Redhill Regeneration (Boothby Wildland)

Nattergal’s first site is Boothby Wildland in Lincolnshire, a 617 hectare arable farm with variable grade 3 soil types. Following lessons learnt from Knepp Wildland in Sussex, Boothby will stagger its retreat from arable farming over the next three years. Together with the variable soil types, the degraded River Glen, and adjacent ancient woodland, this makes Boothby a wonderful opportunity for nature recovery. The project area will ultimately become part of a wood pasture habitat mosaic and join the rest of Boothby Wildland which will include a beaver led river restoration, wetland creation and wildflower meadows.

Total Area (hectares)
project cost
total units
units sold

Our Wilder Carbon projects achieve a multitude of added benefits alongside carbon sequestration and reduction. We pick three unique features of each project to highlight the co benefits of the projects.

The Rewilding Project at Boothby will deliver a multitude of carbon sequestering habitats, in the Red Hill Regeneration area, these will be largely woodland, scrubland and grassland.

Nattergal’s philosophy and methodology for nature recovery is focussed on natural processes and minimum intervention. The woodland across Red Hill will be delivered through natural colonisation and regeneration and the southern part of the area will be driven by large free roaming herbivores.

Biodiversity itself won’t be the only beneficiary; the local community is an active part of Boothby Wildland, not only through employment of local people and contractors, but increased access to green space, education, volunteering, workshops and forming a community steering group to help shape the landscape. As part of any Nattergal project and particularly in Landscape Recovery, Boothby has developed a best practice stakeholder engagement plan and run a range of engagement and inclusion workshops.

Information about
Natural Regeneration
Information about
Wilder Grazing
Information about
Community co-benefits

Biodiversity Recovery Plan
Reinstating Natural Processes
The reason Boothby’s carbon sequestration is so important is it is being delivered as part of a biodiversity recovery plan, which involves using natural processes to restore habitats which delivers huge biodiversity gains as demonstrated by the Knepp Estate, whilst also sequestering carbon.
There are multiple ways to measure biodiversity uplift; Wilder Carbon as part of their carbon calculator also provide a predicted gain of BNG habitat Units. Whilst habitat units are a useful proxy for biodiversity, at Nattergal we go well beyond this.
Evidencing the impact
The importance of monitoring
We are measuring a range of key indicators including terrestrial invertebrates, soil fungi, soil fauna, breeding birds, butterflies, pollinators, bats, earthworms and floristic diversity.
This monitoring will be analysed through a range of metrics including taxonomic dissimilarity, abundance, richness, diversity, connectivity and rarity giving us the ability to monitor and demonstrate biodiversity uplift as the project evolves.
We also work with a range of academic partners and therefore it is likely the Red Hill Regeneration Area will feature in multiple PHD and university studies.
Nature in Recovery
Wilding, Natural Colonisation and habitat mosaic formation
Through nature restoration at scale, Boothby Wildland will be an exemplar nature recovery project. Deeply rooted in the local community, it will provide a multitude of benefits to society and sustainable returns for investors, whilst inspiring wider landscape scale connectivity.
Across Mereside (including Red Hill) and Glenside a series of ecological kick-starters will be implemented in the early years of the project to kick start natural processes.

Multi-habitat Carbon Removal

Carbon will be sequestered across the whole of Boothby through a habitat mosaic of dense mixed species scrub, neutral grassland and emerging broadleaved woodland. The Red Hill Regeneration Area will be a high proportion of woodland and the area selected will also allow us to adapt this to include more open ground as the science around these rewilding habitats improve over the coming years.

Nature is in crisis, and urgent action from the private sector is needed to recover the ecosystems our world relies on. Nattergal’s ambition to deliver Nature restoration at scale is only possible with the support of private finance, and we are delighted to see Arup leading the way in recognising Nature as an investable asset class. We are excited to work alongside Arup to continue delivering meaningful Nature restoration at Boothby Wildland and hope to see other businesses make similar investments in future.
Archie Struthers CEO, Nattergal