The Wellstead

IMPORTANT CHANNEL UPDATE:

Dear subscribers,
Since starting The Wellstead YouTube channel in April of last year, we’ve built an amazing community around our work in this woodland. You guys are more than just an audience, you’re actively helping us to bring this ecosystem back to life, build a sustainable future, and inspire others by showing what is possible.
In the last couple months, the channel has started gaining more attention. This is great, and we’d love for it to continue on this upward trajectory!
However, with more and more people watching our videos and engaging in the community, I want to ensure that we are delivering the highest quality content that we can.
You will have noticed that we’ve been very quiet on the YouTube shorts lately as we shift to focusing on long-form content. However, I think it’s time to take a short break from uploading altogether until the end of February while we work on delivering the best videos we can.
Moving forward, we’re going to continue with the weekly long-form diary episodes documenting our work at The Wellstead, but we will also be branching out into other styles of content too.
This year, we’ll be exploring and documenting other local rewilding projects and talking to local and national experts on rewilding and nature conservation.
With my background being in filmmaking, I’d also like to start creating high-quality short documentaries on topics relating to ecology, woodland conservation, and nature restoration.
However, I’ve also got a lot of other things planned for this year - both at The Wellstead and in my own personal life. So this means that the upload schedule might not always be as frequent or consistent.
But as more pieces start to fall into place behind the scenes, our overall volume of work will only be increasing and therefore you may start seeing new faces hosting videos on the channel.
All in all, we are surprised and grateful by the support we’ve been shown so far and are excited to be taking this channel and our work into the next stage of The Wellstead.
In the meantime, we’ll be taking this short hiatus to focus on the work and delivering higher quality content over the coming months.

Thanks for tuning in!
~ Brandon @ The Wellstead 🙏🌳💚☮️

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5 days ago | [YT] | 4

The Wellstead

EXCITING NEWS FROM THE WELLSTEAD TODAY!

You will have seen in our last video (watch it here: https://youtu.be/DCKj35K1zKk?si=N7Vix...) that I have recently installed a wildlife trail camera in our woodland. I placed the camera right next to an active wildlife trail amongst at least half a dozen badger setts and/or fox borrows.
Only a week later, I went back to check on the camera and found that it had taken upwards of 200 photos and videos (these are just a few random photos I downloaded to my phone, not even the best ones!)
You can expect to see some very cool footage of rare wildlife in our videos going forward. This not only gives us a glimpse into the lives of creatures we rarely cross paths with, but it also allows us to monitor what species live in our woodland for our ecological restoration efforts.

Thanks for the continued support on the channel. Happiness, health, and peace to all 🙏💚☮️🌳

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1 week ago | [YT] | 5

The Wellstead

I want to take a moment to thank the ‪@woodlandtrust‬ for all the help they have provided - both directly and indirectly - in our effort to restore our ancient woodland here at The Wellstead.

Despite the UK being one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, we have some of the greatest organisations like the Woodland Trust working hard to educate the public on nature conservation and liaise with landowners and lobbyists to incite real action and change.

As a landowner of ancient woodland in the UK, we’ve been fortunate to be in contact with the Woodland Trust who have been more than generous in offering us advice and support. Furthermore, their website and social media is filled with valuable resources on woodland management and restoration practices - like this video linked below.

We will continue to work closely with local partners and organisations who are committed to protecting the natural world and helping empower others to do the same through education and training.

~ Brandon ‪@TheWellsteadRewilding‬ 🌳💚☮️

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

The Wellstead

Do you know the history behind the Douglas Fir and how it got its name?

In the 1820s, a Scottish botanist and explorer named David Douglas documented the Doug Fir in the Pacific Northwest and collected specimens to bring back to Europe. The tree was subsequently named in his honour. But the name ‘Douglas Fir’ is actually a misnomer, because the tree is not actually a fir tree but rather more closely related to pines and spruce (although existing in a unique genus of its own).

However, while David Douglas’ contributions to botany and science shouldn’t be forgotten, it’s also important to remember that the species of tree we call Douglas Fir has a long and rich history among various First Nation peoples of North America, particularly the Coast Salish people of the Pacific Northwest region who strongly revere the tree for its spiritual significance and ecological importance.

As such, although the Douglas Fir is one of my favourite species of tree, I think the naming of the tree is quite bizarre. For one, it’s not a fir. And secondly, why name the tree after a European explorer rather than the peoples who have lived among these trees for thousands of years.

So, to me, a more fitting name for this magnificent tree would be something like the Coast Salish Pine.

What do you guys think? Have you ever seen a mature Douglas fir (or Coast Salish Pine) tree in person? Have you ever visited the old growth rainforests where these behemoths grow on the Pacific Northwest coast of the USA? What do you think of the tree’s strange naming?

I’ll be releasing a video in spring about the Douglas fir, its ecological importance, and the beautiful history this tree shares with indigenous peoples of America.

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3 weeks ago | [YT] | 3

The Wellstead

Have you seen The Wellstead’s 2025 Rewind?

Last year, we made a lot of progress - both in planning and executing on our plans.

We installed our polytunnel and started growing our own produce, started laying the foundations for a permaculture garden, and built a staircase from the farm up the ridge to Old Growth Grove to reconnect two of the main areas of the woodland.

Outside of the farm, we made significant progress on tackling the invasive species on our land, opening up more space for native flora to thrive. We also encountered many forest friends throughout the year, from young fox cubs and fawns in the spring, to buzzards and red kites in autumn. But we also had to say goodbye to several of these beautiful creatures, including one of the cubs in the fox pack, a young fawn who we found injured on the edge of the farm, and a poor fallow deer who had somehow got itself caught between two limbs of a tree and died (a very strange happening).

But from those experiences we learned many valuable lessons. Things take time. Nothing is permanent. And nature will always surprise you.

But perhaps most importantly, we started sharing our journey with all of you through our videos and this YouTube channel. And we couldn’t be more grateful that we did. The support you have shown us has been so inspiring, and we’re looking forward to a year of hard work and progress in 2026.

Check out the recap video below! And share with your friends and family to invite them to join this wonderful community that we’re building!

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

The Wellstead

Thank You all for 500 subscribers!

You guys are more than just an audience. We’re building a community of people who want to see the natural world respected, protected, and restored. We couldn’t be prouder to have you with us on this journey!

Let’s make 2026 the year of The Wellstead and the year of rewilding natural spaces! 🙏💚🌳

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 7

The Wellstead

You may have seen in our 2025 Recap video (watch it here: https://youtu.be/FedjTxbEFio?si=QcBUO...) that I was surprised by a visit from a beautiful red kite bird while filming in our woodland! 🌳🦅
Here are some more shots I captured while the kite was perched in one of our Douglas firs 🌲
I took close to 100 photos as well as several minutes of video.
Keep an eye on the channel in the future for more wildlife sightings!

P.S. These images are NOT A.I. You will NEVER see AI generated or altered content on this channel, only organic 😉

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1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 5

The Wellstead

NEW VIDEO OUT NOW!

In this video, I start laying out the foundation for the perimeter around our permaculture food forest project. Rather than building a conventional fence using expensive materials, we opted for a natural ‘dead hedge’ fence that will allow us to define the borders of the farm and deter browsers & pests like deer or badgers while also providing ecological benefits for nesting birds, small mammals, insects and pollinators, amphibians and reptiles, and fungi.
I thought I could complete the entire project in one day by building this natural fence around the entire 12m X 17m perimeter of our farm, but it turned out to be much more work than I was expecting (especially with a lingering chest infection!) so it’ll be something I come back to in future episodes.

In the meantime, you can support our channel by hitting subscribe, sharing our videos with others, and if you want to contribute directly to our restoration work here at The Wellstead, please consider donating to our fundraiser via the link below:

gofund.me/196298d0c

100% of donations will be used to plant trees and regenerate the degraded areas of this rare and ancient ecosystem.

Thanks again for watching, and we will catch you in the next video at The Wellstead!
Happiness, strength, and peace to you all! 🙏☮️🌳🪓🪵💚🌍☯️

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

The Wellstead

The folks at ‪@WOODLANDSTV‬ have a great video on how to build a dead hedge as well as the ecological benefits a dead hedge can have in a woodland. It’s been a great resource for me in understanding the value of a more natural boundary as we look to finally start defining the boundary of our farm within The Wellstead.
Check it out ahead of our next episode!

1 month ago | [YT] | 1

The Wellstead

NEW EPISODE THIS SATURDAY 3pm BST!

In our next video at The Wellstead, we start a long awaited project of FINALLY installing a boundary around our permaculture farm.

After much debate, we finally landed on the idea of building a ‘dead hedge’ to define the borders of our farm. This provides a clear boundary for us to work within as well as having the added benefit of providing habitat for nesting birds, small rodents like mice and hedgehogs, insects, and fungi while keeping larger animals like deer and badgers away from our crops.

The project was much bigger than I anticipated, so it’s something I’ll be working on over the course of a few weeks, so keep an eye on the channel for future updates on this project as well as the other work we’re doing to restore our ancient woodland.

See you Saturday at 3pm 🫡🪓☯️🌳

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1 month ago | [YT] | 9