Below is a list of our planned events.
From webinars to site visits, we hope you’ll find the events that we organise useful. Although we’ll tweet, post news items, and send updates by email, remember to also check back here regularly for the current list.
We record all of our webinars, so to view any that you’ve missed, click here.
If you have a topic that you know well, and are comfortable presenting, and you would like to offer it as a webinar, please contact us – we’d love to hear from you.
Rewilding in Action: YRN Summer Site Visits 2024
It’s time to get your diaries out!
Our Summer Site Visits are back for a third year, and we think it’s our most varied and exciting programme yet. We have an inspiring array of rewilding sites for you to visit; from wetlands to wildflower meadows, beaver ponds and country estates to community projects and urban gardens.
We know you appreciate just how valuable it is to experience places that are being rewilded and to meet the people behind them. We are very grateful to all the individuals and organisations who have kindly offered to show you around their patch. The site visits also offer a fantastic opportunity to chat and share knowledge with other rewilding enthusiasts.
This year the visits run from April to September. There is more information about those happening soon below (keep an eye on this page as we update the list throughout the summer).
To view the whole programme on Eventbrite and to book a place on specific events, please click here.
To secure your place you will be asked for a donation to the Yorkshire Rewilding Network. This can be as little as £1…but we hope that you will support rewilding in Yorkshire and give more if you are able. Thank you, it is appreciated.
Places are limited, so please make a separate booking for each person who will be attending. Once you’ve booked, you’ll be sent full details and directions via Eventbrite about a week before the event.
We’re adding more sites all the time so do keep checking our Eventbrite page so you don’t miss out!
We hope you enjoy your visit(s) and the chance to share the positivity of rewilding.
With wild wishes from the Yorkshire Rewilding Network team.
YRN Summer Site Visit – Denton Reserve, Ilkley
Saturday, September 21st · 14.00 – 16.00
The tour will centre around the top of this rewilding estate, just below the peatland and heath of the moor. Lots has been happening and is planned for this area. The visual change, in particular, of this area of land will soon accelerate, due to the rewetting of the the moor (just completed), the planting of sphagnum moss (due to start soon) and a new 100 acre woodland, planted in January.
Below Dunkirk Farm, riparian planting links to Lesley’s Lake, below which is the beaver enclosure! This 6-hectare fenced site will begin to change upon the arrival of our new ecosystem engineers, the beavers, hopefully before the end of 2024. This is a very exciting project, and this is a fantastic opportunity to understand more about what’s been done to get ready for the beavers, and what should happen in the next year.
Shared cars would save congestion at the parking area.
Children welcome, but no dogs please.
Boots or sturdy footwear needed as ground is uneven.
There should be a toilet available at Dunkirk Farm.
Host will provide coffee/tea and cake.
Please arrive early to park and walk the 15 minutes to the start of the tour. The tour will finish at 4pm but it will take a few minutes to return to the carpark, and you may like to stay and chat and have refreshments.
For more details and to book please click here.
YRN Summer Site Visit – Nature Restoration in Arkengarthdale, near Reeth
Saturday, September 28th · 11.00 – 12.30
Founded by three neighbours in 2019, Heggs-Castle cluster is a collaborative approach to nature restoration across a combined 200-acre site. Stretching from the banks of the Arkle Beck up to the dramatic escarpment of Fremington Edge, our sloping, south-facing site is a mosaic of hay meadows, rough grassland, wood pasture, and old and new woodland; located 2 miles north-west of Reeth on the northern edge of Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Join us for a 1.5-hour guided tour, taking in our latest natural flood management works (including scrapes and leaky dams); our newly planted 28ha woodland; and various other interventions. Hear all about the wildlife on site, the challenges we’ve faced and the lessons learnt over the last 5 years. Picnics, dogs and children who are strong walkers, welcome.
For more background info, please visit our website. And for a better taste of our terrain, see our YouTube drone flyover videos.
For more details and to book please click here.
YRN Webinar:
Creating woodland through natural colonisation and natural processes
Tuesday, 8th October, 2024, 19.30 to 20.30
Creating new woodland through natural processes can have both ecological and financial advantages, but it can also be higher risk than traditional planting. In the Northern Forest, the Woodland Trust and partners are working with landowners to try different approaches. This free webinar is presented by Sian Atkinson and will look at different methods that can be used to facilitate natural colonisation of trees and shrubs, and the funding and support available.
Sian is Senior Outreach Manager for the Woodland Trust in Northern England, leading a team of advisers who work with landowners and partners to inspire and facilitate expansion of native tree cover, and sustainable management of ancient woodland. During a 30 year career at the Woodland Trust, Sian has also worked as a site manager, and on policy, evidence and projects at a national level, and has a particular interest in woodland ecology.
It’s free to join. Registration details will follow, so do check back soon!
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YRN Webinar:
Cropton Beaver trial – 5 years on
Wednesday, 27th November, 2024, 19.30 to 20.30
In April 2019 two beavers were released into an enclosure in Cropton Forest as part of a Natural England licensed trial- it was the first time beavers have been in Yorkshire for over 400 years. Since release, the beaver colony has grown and the beavers have made the site their own through their engineering ways. The main aim of the trial was to see how the beavers interacted with the manmade slowing the flow structures and various studies have been conducted throughout the five years of the trial looking at the hydrology, water quality and biodiversity of the site.
This free webinar is presented by Cath Bashforth, Ecologist for Forestry England, Yorkshire Forest District. Cath is the project lead for the Cropton Beaver trial.
Join us to hear more about the results of those studies and what the beavers have been up to.
It’s free to join. Registration details will follow, so do check back soon!
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