“All About Beavers” a talk at The Globe in Hay on Wye by Alicia Leow-Dyke.

Alicia has been the Wildlife Trusts Wales (WTW) Welsh Beaver Project Officer since 2016.  With over 10 years of experience working with beavers, Alicia is well placed at looking into the feasibility of re-introducing beavers.

The Welsh Beaver Project has been investigating the feasibility of bringing wild beavers back to Wales since 2005.  This work is being led by North Wales Wildlife Trust on behalf of all five Wildlife Trusts in Wales as part of their Living Landscapes strategy.

Many WVW members are interested in reintroducing Beavers, which were once widespread across the UK, but due to over hunting by humans for their fur, meat and scent glands they became extinct after the Middle Ages in Wales and by the end of the 16th Century they were extinct from the rest of Britain.

This talk will tell us more about beavers, their ecological needs and impacts and the steps and costs involved in reintroduction projects. To book a place please click here

Beavers play a vital role in enriching biodiversity by restoring and managing river and wetland ecosystems. They are known as a ‘keystone species’ because their activities can benefit a wide range of other animals and plants that live in rivers and wetlands.

Join us for an online talk by local expert Tim Kaye from CLaN Cultivating Learning and Nature, to learn about grassland invertebrates and how we can manage our grasslands to benefit invertebrates all the species which depend on them.

Tim is a brilliant speaker and this is a great opportunity to ask all your grassland and insect related questions!

James Hitchcock will be joining us to introduce the Welsh Rewilding Alliance, a new initiative which Wye Valley Wilding is part of, aiming to help restore both people and nature to Wales.

Tom Constable of the Grange Project will be introducing a new website based tool he has developed to help people engage with rewilding projects and provide financial support to projects.

Lots of opportunities to ask your questions, so please join us for this online event.

An upcoming to The Meadowlands, a 200 acre rewilding project in the Black Mountains that also seeks to conserve existing valuable habitats through traditional farming and conservation techniques such as hay meadows and hay making. 

This is an opportunity to learn more about conservation grazing strategies, visit woodland, wood pasture, grazed meadows and hay meadows, and see first hand the impacts of rewilding on a former sheep and silage farm.

To book a place, please email wyevalleywilding (at) gmail.com

One of our longstanding members, Paul Maslin, has very kindly offered to show us around his smallholding.  It will be a particularly busy day for him because he is opening up his home for the National Mills Weekend so we will also have an opportunity to hear about the mill at his place in Rowlestone and see it in action.  

Paul has 15 acres so it is a smaller plot of land than some of our previous visits which makes it all the more relevant for many in our network.  Please aim to arrive promptly at 10am as it will be a busy day for Paul.  We will walk around his land and learn about the ways in which he is creating and improving habitat for nature.  He will then talk to us about the history and workings of the mill.  Tea & coffee on offer too!  

We are very pleased to have Dan Carne talk to us about wood meadows / pastures, drawing upon his recent travels around Europe, visiting surviving examples and talking to the people who manage these special places.  Dan is a great advocate for these incredibly valuable habitats.

Dan was awarded a Churchill Scholarship to fund his expedition.  He is a Director of Woodmeadow Makers and the National Coppice Foundation and was previously the Director of the Wood Meadow Trust.  He is one of the country's leading experts on the topic.

The Wye Valley Wilders are delighted to welcome Toby Fountain and Rebecca Meredith from Herefordshire Wildlife Trust for a discussion of Local Wildlife Sites (LWS) and HWT’s Farm Advisory service.

We are excited to welcome Alastair Driver, Director of Rewilding Britain and one of the best-known names in British conservation, for a morning with local landowners here in the Wye Valley. 

Situated in a beautiful natural bowl with the farm house at its centre, the Grange Project includes a biodiverse wetland, a profusion of ancient oaks, replanting and scrape digging and some truly charismatic residents.