Bamff Wildland

Bamff Wildland is a pioneering family-run rewilding project in North East Perthshire. Twenty years since beavers began unravelling and reimagining our waterways, we are turning over farmland to nature in perpetuity. Ecological restoration at Bamff began in the early 1990s with the re-creation of wetlands through reverse drainage schemes and the planting of various native woodlands. This was followed in 2002 by the pioneering introduction of beavers. At the start of the 2020s, we initiated a catalysed rewilding project to create a richly biodiverse area of wild land out of 180 hectares of marginal farmland and plantations. The long term aim is to allow all of this land to become self willed – a self regenerating mosaic of dynamically evolving habitats and their associated wildlife species. This happens by putting nature back in charge and ultimately withdrawing the influence of humanity: to rewild. In 2022, we began working in partnership with 10 neighbouring landowners to restore waterways on a wider landscape scale, through a new project called Braes of Alyth: Wild Cores and Corridors. This pioneering work will create new 'corridors' of nature-rich habitat weaving through two sub-catchments of the River Isla, reconnecting biodiversity 'cores' such as Bamff and fragments of ancient woodland within an actively farmed landscape. By remeandering straightened channels and restoring woodland cover over denuded streams, we will support the participating landowners to revive biodiversity and deliver natural flood mitigation alongside existing land use.