earth

Welcome to Wild Woodbury in Dorset, where an extraordinary transformation is underway. Once an intensive farm, this 170-hectare site is now one of the UK’s most ambitious rewilding experiments, led by Dorset Wildlife Trust.

As the rains have poured in, a new river has emerged—spanning up to 100 metres wide. Hidden watercourses are resurfacing, lapwings and nightjars are nesting once more, and adders slip through the grasslands. Even the nearby village is helping shape the future of this recovering landscape.

But rewilding isn’t just about letting water back in—some ideas worked, others didn’t. So how exactly did this land change so dramatically?

LOOK WHO I SAW AT THE MARSHES TODAY. IT’S THE TEENIEST TINIEST SNAPPING TURTLE PROBABLY HATCHED RECENTLY!!! It was less than two inches long and SO CUTE!

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Decades of neglect have left rivers and streams across the world in crisis. It’s a complex problem but years of relentless modification has left many unnaturally straight and separated from their floodplains. Rivers naturally should curve and meander, cleaning the water and providing vital habitats for plants and animals.

One solution gaining popularity in Britain is “re-wiggling” a river, or restoring it to have meanders and curves.

RAZOR’s Gabrielle Lawrence visits Norfolk in England, to see how one “re-wiggled” river has transformed biodiversity in the area and why rivers and waterways need to become valued spaces again.