Throughout our lives our family has adored the natural world, whether enjoying stunning views of our countryside landscape, experiencing the sheer joy of taking a woodland walk or learning about the breath-taking diversity of wildlife with which we share our planet.
But we are acutely aware of the impact that humans are having on our earth. We have grabbed more and more of the land for ourselves – for growing food and to build homes, roads and warehouses. Worse still we pollute and degrade the land and oceans. Even the climate is changing due to human impact.
We decided that instead of just worrying about it, we should do our bit to change this!
Putting it simply we wanted to create a bit more wild space. More trees, more meadows, more ponds. Once there is a place for wildlife, it arrives!
Hence, Make It Wild was born! The short film above explains it all!
Our mission statement is:
We started this project to encourage a greater knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the natural world. We want people to share in the beauty of the wild spaces we’re creating.
You will see that we offer tree and other dedications and nature connected activities. All funds generated are re-invested in our nature reserve projects.
With your help we have planted thousands of trees, dug ponds, restored wildflower hay meadows, protected ancient woodland and created many different habitats across our nine sites. We were in the news for planting our 25,000th tree in 2019, and our 50,000th in 2021. We planted our 60,000th in March 2023.
We have put up deer fence to protect our precious Ancient Woodland and encourage natural regeneration. Our Carbon Mitigation through Tree Planting scheme has been popular for individuals and businesses alike, and our new subscription scheme takes the hassle out of taking responsibility for your impact on the planet.
At Wilsill Memorial Woodland, we plant our very special memorial trees – incorporating the cremation ashes of passed loved ones. You can read more here.
If you want to immerse yourself in nature, you can sleep right next to our land in glorious Nidderdale. Read more about our luxury ecofriendly holiday cottage, Heather Lea, here.
You can enjoy a deeper connection to nature on one of our Natural Mindfulness Walks.
If you love nature, how about volunteering with us? It is a great way to spend time in the wonderful out-doors with like-minded people.
If you would like to hear from us every couple of months, please subscribe to our newsletter via the form below.
Please browse our online shop – remember all proceeds go directly to support nature!
Our work aligns to the following three SDGs
We are delighted to have been featured in:
BBC’s “Escape to the Country”,
The Times,
Yorkshire Life,
The Yorkshire Post,
The Woodland Trust’s “Broadleaf”
and many other podcasts and publications.
We are honoured to have won the Sustainability Award in the Hambleton Business Awards for 2023.
Also in 2023 we were thrilled to be Regional Winners in the ‘Green’ category of the BBC Making a Difference Awards.
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It's when I listen to the silence that I hear what the world is saying
Anthony T. Hincks