Castle Howard’s new Conservation Volunteer programme was awarded Environmental Initiative of the Year at the Yorkshire Post Rural Awards on Thursday 18th September.
The Conservation Volunteer group formed in December 2024, with the programme quickly becoming an important element of the Estate’s natural environmental strategy. In just six months, the volunteer group has delivered measurable ecological benefits and laid the groundwork for a scalable, long-term nature restoration legacy.
The group of 46 Conservation Volunteers live locally to Castle Howard and range from students to retirees all with a keen interest in taking care of the environment. The volunteers work across diverse habitats, including woodland, wetland, and grassland sites, contributing to projects such as removing pheasant pens in woodland on the Castle Howard Estate enabling cattle to browse the woodland, creating nesting areas for sand martins and terns, and planting willow for beaver fodder. These efforts have directly contributed to carbon reduction, habitat creation and flood mitigation as part of Castle Howard Estate’s wider nature restoration ambitions.
The group meet weekly on a Wednesday to support Castle Howard’s Natural Environment team with their work. In just a few months, the volunteers have delivered over 1000 hours of volunteer effort across multiple sites and habitat types, and two volunteers have moved into permanent employment with the experience gained at Castle Howard being directly relevant to their employers.
Guy Thallon, Head of Natural Environment at Castle Howard, said:“The conservation volunteers have had an immediate impact enabling us to accelerate and expand our nature conservation ambitions. The group was established to support a long-term series of large-scale projects to restore and enhance biodiversity across the estate, including transitioning to regenerative farming, restoring parkland, planting woodlands and leading nature recovery. This strategy has been supported by a significant strategic shift in estate management, including the establishment of a Natural Environment department.
This group has been with us for only nine months, but it feels like they’ve been here for five years given how much they’ve achieved by accelerating the delivery of our projects. The breadth of their work is redefining what rural conservation looks like, and they deserve recognition for their extraordinary impact.”
The volunteers’ efforts have contributed to habitat creation in the Bog Hall Habitat Bank project area - a landmark nature restoration and rewilding project on the Castle Howard Estate designed and delivered in collaboration with Environment Bank. A 440-acre area of the Estate known as Bog Hall is undergoing a transformation from difficult to farm, low-yielding agricultural land into a thriving space for nature. The area, which is greater than the area inside the York City Walls, within the Howardian Hills National Landscape, and has been carefully selected for its immense potential to enhance biodiversity. Working with Environment Bank ecologists, the goal is to almost triple the biodiversity over the next 30 years. Olivia Fox, Senior Land Manager at Environment Bank, attended the Yorkshire Post Rural Awards in support of the Conservation Volunteers who received the award, alongside representatives from Castle Howard’s HR and Natural Environment teams.
Bog Hall Habitat Bank project: castlehoward.co.uk/the-estate/bog-hall-habitat-bank
Volunteering at Castle Howard: castlehoward.co.uk/volunteer