Ep. 020: Heal Rewilding - New Spaces for Nature with Jan Stannard

Join the journey of Heal Rewilding as we hear about the mission of the charity, the acquisition of their first site and progress a year later. Jan Stannard, Founder Trustee and Acting CEO, clearly describes the many decisions made by the charity over the last year and the importance of new spaces for nature. We loved the ambition, the insights shared and Jan’s thoughtful reflections.

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Your Hosts

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/
• Chloe Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chloe-constable-24155821b/

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• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/

Our Guest:

Jan Stannard is a founder-trustee and Acting CEO of Heal Rewilding, which launched in March 2020 to raise money to buy land in England for nature recovery, climate change action and wellbeing. The charity’s goal is to create a new site in every English county, 48 sites in total covering 24,000 acres. Heal acquired its first site, Heal Somerset, in December 2022 which is now open to the public. 

Jan moved into the charity sector after 40 years’ experience in business, having served on company boards in the strategic communications and digital marketing sectors. She first became active in campaigning for wildlife in 2015 when she set up a local swift group, which has since organised the installation of hundreds of swift boxes. She also oversaw the largest ever amphibian ladder project in England in 2018, helping to stop migrating toads from drowning in road drains. She has a BA in Geography and a first-class honours degree in Psychology, and while studying for the latter, qualified as an executive coach and trained as a resilience specialist.

• You can find her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janstannard

Listen out for:

[00:00:00] Tom and Chloe provide a few quick updates from the Grange Project: planning (or lack of), our WhatsApp Community Group and Project Pigs.

[00:05:32] We are introduced to Jan Stannard from Heal Rewilding, she describes the inception and mission of Heal and the importance of new spaces for nature.

[00:12:00] Jan describes the process of acquiring their flagship site, Heal Somerset, and the criteria for their sites.

[00:17:55] We talk about one of the experiences offered by Heal - a unique nighttime soundscape experience performance entitled ‘Out of the Darkness’.

[00:21:21] Jan talks about the importance of water on rewilding sites and takes us on a verbal journey around Heal Somerset. 

[00:25:27] Chloe raises a question about how to baseline survey a new rewilding project and why it’s important.

[00:29:50] Jan describes what’s happened across the site over the last year and we debate levels of intervention within rewilding.

[00:37:15] Tom questions Jan about the importance of community engagement and the balance of this with nature recovery.

[00:40:09] We conclude the interview with a discussion about the perception of rewilding sites and what people should expect when they come to visit the site, as well as how to get involved with Heal Rewilding.

[00:44:21] Chloe and Tom reflect on the interview and what resonated most for them.

Keen for more:

• https://www.healrewilding.org.uk for information about the charity and the Heal 3x3 sponsorship scheme.
• https://www.healsomerset.org.uk for details of the Heal Somerset site, as well as local events and volunteering opportunities.
• Wonderful video documenting the installation of a wildlife pond and the ecosystem created: https://youtu.be/4LvaX748pVI?si=RVeGBj1qZizRdvFo

Mentioned in this episode:

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