Consultation on North Somerset Council’s rewilding programme has been launched this week.

Residents, town and parish councils and community groups are being asked for their views on the suitability of the sites identified by the council for rewilding and for their suggestions of any other potential locations in their area.

They also have the opportunity to register their interest in getting involved in the rewilding project.

The council’s rewilding programme involves creating new habitats across the district to enable wildlife to flourish and help address climate change.

After declaring a climate emergency earlier this year councillors agreed unanimously to put in place the rewilding programme. Officers have now identified areas of council-owned land as potential sites for rewilding by either planting trees or allowing the grass to grow taller.

The council owns around 2.5 million square metres of verges, parks and open spaces where the grass is mown regularly. Under its rewilding programme it is looking to increase wildlife and biodiversity by converting around 16 per cent of this “amenity grass” to tall grass areas and a further 10 per cent to woodland.

This will result in around 40 new hectares of tall grass and 20 new hectares of woodland across the district.

Creating the woodland areas will involve planting around 50,000 young trees called “whips” which will be protected by biodegradable tubes. These will be planted in phases over the next three years with the initial 5,000 being planted early in the new year.

The tall grass sites will also be introduced over the next three years, starting next summer.

To view the sites put forward by the council, find out more about rewilding, have your say on the proposals or volunteer to get involved visit www.n-somerset.gov.uk/rewilding.

Consultation will run until the end of January after which the sites for rewilding will be finalised and the specification for the new grounds and tree maintenance contract prepared.

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