RSPB Saltholme’s rewilding project in the Tees Valley

It is very exciting to hear Chris Francis from RSPB Saltholme speak about his new rewilding project on Teesside.

BIG NEWS!
From today, 100 hectares of farmland returns to the RSPB's direct management!
So, we're going to return this land to nature.
We will update you all on progress over the coming years. Watch this space!#rewilding #naturalregeneration #nature #wildlife #conservation pic.twitter.com/RjXAlGWElM

— RSPB Saltholme (@RSPBSaltholme) January 1, 2022

Rewilding is gaining momentum as an opportunity to address the climate and biodiversity crisis, but there remains a lack of quantitative evidence detailing the biodiversity and ecosystem services responses in different landscapes. This lack of evidence is particularly acute in post-industrial landscapes, and I propose to study this 100ha site due to be rewilded by RSPB from 2022 in one of the most industrialised area of the UK, with ad hoc monitoring to capture change over time, as natural processes override anthropogenic influence.

About Me

My work focuses on how plants, biodiversity and complex ecosystems respond to environmental change. Answering this question is critical to developing: 1) guidance to accelerate ecological recovery and 2) evidence-based policies to protect the environment and human well-being in the context of global change. New evidences in my research chiefly come directly from studying plants, the natural environment and large-scale, long-term ecological systems.

Google Scholar Profile

Teesside University Profile

I am a Senior Lecturer in Ecology, member of the Earth, Ecology and Environment research collective at Teesside University, UK. I was previously a post-doctoral researcher based in UCL (University College London), UK, working on landscape connectivity, biodiversity and ecosystem function in freshwater networks (projects: Lake BESS, Hydroscape). My PhD, completed in the Oxford Long-term Ecology Lab at the University of Oxford, UK, was a contribution to the hotly debated conservation practice of rewilding, using a long-term perspective.

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