Bison in the UK: Kent Wildlife Trust's Blean rewilding project gets £100,000 cash injection

At one stage, European bison only survived in captivity - now a £100,000 investment could help see them roaming more of the woodlands of Kent.

The Kent Wildlife Trust made history in 2022 when it released the first three bison to freely roam the UK in thousands of years into the Blean, near Canterbury. Later joined by a bull, one of the herd has now given birth to a healthy calf.

They have since been joined by Exmoor ponies, long-horn cattle, and iron-age pigs, as part of the Trust's rewilding project covering tens of thousands of hectares of south-east England.

The Trust has now received £100,000 of new funding from Rewilding Britain - part of its annual award - to scale up its plans to restore the ancient woodland of the Blean using conservation grazers.

Rewilding Britain manager Sara King said: “This exciting project is working at nature’s scale and allowing nature and natural processes to take the lead, while engaging with the local community and providing economic benefits through ecotourism.

“Our Challenge Fund asked applicants to ‘think big, act wild’, and Kent Wildlife Trust is doing just that," she continued. “We’re delighted to be able to support the Trust as it scales up its rewilding ambitions within the Blean and hopefully beyond.”

Kent Wildlife Trust has been offering safaris through the Blean since the bison herd was reintroduced, and it plans to use the funding in part to increase the number of visitors it teaches about the large mammals and their regenerative abilities.

The Trust has also recently been granted planning permission to build a set of tunnels, which will allow the bison to move underneath footpaths into other enclosures - giving them more space to roam.

“We are very grateful to Rewilding Britain for its generous support in helping us take the next crucial step in our rewilding ambitions," director of conservation Paul Hadaway said. “We want this rewilding project to demonstrate the amazing things we can achieve for nature and people by rewilding at scale with partners in a phased approach.

“Wilder Blean started with the use of ecosystem engineers, the bison and other conservation grazers now living within the Blean complex, and will hopefully end with a large, connected landscape that works for both people and wildlife – the ultimate goal of rewilding.”

Before their reintroduction to the Blean, European bison had not lived wild in the UK for thousands of years, and the species was almost hunted to extinction in the early 20th century across the continent.

They prefer woodland to the wide, open prairies commonly associated with their larger American counterparts, benefitting that environment by trampling down bracken and wallowing in sand pits - which creates space for invertebrates.