How to start a local urban wilding project

Written by Ross O'Ceallaigh

More and more people are becoming inspired to rewild their neighbourhoods. But how do you get started? This was the topic of our monthly Wilding Partners meeting on the 25th February 2026, with three of our experienced members sharing their advice. The speakers were:

• Ben Stockwell, Senior Urban Rewilding Officer at Citizen Zoo, an organisation based in London that is leading a range of projects involving species reintroductions to urban sites.
• Kevin Loftus, Co-Founder of ACT, a social enterprise working to accelerate the green transition in Ireland.
• Bridgette Macilwaine, landscape architect (Bee Waine Design) and parish councillor working to boost biodiversity in her town in south-west England.

Inspired by the presentations and discussion we had, here are four steps to get started with a local urban wilding project.

Step 1: Identify the need for rewilding and create a compelling vision

While you may love the idea of rewilding your local park or river for the pure love of nature, convincing others usually requires a clear reason. Consider what problems are present in your location that a wilding approach might be able to solve. An identified need might include: supporting threatened wildlife species, reducing flooding and air temperatures (climate adaptation) or creating a community space for nature-deprived residents.

For example, the fact that water voles are Britain’s fastest declining mammal made a compelling case for their reintroduction to the Hogsmill River in south London by Citizen Zoo. Beaver reintroductions in London have found support in large part because of their role in reducing flood risk for surrounding communities. On a smaller scale, Bridgette explained her plans to transform a frequently flooded lawn in a local park into a biodiverse pond and rain garden.

MIT professor John Sterman says, ‘Research shows that showing people research doesn’t work.’ If we want to see positive change in the world, just talking about biodiversity and climate change often isn’t compelling enough. We need to show people that a different kind of world is possible, one where nature is thriving in cities. That’s why your wilding project needs a compelling vision. Use words and images to explain what the wilding project will achieve and why it’s important.

Kevin explained how his team developed a vision for their hometown of Ballina in the west of Ireland as a passion project. They created photo collages that showed the town’s neighbourhoods if they embraced the transition to sustainable living. This included weaving nature into the town’s streets and spaces. The vision was so compelling that it found support from elected officials and got adopted as a formal urban planning objective. Since then, they’ve worked with the town, local residents and other collaborators to deliver some of the initial ideas, including a rain garden and sensory garden.

Bridgette recommends using visuals to explain your idea to others. If you don’t have the design skills to create these yourself, find precedent images online from other wilding projects. Photos, maps and drawings get the point across much quicker than words alone.

Visual from Ballina - Ireland's Greenest Town project (Source) Copyright: ACT

Step 2: Find collaborators

No one can deliver an urban wilding project by themselves. At the very least you will need permission from the landowner and support from local people who use the space. Beyond that, finding collaborators with specialist knowledge and passion for wildlife will enrich your project and improve your chances of success. Plus, it makes the whole process much more enjoyable!

Step 2 is to start talking to local people about your idea. Email your local government’s open space or biodiversity officer (you can usually find the email address on their website). Maybe they want to do something similar and are just waiting for the opportunity. Maybe they’ll be resistant and defensive. Either way, it’s the start of an important relationship between you and the decision makers! Try to be collaborative and find common ground.

Join local gardening, wildlife or environmental groups and share your idea with members. It’s likely you’ll find enthusiasm and support with fellow nature-lovers. Getting others on-board will help you to refine the wilding project idea, share tasks and move the project forward more quickly.

Reach out to local ecologists and conservation organisations, who often want to support local projects. They will bring much needed expertise and knowledge of project implementation. They’ll understand if you don’t have a budget yet and may be able to give advice on getting the project funded. Search online for similar wilding projects in other places and contact them for advice. Rewilders are usually a friendly bunch!

This is also a good time to gauge the public reaction to your wilding idea. Find community forums like facebook groups or local community meetings to share your idea and invite feedback. Frame your project in terms of the problem it will solve: ‘We want to create habitat for x species’ or ‘We want to address the flooding problem in x location’. You will likely find that some local people are resistant to change. This is natural. Don’t be discouraged! This is just the start of the conversation.

Step 3: Make sure your project is feasible

Even with a compelling vision, your project still needs to be realistic and deliverable. In this step you need to figure out if your wilding project can actually be delivered on your chosen site. How in-depth your feasibility testing will be depends on the type of wilding project you’re pursuing. If your wilding project is about stepping back from human management – for example, you want to let grass grow long in parts of an urban park – then simply coordinating with the relevant authority and park users might be enough.

If you’re planning something more complex, like a species reintroduction, you’ll need to survey the site and ensure it has suitable habitat for the species. This is where having experienced ecologists/nature conservationists on your project team is important. You might also need a license from a government authority (for example, Natural England) to carry out a species reintroduction. Going through the right bureaucratic process is an essential (if laborious) step.

In urban areas, there can often be competing demands for green spaces. Consider how people use the site and whether that will impact your project feasibility. For instance, if the park you’re planning to rewild hosts a music festival every summer, that will likely impact your ability to create healthy grassland habitats. Be creative and explore ways to accommodate wildlife alongside human activities.

Step 4: Get permissions and win community support

At this point you should have a project team, some collaborators and a compelling vision for the project. Now is the time to engage with local people and get permission from the relevant authorities. I’ve included these two activities under the same step because they often happen simultaneously.

Get back in touch with the relevant local government officer and the landowner (often the local government but not always) and talk about moving the project forward. If you find support, you can move on to community engagement and project planning. If you hit a dead end, you might have more work to do on your project vision and feasibility. Try to work with decision-makers to find a compromise or address their concerns.

Bridgette’s top tip is to do some research on government legislation and policies (both national and local) related to nature, biodiversity and climate adaptation, and figure out how your project can directly support these policies. For instance, if your town’s local planning policies support biodiversity improvements, make clear how the project will deliver on this. This can help you to get support and access funding from government bodies.

Successful urban wilding projects need to benefit local communities and be reflective of their needs. This is how you’ll win support. Excluding people from green spaces in the name of nature conservation is generally unpopular. And making changes to people’s neighbourhoods without consulting them is a recipe for disaster. Before thinking about implementing the project, make time for a meaningful public engagement process.

This might include setting up a webpage that explains the wilding project and invites people to give their opinion. Spreading the word on social media is great but you should also engage with people in-person. Set up a stand in the local park or shopping street for a day and talk to passersby about the project. Organise events on evenings and weekends where you can present the project and have real discussions with people. Walk in to local businesses and invite them to give their feedback on the project. And, most importantly, take their opinions on-board and review the project to address their concerns and desires. An enthusiastic local government department may help you carry out the public engagement process or lead it themselves.

Next steps: Project planning, fundraising and delivery

Now you can finally start thinking about implementing your wilding project! Depending on the type of project, this can vary in complexity. In general, you should have a clear plan for delivering the project, what the costs are and some ideas for fundraising the money necessary to make it happen. These are big topics that we’ll cover in future posts!

Final thoughts

In reality, these steps don’t always happen one after another. Often they will be overlapping or out of order. Start where you can and keep making progress, even if it’s imperfect.

Urban wilding is still a new idea and projects often take a long time to get off the ground. This is especially true for complex or groundbreaking projects. For instance, from the initial idea to releasing beavers on-site, the Ealing Beaver Project took two years of planning. That’s a lot of patience and commitment from the project leaders at Ealing Wildlife Group and Citizen Zoo.

If that seems too daunting, you might want to start with something that can take shape in the short term. Can you talk to your local parks department about letting some of the grass grow long to benefit invertebrates? Could you work with a local resident’s group to spread wildflower seeds in neighbourhood green spaces? These smaller projects can help to build momentum and support towards more ambitious wilding projects.

Interested in being part of these conversations? Consider joining our Wilding Partners programme. It’s a community of urban wilding practitioners, researchers and advocates who meet monthly to share knowledge.