Consano Earth's Summer 2025 Letter

2025 is the fourth full year for Consano Earth having been formalised in 2021. Our objective for this year, and every year going forward, is to add momentum to the fantastic work being done by our charity partners through rising financial and other support. Our efforts focus on smaller organisations where we believe our unrestricted funding can make a real difference and where we hope to be able to add value either ourselves or through our personal and professional contacts. Prior to 2024 we published a letter every Christmas that looks back on what we have been up to as well as some of the things we are looking forward to for the following year. However, last year after a busy six months we published a mid-year review and we have done the same in 2025.

Our two core charities remain Heal Rewilding and Project Seagrass but this year we have added Conservation Without Borders and The Thousand Year Trust to the organisations we support. This page provides details of all our charities as well as links to their websites for those wanting to learn more.

Sponsoring Citizen Zoo’s Rewilding Futures Conference

One of the projects we are proudest to have been involved with is the Ealing Beaver Project. Through this we met the inspirational Sean McCormack and Elliot Newton, founders of Ealing Wildlife Group and Citizen Zoo respectively. From Elliot we learned about Citizen Zoo’s Rewilding Futures 2025 Conference, and we were delighted to be one of the sponsors of the event. Over two days in January the conference brought together leading voices in rewilding to tackle pivotal issues in the field with unmissable presentations, expert panels, audience Q&As, networking opportunities and more, all hosted at the world-renowned David Attenborough Building at the University of Cambridge.

The 2025 conference hosted over 450 participants from around the globe, including industry professionals, academics, landowners, NGOs, government bodies, and the private sector, all united by a passion for ecological restoration and conservation. In addition to presentations, there were opportunities to participate in various networking events, workshops, panel discussions and more.

We saw presentations from many familiar faces including representatives from our charity partners Rewilding Britain, Wildwood Trust and Beaver Trust. There were also presentations from some wonderful international projects that we knew little about before the event. These included Rewilding Argentina, Rewilding America Now, Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique and Australian Wildlife Conservancy. Citizen Zoo has published a lot of the content online including some speaker slides which is available here. Click on the video below for a great summary. Well done to Elliot and all the Citizen Zoo team.

At the event we also spent some time with Hannah and Jack Dale. Hannah and Jack are the co-founders of Wrendale Designs, a nature inspired global giftware business based in Lincolnshire.

In 2019 they decided to embark on an exciting rewilding project at their farm in Lincolnshire that they have called “Wild Wrendale”.

You can learn more about what they are doing here and we would also highly recommend Hannah’s book “A Wilding Year” that not only is a great read but is beautifully illustrated by Hannah herself. 

New Beaver Trust film

In March we attended the first London showing of Beaver Trust’s new documentary “Balancing the Scales”.

Narrated by the fabulous Joanna Lumley the film explores the delicate balance between beaver restoration and the conservation of migratory fish populations.

In addition to the film, Beaver Trust CEO, Sandra King, gave us an update on Beaver Trust’s excellent work and hosted a panel session to further explore some of the issues raised in the documentary.

Our freshwater fish populations play a vital role in maintaining ecosystem health, but they exist in a perilous state with over one third of species facing extinction.

Wild Atlantic salmon, a keystone species, are in crisis, having declined by 70% in the last 25 years. The population in Great Britain is now classified as endangered due to the latest species reassessment by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, announced at COP28 in December 2023.

Fish face a multitude of existential threats, from polluted waterways, overfishing and habitat destruction, to over-abstraction of water for irrigation and over 23,000 man-made barriers in waterways in Britain blocking migratory passage.

Beaver ecosystem engineering creates a habitat which innumerable species of plants, fungi, invertebrates, amphibians, mammals, and fish, benefit from. However, concern remains about the ability of beaver dams to impede the movement of migratory species to and from their spawning grounds at critical times of year.

Balancing the Scales is a powerful, visually stunning documentary that captures hope amid environmental uncertainty. Through candid interviews with leading experts, this film unpacks the intricate relationship between beavers and migratory fish – revealing the opportunities beavers create and the unique challenges they introduce in our modern landscapes.

New wetlands in Clapham Common

In our last Christmas Letter we discussed a wonderful rewilding project very close to home. In 2024 we were excited to learn about an ambitious project that Friends of Clapham Common were pursuing in partnership with another local charity Wild Clapham. This was to transform a subterranean hollow measuring approximately 40 metres by 25 metres into a wonderful wetland for amphibians with the banks planted with species of flora to provide foliage food for butterflies and moths. We are proud to be one of the major funders and partners of this fantastic project. Construction work led by Joel Ashton began in November and was completed in April. Joel and his team did a great job and documented the journey on this YouTube channel. We were regular visits over the course of the work and here are a few pictures….

10th December - A few weeks in….

30th January - The bridge gets installed despite the questionable quality of work from Joel’s new apprentice….

7th March – The liner is in and we are ready for the water….

14th April – Almost ready….

10th May – Fences and equipment all gone and open to the public to enjoy….

We were thrilled to see our first dragonfly at the Wetlands on 14 June.

In time the site will look more like this….

Helping nature’s most efficient clean-up crew

In May we joined a small group from Conservation Without Borders (“CWB”), the charity founded by the inspirational Sacha Dench, for a day trip to Wales to visit Horstmann Trust.

CWB’s current focus is their project, “The Flight of the Vultures”, a series of 10 expeditions around the world, to sites where vultures are in massive decline, and conservationists are going to extraordinary lengths to try to save them.

Vultures are loved in some cultures and loathed in others, but essential to healthy ecosystems.

“The Flight of the Vultures” will be an exciting exploration into the lives of these fascinating creatures, how we can save them, and why have they been so misunderstood in so many places around the world.

Here is a great video from CWB explaining the importance of vultures.

Horstmann Trust is one of those expeditions and is the UK’s only dedicated vulture breed for release conservation charity. They have the most important vulture collection in Europe.

We were treated to a fascinating day hosted by Adam and Holly learning about their work on the conservation breeding of vultures and scientific research into their health and incubation.

We learned how vultures play a crucial part of the ecology on almost every continent. They are the ultimate agents of balance in our ecosystems and are nature’s waste disposal experts.

Vultures clean up animal carcasses quickly and efficiently before they can spread diseases and they limit the spread of bacteria, viruses and other pathogens including rabies, anthrax and cholera. This is all because of the strength of the acid in their stomachs (10x any other bird).

We are supporting CWB’s global expeditions which are investigating the major threats to the vulture population and how we can start to reverse the unacceptable vulture population crash seen around the world. Today nearly 70% of the 23 vulture species are now threatened with extinction.

The CWB team are determined to “rebrand” vultures. What is happening with the species is an icon of the significant number of challenges we face today. If we can help change the perception of the vultures, we can do it for anything.

Visiting the Great Bustards

In May we spent a morning in Wiltshire with the team at the Great Bustard Group. Created in 1998 by David Waters, the Great Bustard Group’s mission is to save this beautiful bird, and it took a huge step forward with this given several releases from 2004 to 2019. This was enough to achieve a self-sustaining population in the UK, but the charity still has a lot of important work to do.

We spent some time in the hides on the fields of Salisbury Plains enjoying the Bustards displaying with these males hoping to catch the eye of any females who may be laying a second clutch. The Great Bustard is the world’s heaviest flying bird weighing in around 20kg. For context a swan is about 12 kg. A few Red Kites also popped by to say hello.

This time of year, the team’s drone work is very important. They need to find the females in the Silage fields before they are mown. We saw some examples of the team in action as they look to protect the all-important nests.

The enthusiasm and passion the team has for the Great Bustards is infectious. The species is classified as “Endangered” by the IUCN. It is the only bird in the UK which is globally endangered. There is no great mystery to conserving Great Bustards: it just takes support and funding to ensure they have suitable habitat and protection from known threats such as powerlines and building and transport infrastructure. This is exactly what the Great Bustard Group are doing. One of their biggest blocks for support has been the classification that the Great Bustard is “a species not native to the UK.” The team believe there is a strong argument that the Great Bustard meets Natural England’s definition of a native species and are hopeful the classification will be changed as this would make a big difference to their work.

Learning what is involved with a species reintroduction

In early May we joined a small group led by the Wareham Arc team who are working on an exciting reintroduction project. Wareham Arc is an ambitious and collaborative nature recovery project in South-East Dorset. They have brought together over 25 landowners and managers to restore a diverse mosaic of priority habitats, support local farms and businesses, and improve opportunities for nature connection for local people. The 4,000+ hectare project area sits adjacent to Poole Harbour and is an arc shape around the town of Wareham.

We were investigating the appropriateness of two sites for a potential reintroduction of the only dragonfly species that has gone extinct in the UK. Ever since we chose a dragonfly as Consano Earth’s logo we have had a growing obsession with these insects so when we heard about this project we wanted to be involved. There are records that suggest Dorset was the last place where these dragonflies existed. We were hopeful we could identify a suitable release site alongside a slow flow river that was clear and clean and had some trees submerged into the water’s edge that could be used for the dragonfly to lay their eggs on. It was a fascinating morning learning about what is involved in a potential reintroduction from the sourcing of the species, the regulatory and financial hurdles and evaluating the best and most cost-effective method of reintroduction. Possibilities for the latter include a “wild to wild” reintroduction of immediately moving pregnant females to an area to a much more costly captive breeding and release program. The project is very much still in its early investigation phase, and we look forward to seeing how it progresses over the coming months.

On our way home we stopped off at Wild Woodbury, a rewilding site we first visited in April 2024. Dorset Wildlife Trust purchased the previously farmed site in 2021 using a philanthropic loan provided from Julia Davies of We Have The Power. We were delighted that Julia joined us for our walk around. Her work has been an inspiration to us and was key to our decision to provide a loan to Keep It Wild to help with its purchase of Panson Middle Bridge, a 26 acre wet meadow, that has hundreds of metres of river frontage. As we wandered around it was great to hear all about the exciting projects and initiatives Julia is working on. A key focus for her right now is scaling up her important work on community energy. Community energy is all about people owning the means of supply of cleaner renewable energy at a community level. Community energy companies are run with the aim of providing affordable renewable energy to schools and other organisations and businesses and investing any profits back into the community, for example to fund energy efficiency support or nature restoration. Bridging loans to community energy companies help them progress renewable energy installations before they have raised all the funds needed to pay for them. We will be supporting Julia’s efforts here making available some of our personal money to be used for these loans. You can learn more about community energy here.

A June Road Trip to Devon, Cornwall and Wales

Ever since we read Guy Shrubsole’s wonderful book “The Lost Rainforests of Britain” in 2022 we have wanted to experience a temperate rainforest in the UK. Then in March we read the beautifully written “Our Oaken Bones: Reviving a Family, a Farm and Britain’s Ancient Rainforests” by Merlin Hanbury-Tenison. The book tells the story of how Merlin and his wife Lizzie returned to Merlin’s childhood home, a Cornish hill farm called Cabilla in the heart of Bodmin Moor whilst dealing with some devasting personal challenges. There, they are met by unexpected difficulties: a farm slipping ever further into debt, the discovery that the overgrazed and damaged woods running throughout the valley are in fact one of the UK’s last remaining fragments of Atlantic temperate rainforest, and the sudden and near catastrophic strickening by Covid of Merlin’s father, the explorer Robin. As they fall more in love with the rainforest that Merlin had adventured in as a child, so begins a fight to save not only themselves and their farm, but also one of the world’s most endangered habitats. We were delighted when Merlin invited us to Cabilla Cornwall to see the rainforest and to learn more about how his charity The Thousand Year Trust is fighting to restore temperature rainforest landscapes in the UK. We thought while we were in the West Country we would also take the opportunity to drop in on a few of the charities we support in the area.

On our way to Cabilla Cornwall we stopped at Wildwood Devon run by our charity partner Wildwood Trust. Our friend and Director General Paul Whitfield took us around the site and provided a good update on their current initiatives including the Blean Bison project as well as their reintroduction work on Red-Bill Choughs and White-clawed Crayfish. We also got a chance to feed the Arctic Foxes who are not only cute but very charismatic!

We then arrived at our West Country base for the next two days Cabilla Cornwall. We stayed at the on-site B&B, The Old Deer House. This is a converted barn where Merlin’s parents, Louella and Robin, now live after they handed over Cabilla Manor to Merlin and Lizzie. The Old Deer House has wonderful views that were only surpassed by the hospitality of Louella and Robin. Robin is a famed explorer, author of over 25 books and is one of the founders of Survival International. We were treated to some fascinating stories from our hosts. Robin’s CV is on his website which gives an idea of just how much he has done in his 89 years! There are no signs of Robin slowing down with him now embarking on several fundraising initiatives for The Thousand Year Trust which included a 22-mile row in May. If you need somewhere to stay in the West Country, we highly recommend The Old Deer House and we look forward to returning in the not-too-distant future.  

The highlight of our visit was Merlin taking us around the 250-acre site that encompasses 85 acres of woodland and 165 of grazing land. He took responsibility for the farm in 2015. In the early years he was told the best way to ease the farm’s financial problems was to get rid of the woodland and increase the grazing land to increase revenues from sheep and wool. Merlin thought this was madness given the recent Brexit vote and as a result subsidies now under considerable threat. They decided to concentrate on preserving their woodland and it was only shortly after that they began to understand just how old the forest their family has owned since 1960 was. With help from the team at the nearby Eden Project they realised a significant proportion of the woodland was Ancient Woodland populated by Sessile oaks that date back 4,000 years.

The foundation of these old forests is the mycelial network of fungus that grows beneath the soil and connects the roots of every tree and plant to each other.

By creating a ‘wood wide web’ of interconnectivity that facilitates the sharing of resources, electrical signals, warning messages and even memories, these forests shift over time from being a collection of trees in one place to a single community of interdependent species that grow, live and thrive together.

Below left is an example of a 4,000-year oak tree. Below right is Merlin’s favourite tree in the estate which he calls the Mother Tree. It dates back 370 years. These oak trees are the most marvellous supporters of biodiversity and up to 600 species can be found living up their trunk and in their canopy.

Since 2021 Merlin and Lizzie have welcomed guests to Cabilla Cornwall and over 3,500 have visited to date. Both Merlin and Lizzie have experienced mental illness and know first-hand how nature can be a medicine, and this has helped them shape the specials retreats they offer.

There is a much greater awareness of the importance of temperate rainforests today than a few years ago largely thanks to Guy Shrubsole’s book. However, much more needs to be done. As Merlin wrote in his book:

“Lizzie and I realised that for all of the stupendous work that the esteemed organisations and impressive people mentioned above were doing, there was no dedicated Atlantic temperate rainforest charity in the UK. Everyone was doing this work as an extra task alongside their incorporated charitable objectives and it wouldn’t be long before their focus was likely to shift back to their core work. Right now rainforests are undoubtedly the sexy environmental new kid, but the Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust and Plantlife will all eventually need to return to the work that they were created for……What is needed is a dedicated Atlantic temperate rainforest charity which can focus on the scientific research needed to demonstrate that this habitat is as important to our heads and to the future comfort and continuation of our species as it is captivating to the romantic sentiments of our hearts.”

In 2023 Merlin met that need and founded The Thousand Year Trust. It is the only charity in the UK dedicated to the restoration of our temperate rainforest landscapes. The name is inspired by the longevity of the Sessile oak, a paramount species in their rainforests. These beautiful trees can take 300 years to grow, can live and thrive for over 400 years and can take 300 years to slowly die, rot and return their goodness to the soil. The team believe that if we are truly to heal our natural habitats, we need to think like an oak tree – over a thousand-year timespan. The following gives some background on the importance of temperate rainforests and the ambition to restore them back towards what we had in the past. Although 20% of the British Isles hold suitable climate and environmental conditions for temperate rainforests to thrive, less than 1% currently remains.

A key focus for The Thousand Year Trust is the building of a Research Station to facilitate ground-breaking thinking and collaboration with tangible impact in Cornwall and across other temperate biomes. Some initial funds have been raised to enable the beginning of the work, but more is needed if Merlin’s dream is to become a reality. His vision, shown in the pictures below, includes fieldwork lodging for scientists, a collaboration hub and a laboratory for analysis with climate-controlled sample and equipment storage. The building will have an accessible and innovative smart roof which will house the growth of epiphytes and bryophytes for cutting-edge research and translocation.  

We believe the team at The Thousand Year Trust in fighting to restore temperature rainforest landscapes in the UK is doing some critically important work. We have begun supporting the charity on an ongoing basis and have also donated towards the construction of the Research Station.

After our tour around Cabilla, we spent an afternoon with Nick Viney from Keep It Wild. Our work with the charity began in 2022 when we funded the construction of some wildcat enclosures doubling the capacity at Keep It Wild’s Co-Founder Derek Gow’s Rewilding Coombeshead site. Since then, we have committed to regular funding support to help the development of their Species Recovery Centre as well as lending them some funds for land acquisition. It was great to get an update from Nick especially on the wildcats and their expanding numbers!

Keep It Wild had 8 wildcat kittens born in 2025. Wildcats were once common across Britain, but their numbers dwindled dramatically after the Grain Preservation Act of 1566, which led to bounties on wildcats and a steep decline in their population. Today, these elusive cats survive only in small, fragmented groups of 30 to 300 individuals, primarily in the Scottish Highlands. Wildcats mainly hunt small mammals, with rabbits making up a large part of their diet. In 2023, after a decade of dedicated captive breeding, wildcats were successfully released into the Cairngorms. Building on this success, Keep It Wild are part of a team preparing for new releases in Devon and potentially other locations over the next three years. Each release will involve around 30 wildcats, with the first planned for North Devon in 2026. Public consultations are already underway to ensure community involvement and support.

We are looking forward to seeing all the Keep It Wild team at their gathering “If Not Now, When?” at the end of July. The weekend will be packed with great speakers including Sir John Lister-Kaye and Sir Charlie Burrell and this year their gaze is being extended to also include the rewilding of the sea. At the time of writing there are still some tickets available, but these are selling fast. There is more information on the event on their website.

Later that day we took the opportunity to visit the Cornwall Beaver Project. Our friend Chris Jones hosted us for a wonderful evening at Woodland Valley Farm where we enjoyed a picnic in the most magical setting of the beaver enclosure. We visited the site back in 2022 and the beavers have been hard at work expanding their watery wonderland. It was great to see how the landscape has changed over three years even if the ecosystem engineers themselves decided not to come out and say hello.

The following day we left Cornwall to start the journey back to London. We took a small detour to Wales home to our core charity partner for rewilding the sea, Project Seagrass. We first visited their seagrass nursery that was set up in 2021. This is sited on 52 acres of land which gives the team plenty of room for expansion in the years ahead. They have access to a saltwater lagoon which is very helpful for their work. The nursery runs planting trials to assess the biological factors affecting seagrass germination and growth. Over 170k seagrass seeds have been sown at the nursery this year. The site also houses their first large-scale controlled seed storage unit – housing around 1.5 million seeds in 2024. A big thank-you to Emily, Nursery Manager, for showing us around.

We then travelled over to Project Seagrass’ HQ in nearby Bridgend. This is home to most of the team and houses all their equipment as well as their seagrass seed processing facility. Seagrass seeds are usually picked in July and August and arrive at the HQ for processing before being sent to the nursery for storage. Some of these seeds are then planted at the nursery and it can take 12-18 months to grow into a plant of sufficient size to be transferred to a seagrass meadow. Many thanks to Emma and Hannah for their time.

Wishing you a wonderful Summer

We will again publish our Christmas letter in December which will preview what some of our key projects hope to achieve in 2026. Our previous letters are available by clicking on the images in the section below. Until then, we hope everyone finds some time over the summer months to enjoy nature and remind friends and family if we all do our little bit, collectively, we can make a big difference in what remains a climate and biodiversity emergency.

Nick & Elena Martin

Consano Earth Co-Founders

June 2025