Listening Before Restoring

28 December 2025
Dulverton, Somerset

Wildwood Grove is not being restored to match a plan.

It is being restored by first understanding what the land is already doing — and what it is asking for.

The land entered our stewardship in November 2025 following decades of agricultural use. Since then, we have deliberately resisted the urge to act quickly. No re-profiling. No planting. No engineered solutions. Instead, we have been observing.

Water has been the first and clearest teacher.

Two springs behave differently across the site. Wetness persists where mapping suggests it shouldn’t. A headwater watercourse forms naturally, feeding into the Brockey and the wider River Exe catchment. These are not abstract ideas — they are lived, seasonal, observable realities.

Acting too early would mean acting blindly.

Before restoration, there must be truth.
Before solutions, there must be understanding.
Before claims, there must be evidence.

This is why Wildwood Grove is taking time to listen.

We are assembling the right teams — hydrologists, ecologists, surveyors, and specialists who are comfortable with uncertainty and committed to evidence. Credibility is not built by speed. It is built by sequence.

This Field Journal exists to document that process honestly: what is seen before intervention, what changes during restoration, and what endures over time.

To scientists, researchers, and practitioners working with land, water, ecology, and climate:

If your work depends on understanding landscapes before they are altered — not just after — we invite you to pay attention here. Some questions can only be answered at the beginning.

We are listening first, so that when we act, we act with integrity.