Pages | Countryside Regeneration Trust

Group visits at Pierrepont Farm

Pierrepont Farm is the perfect place for farming and wildlife group education. We will help your Cubs and Beavers group achieve their badges! Read more

Minibeasts Spotter Sheet

Discover the many minibeasts out there as you go exploring. See how many species you can find on our spotter sheet. Read more

Thanks to your generous donations we are able to complete exciting conservation projects on our properties. Our current appeals support some of our big plans , from erecting towers for white storks, to extra food for birds over winter, to volunteer equipment, each one plays a vital role in the regeneration of the countryside. Read more

Owl Pellet Discovery Species Sheet

Discover what an owl had for dinner, with our eight page owl pellet species information sheet. With pictures and sizing details for bones, jaws, teeth and skulls, see if you can identify species from your owl pellet findings. Read more

Our Objectives

The Countryside Regeneration Trust's charitable objectives. Read more

Winter wildlife spotter sheet

See how many species your children can find on a winter walk with our spotter sheet. Enjoy learning some interesting facts along the way. Read more

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Awnells Farm Spotter Sheet

Explore Awnells Farm and see which species you can discover. Look for wildlife homes and the rare orchard tooth fungus Read more

Fungi Spotter Sheet

Go for a wild walk and see how many varieties of fungi you can spot. Read more

Shelters for endangered dormice

Endangered hazel dormice have lost so much woodland habitat in the UK that they struggle to find safe places to live and reproduce. We want to build specially designed boxes to place on our farms, which will provide shelter from predators and have a lid that allows us to monitor them. Your donation will help us to buy the materials for our volunteers to build these boxes. Read more

Conservation tools for volunteers

Volunteers are fundamental to the work we do at the CRT. They carry out vital conservation work such as planting trees and hedges, creating and maintaining ponds, clearing scrub and invasive species, and erecting nest boxes. We are thrilled that more people are joining our volunteering programme. Your donation will enable us to buy more equipment to aid their work, such as loppers and bow saws. Read more

Winter meals for farmland birds

Farmland birds struggle to find food in the colder months, when there are fewer natural sources of seeds and grains. Your donation will help us to buy supplementary bird seed on seven of our farms, helping some of the country’s most endangered bird species to get through the winter. Read more

Assessing the health of our soil

Analysing soil health on our farms will provide vital evidence on the impact of our farming practices on this complex and hidden habitat, and allow us to measure soil carbon. In 2024 we want to implement a soil monitoring programme on at least five of our farms. Your donation will help fund the costs of soil sample analysis, enabling informed decision making on how best to manage our land. Read more

Handmade homes for hedgehogs

Hedgehogs are disappearing fast as they lose more and more suitable habitat, making it hard for them to create a safe home and to move around safely to find food. Your donation will enable us to buy the materials needed for our volunteers to build carefully designed hedgehog houses Read more

Life-saving defibrillator for Bere Marsh Farm

Bere Marsh Farm in Dorset is an important part of the local community, with an incredible volunteer team and many visitors walking through the farm on the Dorset Trailway. Your donation will help us to buy and install a defibrillator on the farm, which could make a life-saving difference if someone suffers a sudden cardiac emergency. Read more

Wildflower seeds to sow a meadow

Our pollinators are in crisis, but we can make a huge difference by restoring native wildflowers to the countryside. Wildlflower meadows are home to countless species of wild plants, butterflies, beetles and other buglife, but sadly this is now a very rare habitat in the UK. Your donation will help us to re-flower our farms and improve the plant diversity in our meadows. Read more

Detectors to monitor bat populations

Bats play a vital part in our ecosystem and we’re incredibly lucky to have several species on our farms. Monitoring their numbers and wellbeing tells us a lot about the general health of the environment. With your help, we will buy 15 bat detectors to use on evening bat walks, giving both our monitoring team and farm visitors the chance to learn more about them. Read more

Wonderful willows for traditional crafts

On Bere Marsh Farm in Dorset, our volunteers have created a ‘withy’ bed of willow trees. The willows’ branches will be harvested and used for weaving workshops on the farm. They’ll also be sold for craft activities and to thatchers for use in traditional roof construction. Your donation will help us to plant another 3,000 wands of willow, providing an income for the farm, a source of traditional material for the local community, and habitat for a wide range of wildlife. Read more

Moth traps to monitor healthy ecosystems

Moths are an important part of their ecosystem and are an indicator species, which means by monitoring them we can tell a lot about the health of the environment. But recording their presence can be difficult as they are nocturnal. Your donation will help us to buy a battery-powered moth trap containing a light that attracts the moths into a tube, where they are kept safe until the morning when they can be examined and safely released. Read more

Monitoring covers for reptiles

Slow worms play an important role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem by feeding on pests and helping nutrient cycling and soil aeration. We are delighted to have this species on Bere Marsh Farm in Dorset and would like to monitor how they are faring in more detail. Your donation will help us to place 20 reptile refuges on the farm, which will provide slow worms with shelter from predators and make it easier for our trained reptile monitors to detect and record them. Read more

Nest boxes for barn owls

The Barn Owl Trust reports that around 75 per cent of known barn owl nests in the UK are now in boxes, because their natural nesting sites in agricultural buildings or holes in trees have become scarcer. A pair of barn owls used to nest on Brays Farm in Surrey, but after a drought a few years ago they haven’t bred on the farm since. Your donation will enable us to buy the materials for our volunteers to build nest boxes, which will hopefully encourage barn owls to breed on Brays Farm once again Read more

Latest

Wildlife Boxes Helping Dormice Thrive

Thanks to generous donations from the public, we've made 20 wildlife boxes for dormice for several of our Countryside Regeneration Trust properties.
Bluebell Walk at Margaret Wood

Enjoy a beautiful walk at Margaret Wood, marvelling at the fabulous bluebells. Stay for a tea, cake and chat afterwards with our amazing team of volunteers.
Meet the Trotters... Bere Marsh Farm’s two new boars Del Boy and Rodders!

Two new residents have made their home at Bere Marsh Farm in Dorset and are already squealing with excitement and busy rootling around.
Withie beds provide new habitats for wildlife

Thanks to money raised in our Twelve Gifts of Christmas campaign, we were thrilled to buy new withies to plant in our osier beds at Bere Marsh Farm. These willows will help provide important habitat for wildlife.

School trips on the farm
Volunteer with the CRT

Would you like to help wildlife and do your bit to create a landscape bursting with life? To enjoy quiet time connecting with nature to benefit your wellbeing, or to get stuck into exciting conservation projects with a friendly team? To learn new skills or develop existing ones? Whatever motivates you to consider volunteering, we’d love to have you in our team.
What We Do

The CRT promotes nature-friendly farming to help reverse biodiversity decline and combat climate change. We believe nature is integral to good farming and we protect, promote and regenerate our land and all life on it. We put our philosophy into practice on over 2,000 acres of working farms, small-holdings and woodland across England.
Slow-worms – the gardener’s best friend

The UK has 6 native reptile species including the curious slow-worm (Anguis fragilis). Although serpent-like in appearance, slow-worms are in fact limbless lizards and an amazing example of de-evolution.
Wildlife & Farms

To achieve our vision of a living, working countryside we have purchased 18 sites across the UK, each with their own unique ecosystem and biodiversity.
Conservation Volunteer

This is your chance to get 'down and dirty' to help CRT improve the habitats and environment on our farms, with a wide range of conservation projects and initiatives.
Bere Marsh Farm

Mixed farmland, Dorset
Robin Page

Co-Founder
David Mills MBE

Trustee
Regenerative Farming & CRT

Since our inception we have been working tirelessly to achieve our vision of a living, working countryside, and that is not changing, but in a world that’s in its sixth mass extinction we must evolve to fight this threat.

Group visits at Pierrepont Farm