Hope In Action: The State of Nature at Heal Somerset

Join Heal’s co-founder and CEO, Jan Stannard, for a presentation and walk which brings to life the findings from the Heal Somerset State of Nature Report 2026.

This is the first ever State of Nature report which focuses solely on rewilding and its aim is to produce tangible evidence that rewilding can drive rapid and meaningful ecological recovery and contribute our results to a national dataset for rewilding.

The land at Heal Somerset is recovering using nature-led approaches, with our role being to help restore natural processes through interventions. These interventions include the introduction of animals acting as ecosystem engineers (pigs and, in future, cattle and ponies), the renaturalisation of water flows, and natural and assisted regeneration of trees and scrub (such as blackthorn, hawthorn, bramble and wild rose).

During the session, Jan will share the thinking behind Heal’s approach, talk about the interventions taking place across the site and discuss the first suite of species and habitat surveys that form the foundation of the report.

Following the presentation, you’ll join Jan on a guided walk through Heal Somerset to see these nature-led approaches in action and discover how rewilding can help tackle the UK’s biodiversity crisis, strengthen climate resilience and create healthier, more resilient ecosystems.