The Somerset Levels, in southwest England, was once a vast, wild wetland spanning the flatlands from the Mendip Hills to the Atlantic coast. From pelicans to lynx, beavers to giant river sturgeon, this great tangle of marsh, forest and river teemed with wildlife. It was England’s Okavango Delta.

Sadly, like most of our habitats, the Somerset Levels is a shadow of its former self. Many of its large animals are long gone, and even once common species often struggle to survive - a sad reflection of the broader British wildlife crisis.

Yet there is hope.   ​

Somerset Wildlands is a charity working to bring back some of this lost life through rewilding: cultivating wild stepping stones – patches of land large and small - that can blossom into spaces for nature and wildlife to flourish again. 

Unlike standard conservation work, which seeks to protect biodiverse areas or maintain specific habitats, Somerset Wildlands buys ordinary farmland and allows it to rewild into something extraordinary. The purchased land is left as wild and unmanaged as possible, giving nature free reign and adding something different to the existing mix of managed nature reserves and farmland. Typical conservation work is important, and achieves valuable things, but there isn’t enough to conserve. We must make more spaces in which nature can thrive and evolve without human control. That’s why the Livebarefoot Fund proudly supports Somerset Wildlands.

So far the results are promising. Left alone for a few years, nature is stirring back to life. Grazing land is transforming into a vibrant mess of flowers, hedges, scrub and grass. Thistles, trefoils and wetland plants jostle for space. In summer, the air positively hums with insect life; spiders and grasshoppers festoon every stalk, and pushing through the chest-high grass releases clouds of butterflies and dragonflies. Snakes and fox cubs also shelter in the dense vegetation, while marsh harriers scan for prey overhead.