The Wellstead

NEW EPISODE THIS SUNDAY

If you follow us on Instagram, you may have seen our recent post about the criminal damage on our woodland rewilding project.
While walking the perimeter of our woodland a couple weeks ago, I spotted signs that someone had trespassed through our fence and had torn down a sign indicating private land.
We then found that someone had started to construct a den in a gulley next to our wellspring. Whoever had been there, they had dug out a HUGE volume of soil from the banks of the gulley where a mature yew tree is standing, damaging the roots of that tree and SEVERING the roots of a beech tree nearby. They may have also destabilised the banks of that gulley, potentially affecting two ANCIENT yews standing nearby. They also disturbed an ACTIVE badger hole, which is a criminal offence, and dug out steps into the site and what looked like a bench in the soil. And finally, they had cut down several hazel stems to use as support for their structure, which also blocked the natural flow of water from the spring to our lake, which is what the gulley exists for.
We’ve been overwhelmed with comments on our post - both supportive and negative. After leaving a camera at the site for over a week, we were unable to catch anyone returning to their work. However, we hope that if we are able to find out who did this - whether a group of kids innocently building a den for the summer, or someone with more experience trying to use our property for their own personal project - we can speak to them and hopefully show them the damage they have done, and educate them on how to interact with the natural environment more harmoniously moving forward.

To see more of the story, tune in to this week’s episode DROPPING TOMORROW!

~ Brandon @ The Wellstead 🌳

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6 days ago | [YT] | 2

The Wellstead

HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS???

A few weeks ago, 4 White Storks were spotted flying in our local area for the first time in centuries. And just a week later, Storks were released in Derbyshire as part of a reintroduction programme, followed by a similar release in Cornwall in August. This comes after a 600 YEAR absence of Storks in the UK, which ended with the first pair to be reintroduced in 2016 at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex.
So with all these Stork sightings and releases happening lately, this begs the question: are storks officially BACK in the UK?

To find out more and to learn about the complexity of species reintroduction, watch our latest documentary linked below! 🌳💚

1 week ago | [YT] | 0

The Wellstead

NEW EPISODE

1 week ago | [YT] | 0

The Wellstead

Very grateful to have been invited to an exclusive look at Beaver reintroduction this week by the National Trust and our good friends at Rewild Mobile.
Our guide, the head of the beaver reintroduction programme at this site, led us around the banks of the lake where the beavers were released several years ago, highlighting their effect on the environment through wetland and wet woodland habitat creation.
We even found a pretty large oak tree that is in the process of being felled by the busy beavers!
Beavers are renowned for being ecosystem engineers, shaping entire landscapes into wetter and more biodiverse ecosystems that play an important role in flood mitigation and climate change adaptation.

We will have a video coming out in the near future about beavers and the benefits of their reintroduction across the globe.

Thanks again to the National Trust team for hosting us, and to our friends at Rewild Mobile for letting us tag along!

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1 week ago | [YT] | 8

The Wellstead

NEW EPISODE!

This week we continued with clearing out the invasive Himalayan Balsam that has overtaken large areas of our woodland, checked on our wildlife camera which caught some amazing clips this week, branched out and explored our neighbour’s own rewilding project, and received some great news about the future of ancient woodlands in the UK!

Click below to watch it now 👇💚🌳

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 0

The Wellstead

Did you know that WHITE STORKS are coming back to Britain after 600 YEARS!??

Following successful reintroduction at the Knepp Rewilding Project in 2016, a number of small breeding and reintroduction programmes were started around the country.
And just a few days ago, 3 storks were released into the wild in Derbyshire.
At the same time, we uploaded this new video talking about just that! Having heard that a group of Storks were spotted over my local area earlier this summer, that begs the question: are we seeing the triumphant return of the Stork?

To learn more about the history of this elegant animal and the potential to see it come back in the future, watch the new video below! 👇💚🌳

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

The Wellstead

NEW EPISODE

After a couple months away from the woodland due to traveling and not being able to work in the extreme heat, certain plants have had plenty of time and sunshine to take over. So that means we’ve got a bit of tidying up to do…

Click below to watch episode 34 now!

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

The Wellstead

LIVE STREAM + Q&A 🌱 THURSDAY 30 JULY 6:30PM GMT 🌍

1 THOUSAND SUBSCRIBERS SPECIAL! 💚

Tune in here on YouTube or over on our Instagram to have your questions answered and to hear more about our upcoming projects here at The Wellstead! 🌳

1 month ago | [YT] | 6

The Wellstead

We are SO close to hitting 1 THOUSAND SUBSCRIBERS!

The Wellstead is more than just a YouTube channel. We are actively rewilding a woodland and building a community of people who want to help restore natural landscapes across Britain and beyond. We hope that our channel can be a platform for good, helping educate people on the value and importance of rewilding while using this space to highlight other nature conservation projects around our local area and the whole world!
If you’re seeing this post and you’re not subscribed already, or you know somebody else who would find value in our videos, please hit subscribe and share our channel with others!

Hitting 1k subscribers will help this channel become more self sustaining, meaning we can dedicate more time, energy, and funds into our work here.
We’ve got an exciting line of new videos in the works this summer as we focus on producing more content, and reaching this next big milestone will help us share this project even further and wider!

SUBSCRIBE! 🙏☺️🌳💚

1 month ago | [YT] | 10

The Wellstead

Foxes are one the most persecuted animals in the UK, considered vermin among many.
However, in a landscape where all our natural predators have been eradicated, foxes play an important role in cleaning up dead animals and helping to control the population sizes of certain species.
Moreover, foxes are very timid creatures and have had to learn to adapt to living in a largely urban environment, scavenging more from our own waste than on the other animals found in woodlands and grasslands.
In a country so disconnected from our own ecology and with no natural predators left, foxes have drawn the short straw and now face a similar fate as those predators unless we learn to respect them and act to protect them.
Here at The Wellstead, we are restoring vital woodland habitats for all creatures. This includes those that have been persecuted or treated as vermin. We have been very lucky to see entire herds of deer in our woodland, rare birds like red kites and tawny owls, and even families of foxes and fox cubs. When it comes to nature restoration and rewilding, it’s not just about preserving populations of a select few species. It’s about creating a space where all species can survive and thrive.

Photos by Brandon Marshall

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1 month ago | [YT] | 6