17th February - Howardian Hills National Landscape priorities
Ellie Hook, Howardian Hills
17th March - Rewilding in Yorkshire and the work of the Yorkshire Rewilding Network
Jeff Davitt, Yorkshire Rewilding Network
The Yorkshire Rewilding Network is a charity founded in 2020 to bring together anyone in the region with an interest in rewilding. In this talk, Jeff Davitt, Co-Founder and Trustee of YRN, will describe some the rewilding projects happening in Yorkshire, what YRN does, and how everyone can be involved.
21st April - Exploring the woodlands for Castle Howard
Over the next 5 years the estate will be planting 100 hectares of new woodland, with 30 hectares planted this winter. Duncan Leckie, the estate's Forestry Manager will speak about this ambitious plan, how sites were selected and how the ancient woodlands of tomorrow are being created.
19th May - Forestry England, Cath Bashford
A talk highlighting the findings from the research undertaken during the 6 years of the licensed Cropton Beaver trial and introducing the next steps for beavers in Yorkshire.
16th June - Practical experience of "No-fence" collars for conservation grazing, challenges and opportunities, Ben Fargher
Ben will talk about his experience using No-Fence collars on his families Aberdeen Angus beef herd which graze the parkland landscapes of Castle Howard. The collars were trialled in 2025 with support from Castle Howard and the Howardian Hills National Landscapes Farming in Protected Landscapes fund.
21st July - Rewilding in practice?
Lauren Barnes, University of York
This presentation will outline how and why rewilding is being interpreted and operationalised across Britain by different landowners and practitioners. Interest in rewilding across Britain has grown in recent years. Within academia, research has mainly focused on attempts to define rewilding and document its origins. In practice, rewilding is interpreted and implemented depending on the desires and needs of the practitioner within the spatial and ecological bounds of the project. To better understand the reality of rewilding implementation on the ground, I spoke to various different landowners and practitioners across Britain who have self identified their project as rewilding. The talk will present an overview of outcomes of these conversations to provide an insight into the motivations which initiated the decision to adopt a rewilding approach and the management implementations being utilised to achieve a rewilding vision.