Image: The Guardian/Jenny Vickers
The number of butterfly species recorded at Heal Somerset increased from 11 to 24 during the three-year period, meaning the number of recorded species more than doubled. The charity itself plans to continue collecting ecological data and compare future results with the 2026 baseline. For now, the jump from 67 to 94 recorded bird species and from 11 to 24 butterfly species provides a striking early indication that a landscape can change rapidly when intensive farming is replaced by a more nature-led approach.
Because butterflies can respond relatively quickly to changes in vegetation and habitat structure, making them useful indicators of ecological conditions, such changes are significant. Because some changes may accelerate while others could take many years to become visible, that long-term monitoring will be important. Butterflies have shown an equally striking change. The increase forms part of a wider picture of biodiversity recovery at the site, where monitoring has also documented bats and other small mammals. Rather than focusing on a single species, Heal’s State of Nature report is designed to examine changes across different groups of wildlife and establish a baseline against which future ecological recovery can be measured. The project is based on the idea that rewilding does not always require humans to constantly manage every part of an ecosystem. Heal describes its approach as giving nature the space and time to lead the recovery process. That does not mean abandoning the land completely. The organisation continues ecological monitoring and undertakes necessary management, while also developing habitats and infrastructure that support wildlife and allow people to engage with the project. The approach is intended to rebuild wildlife populations, improve ecosystem resilience and reconnect communities with nature. Healthy ecosystems can also help regulate water flows, store carbon and improve soil structure, potentially making landscapes more resilient to climate extremes such as flooding and heatwaves. Heal Somerset’s three-year results are an early snapshot rather than proof that the entire ecosystem has already been restored. Heal plans to use the lessons from Somerset as it works towards establishing additional rewilding sites across England.
The site also provides an opportunity to examine whether rewilding can deliver measurable biodiversity gains on land previously used for agriculture.
At Heal Somerset, a 460-acre site in Somerset acquired by the rewilding charity Heal in December 2022, the first three years of nature recovery have brought a notable increase in wildlife. The number of recorded bird species has risen from 67 to 94, while butterfly species have increased from 11 to 24. The site has also recorded at least 15 bat species and 60 breeding bird species.
A former dairy farm in the UK has undergone a striking transformation after humans stepped back and allowed natural processes to reshape the land.
The results, documented in Heal Somerset’s first State of Nature report, offer an early glimpse of what can happen when a landscape previously managed as farmland is given greater space for nature to recover.
When monitoring began, 67 bird species were recorded at the site. Three years later, that figure had reached 94, meaning 27 additional species had been recorded. The site now supports at least 60 breeding bird species, while the wider monitoring programme has also recorded species associated with a variety of habitats.
Heal’s approach is to continue monitoring these changes so that future surveys can show whether the early gains develop into longer-term population recovery. The clearest early change has been recorded among birds. The increase does not necessarily mean that every one of those species established a permanent breeding population, but it demonstrates a substantial expansion in the range of birds using the landscape.