Northumberland Network is free. To be eligible, you must have a minimum area of 5ha or a minimum of a 1km corridor. 

You can sign up using their form or send an email to wildernorthumberland@​northwt.​org.​uk.