Blean Bison project

In 2019 Wildwood Trust and Kent Wildlife Trust launched a flagship wilding project, ‘Blean bison' in Blean woods near Canterbury. The project promotes resilient and complex 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. The Blean project 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 was the extensive consultation and engagement with local landowners, interest groups and residents who know and love this area.

Although European bison were never native to the UK, Steppe Bison and other wild grazing animals once were. European bison are now our best chance at recreating those grazing behaviours that once existed. Despite their size, bison are peaceful animals whose ability to fell trees by rubbing up against them and eating the bark, gives space for other plants and animals to thrive. Bison will be accompanied by other grazing animals to create the greatest plant and animal diversity possible.

In the UK, we’re headed for increasing species extinctions in the next 10 years. We know that the key to enabling species to survive and thrive is to create a nature recovery network, of bigger, better quality, and more joined up habitats

Species in the UK are declining at their fastest rate for thousands of years according to the latest State of Nature report and unfortunately human management alone is not enough to create the kinds of habitats species need.

What we need are natural solutions and this is why we have taken this first step to drive ‘Wilding’. Wilding is when nature is given the tools and space it needs to recover itself and has the potential to increase abundance of biodiversity to levels beyond what human management achieves and helps store carbon.