Wilder Blean Press Pack

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Three go wild in Canterbury - an update on the Wilder Blean Project

• A month after three wild bison were released into West Blean and Thornden Woods, bison rangers Tom and Don say the trio are having a ‘remarkable impact’ on the landscape.
• The youngsters have been enjoying playing games of chase, debarking trees and eating everything in sight!
• The ecosystem engineers have adapted well, despite the hot weather, cooling down in the dense woodland.
• The bison will re-shape the landscape through their natural behaviours, helping to fight the climate and biodiversity crises.
• Bison ranger Don says the project is a ‘ray of hope’ in our efforts to save the planet.

A month after the UK’s first wild bison were released into West Blean and Thornden Woods, Bison Rangers Tom Gibbs and Donovan Wright give an insight into how the herd has settled. From games of chase amongst the youngsters to the matriarch’s unusual taste for bracken, living life on the wild side is what these three ecosystem engineers were born to do.

Bison Ranger Tom Gibbs explains: “Whilst they are very much wild animals, they have distinctive personalities. I have seen the two younger females playing and enjoying their surroundings. They will jump in the air when they get excited, chase each other and run around. They also have quite specific head movements when at play. They are really enjoying being outside, it’s fantastic they are comfortable enough to interact in this way.

“The herd is exploring more and more of the woodland. Initially they did not wander too far away from the corral - the area where they had their veterinary checks on their first day. As time has gone on, they are getting accustomed to the site and are venturing further each day.

“The matriarch likes the bracken and can often be seen trampling and even lying down on it. The calf with one horn seems to have a taste for brambles. It will be interesting to see her face once the berries start to come through. To grow, the berries need light, and the bison are beginning to create more light in the woodland already through their natural behaviours, so in a way they are making their own dessert!”

The bison have been released into the woodland as part of the Wilder Blean Project, a joint wilding initiative between Kent Wildlife Trust and Wildwood Trust. The bison will reshape the landscape, creating light and space for wildlife to thrive. It is hoped the project will be used as a template for other organisations to fight the climate and biodiversity crises.

Bison Ranger Donovan Wright explains how, in just one month, they are already changing the structure of the woodland: “The bison have already had a remarkable impact.  I did not expect it to be so sudden, but literally from the first day you could sense their presence in the woods.  

“We have seen them create a network of paths opening up trails of up to a meter wide.  Through dense silver birch thickets that were once almost impenetrable, you can now comfortably walk along bison trails. And we are not the only ones using them, I have seen foxes, rabbits, and a slow worm sunbathing on one.   

“When you follow the bison trails there is the unmistakable smell of bison in the air, and of course bison droppings. They have healthy appetites, eating up to 35kg of vegetation a day, and with that come lots of fertilizing and seed dispersal.

“The birds have figured out that bison droppings attract invertebrates. They have been pecking at the bison dung, feasting off insects.”

It took just over two years to get to a stage where the herd could be released into the Blean, with the global pandemic and Brexit causing delays to the importation process. Over that time Tom and Don eagerly awaited the arrival of the bison.

Don explains the impact the animals have made on him: “It is great we are fully fledged Bison Rangers now. I pinch myself every day. It is such a privilege to spend time with the bison and to witness the changes taking place in the woods. Every day I am awestruck.  Everybody should have this experience.  

“I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the bison and the privilege of spending time with them, as well as the Wilder Blean vision and all that has gone in to make it a reality.  

“I also feel the weight of responsibility, not only for taking care of the bison, but also for helping people reconnect with nature. This is just the start, and hopefully a ray of hope in our efforts to save our planet.”

The arrival of the three female bison is the first milestone within the Wilder Blean Project. Within the next eight weeks a bull from Germany will be released into the herd and it is hoped within time that they will breed. Once the herd are settled, Longhorn cattle, Iron-Age pigs and Exmoor ponies will also be released into the Blean. Each animal has its own unique impact on the woodland to help nature thrive.

West Blean and Thornden Woods will be closely monitored by experts who will be surveying wildlife abundance, new species that make the woods home and even measure the carbon that will be captured within the woodland.

The project became a reality thanks to funding from Players of People’s Postcode Lottery who provided £1.125m from the Annual Dream Fund.

Can you help our vision for a Wilder Blean?

Donations are welcomed from those who want to create a Wilder Blean for the future. 

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Strictly under embargo until 6am on Monday 18^th July 2022

BISON RELEASED INTO THE WILD TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE AS UK TEMPERATURES SOAR

As experts predict the hottest day of the year – two leading conservation  charities release bison into the wild to help tackle the climate crisis.

• A ground-breaking project to slow the climate crisis using wild bison has reached a major milestone on what is predicted to be the hottest day on record this year.
• The Met Office has issued an amber weather warning with temperatures potentially reaching 35C – with Britons set to endure the very real effects of the climate crisis.
• In the cooler part of the day, shortly before 7am, European bison were released into West Blean and Thornden Woods, Kent.
• The bison are ‘eco-system engineers’ which means they will restore life to the woodland through their natural behaviours and offer a nature-based solution to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises.
• This is the first-time bison have roamed in the UK for thousands of years.
• The historic event occurs two years into a five-year project by the wildlife charities Kent Wildlife Trust and Wildwood Trust, funded by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

A pioneering conservation project reached a historic milestone as European bison were released into an ancient woodland in Kent on what is predicted to be the hottest day of the year so far, Monday 18^th July 2022.

The bison will create a more climate resilient landscape within West Blean and Thorden Woods, near Canterbury, Kent, and their natural behaviours will help restore dynamic and complex habitats. 

By creating layers within the forest and naturally felling trees, the woodland will move away from being a monoculture, and wetter areas will not only store carbon, but reduce flood risk.

This is the first time in thousands of years that wild bison have roamed in UK woodlands as part of a landmark experiment to test this nature-based solution to habitat management as well as combatting the climate and nature crises.

Evan Bowen-Jones Chief Executive Officer at Kent Wildlife Trust said: “The restoration of naturally functioning ecosystems is a vital and inexpensive tool in tackling the climate crisis.

“The bison will help to create climate resistant landscapes which can adapt to the challenges presented by the crisis we face.

“We want Wilder Blean to mark the beginning of a new era for conservation in the UK. We need to revolutionise the way we restore natural landscapes, relying less on human intervention and more on natural engineers like bison, boar and beaver.

“Equally important, is that the Wilder Blean project will connect people with nature in a way that hasn't been possible before in the UK because we haven't had big wild animals present in our landscapes. We hope that those who visit the woodland and learn about the project will be inspired by what we are doing and become champions for nature too.”

European bison are a keystone species who will help restore natural processes in West Blean and Thornden Woods. Known as ‘eco-system engineers,’ the bison will breathe new life into the ancient woodland. Their natural behaviours such as grazing, eating bark, felling trees and taking dust baths will open the canopy, creating light and new spaces for wildlife and previously missing species to thrive.

The bison will soon be joined by other grazing animals, including Exmoor ponies, Iron Age pigs and Longhorn cattle, whose natural behaviours compliment the bison and will help to manage the landscape without the need for human intervention. Their impact on biodiversity and the landscape will be closely monitored in a long-term survey programme led by Kent Wildlife Trust. 

Paul Whitfield Director General of Wildwood Trust said: “Today heralds a new dawn for conservation and the fight against climate change. 

"As well as helping the biodiversity crisis, one of the fantastic things about this ground-breaking project is that it’s going to demonstrate the very real impact nature based solutions can have in solving the climate crisis. The two are intrinsically linked and we can’t solve one without the other. 

"With this project, we’re going to prove the impact bison in the wild can have on the environment. They will create an explosion of biodiversity and build habitat resilience; locking in carbon to help reduce global temperature rise. This will act as a huge catalyst for change, with the project being replicated on scale across the country.. It will make a phenomenal difference. Its great news in these worrying times. 

“Not only this but we're giving people in the UK - for the first time in over a thousand years - the chance to experience bison in the wild. It's a really powerful emotional, visceral experience and it’s something we’ve lost in this country. It's an absolute privilege to be part of the team that's bringing that back.”

James Seymour, Natural England’s Area Manager for Sussex and Kent, said:

“We welcome the Kent Wildlife Trust’s plans to restore West Blean and Thornden Woods SSSI, and compare the benefits of different habitat management approaches, including the use of bison. We want to support projects that aid nature recovery and connect communities with their natural environment.”

This £1.125m project was funded by money raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery and awarded through the annual Dream Fund. 

Laura Chow, head of charities at People’s Postcode Lottery, said: “The introduction of these extraordinary animals to British woodlands is a significant moment in the fight to protect and enhance biodiversity. It’s fantastic to see support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery going towards restoring and increasing biodiversity and bio-abundance in West Blean woods.”

The Wilder Blean project was created as a direct response to the decline in natural species in the UK, which, according to the State of Nature Report, has seen species decline at the fastest rate in thousands of years. Introducing bison is also an alternative to traditional human woodland management, giving nature the tools and space it needs to recover. 

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Animal welfare has been at the heart of this project, with the wellbeing of the bison taking precedence over any media activity.

For more information please contact [email protected]

More background on the project can be found on our website: https://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/wilderblean

Monitoring: The impact of the animals on the landscape will be part of an ecological monitoring programme led by Kent Wildlife Trust. This includes monitoring multiple ecological parameters to detect changes over time. Everything from soil sampling and worm counts to collecting data on vegetation structure will be examined. The team will also be monitoring several different groups of species including, invertebrates, birds and mammals. Read more about the Wilder Blean monitoring programme here.

State of nature in Kent Report: Our wildlife and environment is under threat from hotter summers, but nature also has some of the answers to climate change. This is one of the many findings of “The State of Nature in Kent” report, just published. The Kent Nature Partnership (KNP) – a group of organisations standing up for nature in Kent and Medway – commissioned the report, which was compiled by Kent Wildlife Trust. Read the full report here.

More about bison: European bison (Wisent) were almost extinct in the wild at the end of the Second World War. Since then they have recovered but still remain an endangered species. Several pioneering projects in Europe, including in the Netherlands have seen these animals return from the brink and demonstrated the incredible impacts they can have on species diversity and abundance. The Blean bison will form part of the European Endangered Species Protection Programme and this project will be a pioneering first for UK Conservation.

Photographs of Wilder Blean staff and key spokespeople

Bison release images

Click here for videos of:

BISON RELEASE

Camera trap footage of the release

Camera trap footage of the release #2

Drone footage of The Blean - kindly note this was taken prior to the bison arriving. Drones cannot be used around the bison.

Postcode Lottery Dream Fund announcement - why this project is so important.

Bison 'dust-bathing.'

Paul Hadaway, Director of Conservation at Kent Wildlife Trust discusses wilding.

Mark Habben, Wildwood Trust talks about Brexit and the bison.

Paul Hadaway, Director of Conservation at Kent Wildlife Trust talks about the arrival.

Aiden Rafferty Hoofstock, talks about our bison from Ireland and the Wilder Blean Project.

Rob Stoneman, Director of Landscape Recovery, Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts talking about why the project is important.

Read more about the Wilder Blean Team and what the project means to them.

The Wilder Blean monitoring project 

For more information on the Blean monitoring project click here.

Bison tracking by Smart Parks

Smart Parks is a Dutch non-profit organisation with the mission to protect endangered wildlife species across the globe with advanced technology.

Last February the Smart Parks team travelled to Kent to build the first Smart Parks system in the UK. The system creates LoRaWAN® coverage in the Blean Woods, making it possible to track the movement of the bisons. WisentEdge collars, which are power efficient GPS-LoRaWAN® devices, are placed on the animals. With lower power consumption than traditional GPS collars, and thus longer battery life, these sensors are especially suitable for tracking wildlife for multiple years by minimizing intervention and disturbance.

The near real-time updates will support the first-ever bison rangers with their important task to look after and manage UK’s first conservation herd. Smart Parks is involved in different rewilding projects that include the reintroduction of bison, in e.g., Zuid-Kennemerland and National Park the Veluwe.