Campaign for a #WilderFuture with us
It's not too late to bring our wildlife back
Sadly, since we first met Badger, Ratty and friends in 1908, the UK has become one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. So, to raise awareness The Wildlife Trusts have re-imagined Wind in the Willows in 2019, shedding light on some of the problems our wildlife faces every day. We've reached a point where our natural world is in a critical condition and needs our help to put it into recovery.
It's not too late to bring our wildlife back, but we must act now. Support the campaign, pledge your love for a Wilder Future and Wilder Derbyshire and be inspired to take action for nature's recovery.
So, here’s the film - watch our favourite characters as they begin their search for a Wilder Future. Enjoy!
Badger, Ratty, Mole and Toad
Kenneth Grahame wrote Wind in the Willows just over a hundred years ago. Since then, many of the UK's wild places and the plants and animals that depend on them have been lost. For example: 97% of lowland meadows and the beautiful wildflowers, insects, mammals and birds that they supported have disappeared; 80% of our beautiful purple heathlands have vanished.
Kenneth Grahame's Ratty - the water vole - is the UK's most rapidly declining mammal and has been lost from 94% of places were they were once prevalent, and their range is continuing to contract. Toad is also finding that times are very tough: he has lost nearly 70% of how own kind in the last 30 years alone - and much more than that in the last century.
Together we can make the next chapter for wildlife a happier one. Join us to put nature into recovery.
A bit more about the Wilder Future Campaign
The Wilder Future campaign is about advocating for political changes as well as asking people to take small 'personal' actions where they live to help wildlife. The idea is that these individual actions add up to something much bigger across the country.
The Wildlife Trusts want to create a tipping point of 1 in 4 people taking action.
We have therefore commissioned a film - 'Wind & the Willows: A Wild Story', which will be screened in cinemas from 28th March 2019, to reach and inspire the public to take action.
Politically, the campaign is calling for the creation of Nature Recovery Networks to better protect and join-up important places for wildlife. In England, the campaign is calling for the Government's upcoming Environment Bill to include measures to drive the creation of these Nature Recovery Networks. Due to the devolved nature of environmental issues we are also campaigning for a separate Environment Bill in Scotland while in Wales we are asking for a Sustainable Land Management Bill.
Our vision for a Wilder Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county renowned for its beauty. With majestic rivers, striking dales, moors, wooded valleys and uplands. Derbyshire should be a county absolutely teeming with wildlife.
However, it's not. Wildlife is in decline and year after year we are noticing once common species are becoming rarer.
We want to see a return of species that were once common in the county, as well as more woodlands and an insect friendly landscape. We want to see nature friendly farming and for our rivers to be naturalised and reconnected to their floodplains.