An ambitious re-wilding project near Market Harborough – which will include the creation of a new country park – could be expanded to cover more land.
Plans for the scheme were announced earlier this year when Harborough District Council purchased over 130 acres of land either side of the A6 bypass near Great Bowden, for nearly £2m.
Now, landowners from adjacent plots have expressed interest in joining the project, meaning it has the potential to extend across 500 acres.
This welcome development comes after a meeting between the council and Natural England.
Phil Knowles, the Liberal Democrat leader of the council, told HFM News:
"A number of actions were agreed around potential funding sources and alignment to national priorities and initiatives. Everyone we have met has been blown away by our investment and our ambition – words like unprecedented, inspirational and excellent place leadership are being used."
Harborough District Council is run by a Lib Dem, Green and Labour coalition.
Will be fascinating to see how this plays out over time, is it 'passive' rewilding that involves a slow evolution of habitat away fom farmland to scrub, in turn to woodland . . . or is it 'active' rewilding that involves planting trees and shrubs and introducing animals such as wolves, brown bears, lynx, pine martens and eagles?
ReplyDeleteI shall see if I can find someone to write a guest post about it, though it may be a bit early in the project at the moment.
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