1. Positive Steps for Honeygar

This year, we made enormous strides at Honeygar, our pioneering wilding site on the Somerset Levels. This has included continuing to stabilise and protect the peat on site, successfully expanding our Wilder Sensing project, appointing a full design team to devise a plan for the buildings at Honeygar, and raising nearly £80,000 in a public appeal to ensure this work can continue into 2025 and beyond.

Honeygar is a long-term project, and we've still got a long way to go before this former dairy farm becomes the haven for wildlife and people we know it can be, but we are already seeing signs of progress, and this year we were delighted to record a whole range of different species on the site, including a night heron, otter, and water vole. Find out more about Honeygar here!

2. Pine Martens Successfully Reintroduced to the South West of England

We've been working with our friends and neighbours at Devon Wildlife Trust to bring the native pine marten back to Devon and Somerset. These cat-sized mustelids have been absent from the south west for over 100 years, but in October, we were delighted to share that 15 of these beautiful animals were successfully released at secret locations across Dartmoor.

This is a historic step for our woodlands and just the first phase of the Two Moors: Pine Marten project. A similar release is already planned for Exmoor during 2025, so stay tuned for more news! You can find out about the project and the releases here.

3. Official Relaunch of our Youth Forum

We've been working with some fantastic young people from across the county this year through our Wilder Youth project. This has included launching a new series of Youth Volunteering and Experience Days, creating a new Youth Strategy, identifying more ways young people can get involved in nature conservation, and, towards the start of the year, officially relaunching our Youth Forum!

Through the Forum, we are supporting an amazing group of young people to have a voice within our organisation and the environmental politics within Somerset, and it is chaired by two brilliant young people (Erica and Rachel!). We have so many more plans to help us connect with more young people in 2025 too! Find out more about the project here.

4. First Community Climate Adaptation Plan for Somerset Published

In August this year, Glastonbury became the first community in Somerset to complete our Act to Adapt process, and we were delighted to celebrate the launch of the town's bespoke Climate Adaptation Plan! This is the first in a new series of toolkits to help communities across the county prepare for and adapt to the UK's changing climate, created by working alongside the people and businesses in Glastonbury, listening to their climate concerns and identifying potential adaptation actions they can take.

The Act to Adapt process is also currently being delivered in areas including Burnham-on-Sea & Highbridge, Minehead, Wells, and Martock. Find out more about the launch of Glastonbury's Climate Adaptation plan here!

5. Making a Noise for Nature in the 2024 General Election

This year, people across the UK voted in the 2024 General Election, which resulted in our new Labour government. During the run-up to the election, we campaigned for nature, highlighting the importance of taking part in the vote and prioritising nature and wildlife when heading to the polling station. Members of our staff and volunteers also took part in the Restore Nature Now March in London, where we were joined by more than 60,000 people and 350 charities, businesses, and action groups, all marching through London with one simple but powerful message to all the UK's political parties: we need to restore nature now. We also hosted a special election webinar, where we invited Somerset's political candidates to speak about their promises for nature — and help our supporters make a more informed voting decision.

Since the election, we have been working with MPs across the county to ensure nature remains on their agenda. You can find out more on this here.

6. Transformative Peat Restoration Work at Westhay Moor

In November, we officially completed the groundwork element of the peatland restoration project on Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve. This has involved a technique called deep-trench cell bunding, which has been successfully carried out across approximately 23 hectares of the reserve. It has taken 18 months for us to reach this stage, which will help make our peatlands more resilient to changing weather patterns and support some of the rare, specialist species living right in the heart of Somerset.

You can find out more about this complex technique and how it will help the peat on the Somerset Levels on our project webpage here.

7. Relaunch of the Private & Community Nature Reserves (PCNR) Network

This year saw the relaunch of Somerset’s Private & Community Nature Reserves (PCNR) Network, which now has just over 100 members! This user-led network provides peer-to-peer support for landowners, community groups, and smallholders who all prioritise managing their land for nature. The PCNR Network unfortunately took a pause during the pandemic, but we’re delighted by the support it has received since its relaunch. Next year, we will work to continue to grow the group while encouraging members to share their experiences and learn from each other, all for the benefit of nature. You can find out more about the PCNR Network here.

8. Connecting with Farmers Across the Mendip Hills

Through the Mendip Hills Farm Cluster, which covers just under a fifth of the Mendip Hills, we've been working alongside farmers and other land managers to create a strong peer-network for communities to work collaboratively and share ideas, all to achieve more for nature. This year, this group has delivered outcomes for species including the dormouse, adder, and dung beetle, while helping to increase tree coverage, reconnecting our wildlife-rich meadows, restoring ponds, regenerating hedgerows, and much more.

The Mendip Hills Farm Cluster was formed in 2016, and since then it has continued to expand across the Mendip Hills. You can find out more about it here.

9. New Ash Dieback Measures on Reserves

Our Reserves Team has spent many more hours this year managing the impacts of ash dieback disease across Somerset. Through the removal of damaged and diseased trees and installing new safety measures, the majority of our reserves have remained open to the public, enabling people to continue to visit these special places and spend time in nature.

Although it is less talked about now than it was a few years ago, ash dieback is still a big problem in Somerset, and it has caused the widespread loss of many of our ash trees. Every year, our Reserves Team dedicates a huge amount of time to managing the effects of ash dieback. You can read more about it here.

10. Wellbeing and Nature Connection Opportunities

This March, we came to the end of our Somerset Nature Connections project, a three-year initiative run in partnership with the three National Landscapes in Somerset which helped enable people all across the county to strengthen their connection with nature. We were able to celebrate this fantastic project earlier in the year, and we are pleased to say our commitment to helping people connect with nature now continues through our Wilder Wellbeing work, which began in October this year.

As part of this, we recently welcomed our new Wilder Wellbeing Officer to our team, who will be working with organisations, teams, and communities across Somerset to embed nature-based wellbeing into everything they do. Find out more about the importance of connecting with nature here.